Influencing Effectively 101: Features vs Benefits

Influencing Effectively 101: Features vs Benefits

Are these scenarios typical? Someone walks up to you and asks you to sign up for a credit card in the mall. She said, “Sir, please sign for me, I just need one more to hit quota.” I am supposed to sign a credit card to benefit you?

A property negotiator tells you that their property has an Olympic sized swimming pool, 2 car parking spots, a 20,000 sq ft garden etc etc etc. All these are features, not benefits.

A car sales person tells you that with a turbo car, you can overtake another car faster as the torque is higher than non-turbo cars. Do you UNDERSTAND what is torque…? Or Turbo?

Before we change the above to benefits, let’s see the definition for both feature and benefit

What is a feature?

Features are what the product or service does, describing which attributes set it apart from the competition. Having 10 features or 20 features are just quantity comparison. Of course the higher the better but many times, it has to be presented as a benefit. Read below:

What is a benefit?

Benefits describe why those features matter and how they help the target audience. Usually it’s from the potential customers’ point of view on what they could gain and not what is so amazing about the company offering the product.

Would you want to enjoy a buffet and a shower before your flight?

The statement in the title is a benefit. It is still selling the same credit card but now we have turned it into a benefit for the potential new customer. In other words, when we pitch using a benefit, it is more likely to be acceptable versus always speaking about feature which is from the perspective of the seller and does not take into account why the potential buyer could benefit from it.

Sometimes, when you feel tired, would you like to just jump into a pool as soon as you arrive home?

The above statement explains the benefits of having an Olympic size swimming pool. Alternatively we could also appeal to potential families with this: “Imagine every evening or during the weekends, a fun time with your kids at the super big Olympic sized swimming pool. Would you and your kids love that?”

Overtake safely and surely with higher acceleration

This tells about the turbo car statement earlier but now it’s constructed into a benefit statement. In other words, the explanation is already very clear that the buyer can overtake other cars easily because of a higher acceleration (which is of course coming from the turbo engine) There’s also no need to explain too much about torque or even horsepower.

Not a sale person, no need to influence effectively?

A CEO speaking at the town hall and said, “Our company has a 5-year plan that will help the company grow faster.” There’s nothing wrong with this statement but it’s not coming with the potential benefits which the employees could get. Perhaps this is better? “With a 5-year plan, we have a clear focus and it will spur teamwork so that we can grow the company faster and we could then get better rewards when the company is performing better.”

Non Sales People, no need influencing with benefits?

An engineer speaking to his manager. “I have increased the yield by 30 percent for this month versus last month.” By the way, this statement does not give any benefit to the listener. Perhaps this is a better statement: “With the yield up by 30%, our company will save RM5.8 million every year.” (if say to the boss). Or “With the yield up by 30%, our production floor could now leave on time and the company could earn better margins too.”

Hope this short explanation benefits you. The above can be a course of a few hours. Keep training and make it become logical to you.

Happy understanding. Feel free to engage anytime.

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