9. Benefits Not Features
This should really be called…
Turning Facts Into Profits
To sell, persuade or convince we need to appeal to people’s heads and their hearts.
Sell to their emotions…
and use logic to justify it to their brains
We want to turn features into benefits to give us some Business Boosters.
And, as you’ll see later in module 9, the most powerful Benefit, or a combination of the most powerful two or three, might well give us your Unique Perceived Benefit as a bonus.
Remember, people don’t buy your product or service because of what it does (features) – they buy the results the product or service brings them (benefits), and then use logic as a secondary back up.
That means the moment you start communicating your benefits – you’ll get more leads and more sales. Guaranteed.
The good news is that it’s easy to take any of your features (no matter how mundane they may seem to you) and bring them alive in the minds of your potential customers.
Which Means That…
Draw three columns on a piece of paper. In the first column write down all the features that apply to your target market – the target market you’re working on.
In the middle column write the words ‘Which Means That’ – this will help you to connect the benefit to each feature.
Here’s a very simple example of a hole punch – and if you can get benefits for that, then you can certainly get benefits for the products/services that you sell…
| Feature | Which means that… | Benefit |
| Made of hardened steel. | Which means that… | This will last forever. You will never need to buy a replacement. |
| The base has a plastic cover. | Which means that… | The base collects all the punched-out paper which ensures your desk stays clean no matter how often the punch is used. |
| The base is removable. | Which means that… | Once the punch is full, you simply clip off the base and place the excess waste into your bin. Easy to empty and it leaves no mess. |
| The punch has a plastic guide for your paper | Which means that… | Simply adjust the sturdy guide to the size of paper you want to punch. You get perfect results every time. |
It’s easy isnt it! To make it even easier, we have a step by step process to follow, and we have given it a very fancy name – namely
The Four Step Process
Each module starts with two relatively open questions which You Must Answer!
You then hit Save.
You will be emailed the rest of the module, which is in a Word compatible format .rtf and a link to a Google Doc, which will allow you to edit online.
This document contains the rest of the module, to include everything we know about the subject, links, examples, and of course further key questions for you to answer as well.
Being your document on your PC or in the cloud, you can save at any stage and go back to at any time too. In fact, this is probably the best way to tackle this work.
So let’s start this module by answering these key questions:
This document contains the rest of the module, including everything we know about the subject, links, examples, and of course further key questions for you to answer as well.