Benefits Vs Features Vs Advantages

It's Marketing and Sales 101. Focus on the benefits of your product/service and not on the features.

But do you know the difference between a benefit, a feature and an advantage?

Here's a quick rundown of everything you need to know before composing your next marketing message or sales pitch.

What is a feature?

A feature is a statement of something that a product or a service has.

What is an advantage?

An advantage is how the feature provides the benefit.

What is a benefit?

A benefit is what the product or service offers the customer.

The feature determines the advantage which provides the benefit.

So where does that leave you?

What many inexperienced marketers and salespeople accidentally do is get caught up in listing the admittedly-impressive features of a product. Sometimes they may even take the initiative to outline the advantage.

But that's never what gets a sale over the line. Consumers choose what to buy based on what it does for them.

It might sound a little self-centred but at the end of the day the only reason why anyone buys something is because of what it offers them. You need to always focus on the customer. Focus on what the customer RECEIVES.

The feature is a stone-cold fact. It's not emotional or evocative.

The advantage is just an explanation. It's technical.

The benefit taps into the emotion required to close a sale.

It re-orients the potential customer around the possibilities of owning the product or using the service. It excites them about what can be achieved or enjoyed.

That's what sells.

So you have to focus them on THAT.

Ask Yourself This Before You Ask The Customer To Buy

What solution does it offer for their problem?

What do they get out of the transaction?

Why do they care about what that product has or can do?

You have to highlight the benefit for your customer and not indulge yourself by showing off your knowledge of its features.

So it has a state-of-the-art engine, but does it get them to their destination faster?

So it has no artificial flavouring, but is it healthier?

So it offers more gigs of data, but does it allow them to stream more TV?

So what?

If your customer doesn't see the benefit they won't care about the feature or understand the advantage.

That doesn't mean that there's no room for publicising the impressive features and advantages. But use them to back up and prove the benefit. Don't think that the feature itself is the key selling point.

So what now?

Here's a practical activity for you to do. List the last three 'impulse' or unnecessary you made.

Now write why you bought those things. What are you now able to enjoy, do or have that you couldn't before? That, my dear audience, are the benefits.

Now do the same with your company's products/services. Put yourself in the shoes of your customers and imagine what are the benefits they'd receive from your offerings.

If you really want to break it down then draw up a table with three columns: Features. Advantages. Benefits.

List all of your features first. Then go back and one by one determine what advantage that feature offers and how then it benefits your customer.

It's that simple. You can do this independently, or make it a team discussion. Just laying out the different aspects of your product/service will effectively reorient your entire sales and marketing approach. And THAT will make all the difference.