#1 Step to Increasing Your Sales
There’s a powerful way to improve how customers view and feel about your product.
If they’ve been thinking about buying, doing this one thing can help make them want it now.
Take out a piece of paper and a pen or pencil.
I’m serious. Do it.
You got the paper? Click the pen. Let me hear those creative juices flowing.
Awesome.
Now draw a line down the middle.
On the left side, you’re going to list the features of your product or service.
On the right side, you’ll list the benefits.
But don’t write anything yet.
First, let’s talk about...
Features 🎧 vs. Benefits 🎯
It’s easy to mix these two up. I see marketers do it all the time.
That’s why so many customers just get annoyed by marketing campaigns.
No one cares about your faster, newer, better, smarter blah blah blah.
Features = what your product or service IS and DOES
Benefits = what your customer ACHIEVES with your product or service
So now, you’ll make a list of features (on the left side) and benefits (on the right side).
Here’s an example of what that looks like.
Let’s say you’re selling...pencils.
Here’s what that list might look like for the pencil, according to copywriting guru Bob Bly:
✏️ ...wooden cylinder surrounding graphite core
✅ ...can be resharpened as often as you like to ensure crisp, clean writing
✏️ ...cylinder is hexagonal
✅ ...won’t roll off your desk
✏️ ...yellow exterior
✅ ...bright so it stands out in a pencil holder or desk drawer
See how the features are descriptions of the pencil…and the benefits are what those features do for you or help you achieve?
Here’s another example of features vs. benefits.
Noise-cancelling headphones. 🎧
You might think “noise-cancelling” is a benefit of these headphones.
Ha, nope.
It’s a feature. 🤯
Remember what we said before?
The benefit always has to do with what your customer really wants.
When someone uses noise-cancelling headphones, what does s/he want?
S/he wants to achieve:
Focus
Escape
Peace
Status
So before you run a campaign, send an email, talk about your company…
Make a list of features and benefits.
Then cross out the features.
And focus on the benefits.
Hope that helps you.
P.S. Want more actionable tips like this? I share one persuasion tip every Friday. You know. The kind you can actually use. Get ‘em here.
