Features vs benefits – the Holy Grail of sales copy
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In my experience, the main quality that distinguishes a successful sales person is the ability to translate features into benefits, and to do so in a believable and engaging way. The same principle applies to writing effective sales copy especially for direct mail and email campaigns.
A hefty proportion of all sales copy is feature driven. That’s why it doesn’t work especially well:
“The BGZ 640 office shredder has a tri-directional cross-cut blade.”
So what?
“The BGZ 640 office shredder has a tri-directional cross-cut blade, enabling you to shred up to 15 sheets of 80gsm paper at once.
Ah, now I see…
The second version of the copy translates feature into benefits, and benefits sell products. Why? Because they appeal directly to the reader’s self-interest:
People don’t buy a faster drill, they buy a quicker hole.
People don’t buy a titanium golf club, they buy a superior drive and game.
People don’t buy a 4gb memory card for their digital camera, they buy the capacity to take and store 4,000 pictures.
You get the idea…
Instead of stating simply and clearly the benefits of what they’re selling, inexperienced sales people will frequently become bogged down in a mire of facts, figures, statistics and irrelevancies.
But there’s no point in telling a procurement director, for example, that the fleet car you’re attempting to sell him has a hybrid engine if it doesn’t mean anything to him. And it certainly doesn’t pay to presume that just because you happen to know that a hybrid engine emits less CO2 and gives more miles to the gallon your prospect will be equally well informed.
And even if your prospect does get the drift of what this barrage of features implies for them, it will have nothing like the same persuasive impact as being immersed in the benefits firsthand.
As with the ace sales person, the ace copywriter will paint a picture for their prospect, they’ll transport them in their imagination to a place where they can actually envisage themselves as the owner of this indispensible product. They’ll create a sense of urgency and desire; they’ll tap into their emotions and make them wonder how on earth they ever got by without the product. And they do this by driving home the benefits.
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