Why Features Are As Important as Benefits

Features vs. Benefits. You’ve probably heard that phrase plenty of times. When planning your marketing, you should always tell the customer how your product or service benefits them. And it’s true that people are more likely to buy something if they see how it will help them, how it applies to their life, their needs.

But some of us also like to research and compare. It’s a little harder to compare benefits of products than it is features. Benefits appeal to emotions. Features are more quantifiable. And for those of us who like numbers and comparisons and concrete info, we want to see some features after you tell us the benefits.

For instance, I’ll need to replace my cell phone soon. It’s starting to give me some trouble. A lot of my friends already have iPhones. I like how it could help me keep track of things, listen to music, and do a variety of stuff all in one little package. Convenience – that’s a benefit for me.

However, I also need to know the exact coverage areas for the service because my extended family lives in a rural area and we visit frequently. So I have to make sure my phone will work there. I already know that my current service works with little problem. What about the new service? It turns out that the coverage is spotty at best. But without that feature listing, that coverage map, I wouldn’t know. I don’t care how dependable their service is if it doesn’t cover the areas I need. To me, that’s more of a feature. And yet it’s something I need to know in order to make an informed purchase decision.

While you should always tell your potential customer how your product can benefit them, don’t forget to include a detailed feature list, too, for those of us that need information to compare. Start with benefits, then offer the features somewhere that’s easy to find, but not in the way of your main pitch. Usually, you already have that list of features written up anyway, so it shouldn’t be difficult to include.

Do you include both benefits and features in your sales pitch? Or do you stick with benefits? Have you tried both and if so, has it impacted your sales?

image: Zuma Press