Your offerings are really valuable. You charge competitive prices when you must and give services away when funding allows. Why aren’t people breaking your door down for these great deals?

Maybe it’s because you’re concentrating on the deals rather than on the people who aren’t (yet) breaking your door down.

When we market our products and services, it’s natural to focus on the wonderful features we’ve worked hard to perfect.

It’s natural, but it’s not effective.

By the way, if you have trouble with the idea of “marketing” your programs, get over it. “Marketing” just means persuading people to take advantage of what you’re offering. It’s not a dirty word.

(While we’re at it, let me simplify this message by using a little shorthand. When I say “product,” I mean whatever you’re offering. It might be a physical thing, but it might be a service or program. Similarly, when I say “buy,” I’m using the word in a broad sense. Maybe money changes hands, but maybe people “buy” your product with their time and attention. Okay? Thanks.)

What persuades people to buy a product is not the features of the product but the benefits of the product to them.

Features are inherent in a product. Benefits are what a user gets out of the product, reflecting the principle of WIIFM – what’s in it for me.

The best way to explain is to illustrate.

Feature: The conference keynote speaker is Giuseppe Geppetto, one of the foremost authorities on marionettes and puppets.
Benefit: You’ll be inspired by Giuseppe Geppetto and get his insider knowledge of marionettes and puppets.

Feature: We offer complete wedding planning packages, from invitations to honeymoon and everything in between.
Benefit: Let us take the burden off! You make the decisions while we do all the work.

Feature: Not Your Father’s Car is a hilarious take on the differences – and similarities – between the generations.
Benefit: You’ll laugh out loud at Not Your Father’s Car, even as you come to appreciate your parents’ (or your kids’) perspectives on life.

Feature: We offer the largest collection of 19th century music boxes in the country.
Benefit: Lose yourself for an afternoon in the whimsical intricacies of 19th century music boxes

Feature: This four-hour workshop will introduce you to the basics of candle making.
Benefit: In just four hours, you’ll learn to make unique handmade gifts for every occasion.

You see how it works? Features are about products (events, services, programs, whatever). Benefits are about buyers (members, registrants, patrons, and so on).

It takes talent, practice, and ruthless self-examination to perfect the focus on benefits. Once you get past the need to describe the product you’ve worked so hard on, you still have to find what’s in it for the buyers. It’s easy to persuade yourself that they want it for the same reasons you developed it, and suddenly you’re describing features again.

Exactly how to pitch the benefits of your products and services has to be the subject of another e-letter. Here’s the Cliff’s Notes version:

• The best tactic is to find the buyers’ pain point and show them how your product will relieve that pain.
• Ideally that pain point is one of the universal fears – death, helplessness, being unloved, and the like.
• If you can’t find a universal fear – or don’t have the finesse to describe how transactional marionette ideation can make one immortal – work with one of the two obsessions of modern consumers: saving time and saving money.

I’ll go into more depth in the next issue of Clear, Effective Communications. The basic idea is to put yourself in the buyer’s shoes (or chair).

Honestly, if you don’t have training and experience in communicating “what’s in it for me,” the shift from features to benefits could be one of the hardest things you do all year. Why not let a pro handle it? Contact me.