Formula 1? Features and Benefits are Boring

Lewis Hamilton has parked his car outside where I am training today (Great Queen Street, London). Really, on a yellow line parking restriction.

Lewis Hamilton has parked his car outside where I am training today (Great Queen Street, London). Really, on a yellow line parking restriction. You love what you’re doing, don’t you? I do. Mostly people reading this run a business or are part of one. It becomes all too easy to think that your business is terribly important. I know I have got myself in that position. We know how hard you work every day. Absolutely no doubt about it: you deserve a medal or a Grand Prix trophy. Your biggest asset as business owner is in understanding your emotional signature. Your biggest strength is your empathy. It begins with you sneaking into your client’s minds. When you are there, deep in their mind, learn what they secretly dream of. Understand how you can fulfil their wishes and desires. Capture how you can help them avoid trouble and hassle.

When you connect with your customer’s mind, your know-how and enthusiasm align with their desires and the magic happens. Your business will grow. You can increase your fees. You can drop difficult clients and at the same time have more fun.

You know how hard it can be to find customers (I certainly did for a while). You worked hard to create a product or a service that is as good as you can make it. But there is a problem if it is often a product, service or sales led business. When you talk about your business, you will have a sparkle in your eye. You probably love sharing your knowledge. And your enthusiasm is contagious. That’s what your friends and clients tell you. But are knowledge and enthusiasm enough to sell your products or services?

There isn’t a business owner in the world who hasn’t wrestled with the features vs. benefits dilemma tossed at them by well-intentioned marketing gurus. The funny thing is, as critical as the concept may be, I’ve found that very few businesses really understands the difference. Yet it is the main reasons most small business marketing plan efforts don’t work. Not understanding the next level (The Emotional Signature) is the final flaw in the execution of the Master Plan.

The thing is that an abundance of positive information is rather monotonous and dull. It lulls readers and clients to sleep. To keep your client’s attention, you need to introduce a problem now and then. So rather than be positive all the time, you introduce a problem, and you immediately draw your reader’s attention.

Consider this example of retail experience. You don’t go to the shop just to buy toothpaste. Oh no. What you want is clean, healthy teeth and fresh breath: these are the benefit of using toothpaste regularly. I remember on my MBA course a question about Revlon in a marketing lecture. In the lecture, the Professor asked what Revlon sold….the responses were product focused: in other words cosmetics, lipsticks, foundation etc. My Professor said,

‘No! Revlon sold hope!’

To define a benefit you ask yourself the simple question: So what?   The So what?trick works in any industry:

Formula 1 has lots of cars racing around a track. So what? It is exciting, dynamic and visceral and makes people scream.
Our doors have strong hinges. So what? They won’t bend when the door is slammed shut a thousand times.
We monitor your servers. So what? Your servers won’t go down, so you and your staff can continue working.
I am an amazing trainer. So what? I can inspire anyone to greatest in 6 hours.

Read through your material (online and off) and ask for each statement So what?Keep asking So what? to find real benefits. Listen to this: carefully however:

Your Customers Don’t Care.

It’s not about you, it’s about them and how you will help them to solve a problem, how you will make their lives better and how you will make them feel great. So the key thing to note: people buy products and services to solve their business problems. They buy or hireyou because of what you can do for them, not what you do. So, how do you successfully extract true benefits from features? Here’s a four-step process that works:

Find the Features: make a list of every feature of your product or service.
Why it’s There: ask yourself why each feature is included in the first place.
What’s In It For Them: take your why and ask how
does this connect with the prospect’s desires?
Emotional Root: get to the absolute root of what’s in it for the prospect at an emotional level.

Getting to the emotional root is crucial for effective consumer sales. We’re not as logical as we’d like to think we are. Most of our decisions are based on deep-rooted emotional motivations, which we then justify after the fact with logic. So, first help create the emotional desire, then aid the rationalization process with features and hard data so that the wallet actually emerges.

People have little interest in purchasing a bed; what they want is a good night’s sleep. Many years ago British Airways made this point central in their advertising. Whilst all the other airlines we advertising the size of their seats, the legroom and all sounding the same with no real point of differentiation, BA focused on the customer and the service they delivered. This was a clear emotional benefit. The message was clear:

it’s the way we make you feel.

Your new and innovative thoughts on marketing your business should begin with how customers will derive benefits from your product or service. Real benefits connect to your customer’s emotional desires, such as saving time; reducing costs; making more money; becoming happier, healthier, more relaxed, or more productive. Then link this to your real, authentic Emotional Signature.

I love Formula 1.

Start by being Amazing Every Day.

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