Why does selling on features not work well?

From two perspectives:

1. A feature in isolation doesn’t explain to a decision maker how you impact on budget or help them deliver their goals to the timelines they need to.

2. If you are selling to a technical user, they then have to go and justify the purchase to a decision maker who cares about budget and timelines.

A phrase to think of is losing the wood for the trees.

Thinking of isolated features is unlikely to solve the big picture well since not enough time has been spent with clarification to understand the big picture.