I get into the deepest discussions over this all the time with people working on their promotional material. It’s so easy to list features – but they are boring as watching paint dry.
Let’s hear about your experience in setting yourself apart from the crowd by working the benefits of you.
I’m listening.
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9 responses so far ↓
1 Corporate Juggler
This subject is hard for people to get. Here’s some more info that I wrote a while ago to help someone. Listing features and benefits is an old marketing technique. Barry didn’t make this stuff up. It’s tried and true.
A feature is something you provide. A benefit is what the customer receives from this
feature. When you’re trying to figure out the benefit, you have to know the customer.
let’s say I am selling a watch that is extremely durable. Durability is the feature.
If I’m selling it to a parent I might say “this is something that will last a long time. you buy
this one and you won’t have to keep buying new watches.”
If I’m selling it to a rich young business man, he might not be excited about saving
money on replacements so the benefit to him would go something like “Here, look how
well it’s built. Hit it with this hammer. Isn’t that cool? It’s still pristine”
Why?
Most of the time, when you think up the features of what you’re selling, you think of them
because they can help your customer. the practice of putting them into the language of a
benefit is meant to help you communicate more clearly how the feature actually helps.
This comes in handy when you have a feature like “I can juggle 8 balls”. Some people
might be into that alone because they know how difficult that is, but most likely, you
shouldn’t present it that way. Depending on who you’re speaking to, you may try something
more like “I am the most skilled juggler your audience will probably ever see and they
will go crazy”
Fears & Dreams…
A technique I use a lot for converting features to benefits… make two columns on a piece
of paper. one for fears and one for dreams of the customer. then, I fill up the page with
as many as I can muster. I then take that list and try to figure out how my benefits can
allay their fears and get them closer to their dreams.
Applying the benefits…
Once you got them worked out, you don’t have to blatantly say them to the customer. in
the example where the audience goes crazy for 8 balls, you can just have a photo of an
audience going crazy.Use the most important benefits to back your strategy for every
sales piece. pick the newspaper quotes that best show the benefits. Choose colors,
photos, fonts, music… everything in a way that best conveys how you can help the future
customer.
2 Jay Alexander
Another way to figure out your benefits is to make a list of your features and then add these type translation words.
“Which means to you…”
“To allow you to…”
“Therefore you…”
For Example: We have a large meeting room (feature) which means to you (translation words) that your meeting attendees will be comfortable and relaxed (benefit).
3 Barry
I really hope that no one is thinking that I made up the concept of features vs. benefits, but thanks for pointing that out, CJ
I hadn’t ever heard of Fears vs. Dreams, but the more common version speaks of Pain vs. Solution. That’s what all this benefit business is about. It’s the stuff that cuts to the chase of a prospect’s wallet. Convincingly offer a solution to someone’s pain and you’ll get the sale.
And from a place of very personal experience, I’d like to say that telling a corporate buyer that “I am the most skilled juggler your audience will probably ever see and they will go crazy” is a bad idea.
I see where CJ was going with that (and it’s a good point), but pick your words carefully and treat them like fragile little messengers. Having an audience “go crazy” can’t be construed as a benefit. Not to mention that 99.99% of the people in the world couldn’t give 1/2 a crap about juggling – the best or the worse – it just isn’t a beneficial image to put across in marketing.
Think like person who works in a cubical all day and this is their big night out. These are the exact same people who couldn’t get their thumb onto the CHANGE CHANNEL button quickly enough if they were flipping through channels and a juggler popped onto the screen. Don’t assume any buyer shares your love or passion for your particular skill set.
It’s up to you to sell them on your ability to adapt to their world – not visa versa.
Barry
4 paulm
This makes a lot of sense and adds to what I try to communicate to potential clients. My main feature is that I draw BIG and FAST, which I tell the client will entertain more people in a short amount of time instead of an artist sitting in a corner with a long waiting line.
My question is: Are there one or two specific benefits that most corporate clients are concerned about? Are there any common fears or desires they all have that should be immediatly addressed?
Thanks!
5 Barry
Hey Paul,
Been traveling the last few days… getting back to this tonight from NYC on a lovely and freezing night.
Good features and those are positive benefits! I’ve worked gigs where there are long lines waiting for a sketch artist and it doesn’t look like fun for anyone. I’d work to play that up really hard – find some pictures of people waiting in line looking really bored and come up with a great caption to put under it – one that promises that the people at a party should never be bored or waiting. Play with some ideas about that… Seems like a gold mine of possibility for building benefits for your services.
A couple of main benefits? Sure:
- people will have a one of a kind experience
- the return on investment is immense.
- your experience will make the experience trouble-free
I give about 6 of them in the lesson on Features vs Benefits and right now I’m jet-lagged. I hope you get the idea and can watch that lesson again. Come up with the list I talk about. It won’t be hard for you to get your benefits in order.
Another big benefit that is across the board: that you won’t insult anyone! That when the event is over no one will be saying, “What the hell was that all about?!?!”. Doing an average job is infinitely better than doing a great job and insulting a few people.
6 Alison Kenyon, RKC
hey!
I’ve been reading about this features vs. benefits thing in marketing books for years, but I could never quite get the hang of writing that way until your “fake band” examples finally crystallized it for me.
Thank you!
I have a guy redoing my website as we speak,
so I just sent him all new benefit-driven home page text and I’m so excited!
By jove, I’ve finally got it!
7 Barry
Alison! SO happy to hear that the example in the video made the brain click. This is the most powerful aspect of marketing anything you can understand. It exactly answers what you asked about earlier about your body painting – which I think would make a KILLER stage act, or attraction – and make you never even think of taking another “$100 face painting gig” that you are tired of doing.
Seriously, I’ve seen what you do and there is no reason for you to settle for less that your dreams.
8 Mark
Hello Barry. The seven day course gave me some things to think about!
I am putting some ideas together in order to present a proposal for a percussion workshop for one of the country’s largest music retailers! Any comments? Do these aspects fall under benefits more than just features?
Clinic proposal ideas
Purpose: To draw area drummers and students to the store in order to:
Promote products such as Vic Firth and Rockhouse Method beginner drum programs.
Vic Firth Educational materials will be distributed, (rudiment charts, groove posters, and product catalogs), plus possible give aways of Vic Firth products.
I also use Zildjian cymbals, Evans heads, and Yamaha Drums! These product lines can also be featured. I will send out the communications to these reps pending the scheduling of the clinic.
To teach percussionists the value of “how” to practice, develop groove, and the importance of musicianship when performing with others!
Benefits:
Store=My DVD is in your catalog. Sales of the product will contribute to more revenue coming into the store! I refer my current clientele to your store for their needs. The products that I use are the ones that I recommend to my students. I want to continue to refer a growing clientele to Guitar Canter’s drum department for their equipment needs.
Customers= empowerment, inspiration, motivation to learn, thus leading to needing and or wanting gear from your store.
Community=More of the up and coming drummers in the surrounding neighborhoods do not have formal training and may not be as up to date with the products that are offered by guitar center!
*Tell them story of Roland rep and Matt (Student), wanting to become a producer! That rep showed him how the recording workstation functioned, and now Matt is looking to get some gear!
9 Barry
Mark! Kick ass stuff, man. I think you are a pro-active machine and the only thing you need to do is not spend any time letting people get in your way. Keep driving and refining the benefits – shorten them down to sound bytes and plaster them all over a prospect.
You have moved beyond being a percussionist and are acting like a marketer… you’ll be successful. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Barry
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