When you lead with features, your Recommendations come across as a prescriptive pitch and tends to be jargon-heavy. Don’t educate prospects, argue with facts, or overwhelm them with data or statistics. Instead, use analogies to relate concepts to what’s familiar to them. Here are some examples:
| Instead of | Try |
|---|---|
| This air conditioner is rated at 7,000 BTU | This air conditioner is strong enough to keep you nice and cool in a single-bedroom |
| It contains 20g of protein | That’s equivalent to 3 eggs’ worth of protein |
| It has 5GB of storage | Famously: “1000 songs in your pocket” |
Better yet, relate those features to direct benefits that speak to your prospect’s values. We make purchase decisions based on our values and a desire for our actions to reflect ourselves. It is for this reason that some are ardent Apple advocates while others stand by Android, despite both companies offering products with nearly identical features.
Apple represents ease of use and a secure experience. There is an unspoken level of quality and status associated with their brand, along with the elegant design of their products. On the other hand, Android adopts a more open-source approach, conveying freedom through better customizability and control.
Feature-Benefit-Value is a framework you can deploy to relate the features of your solution (need) to the desires of your prospect (want). For each feature you have, brainstorm the different potential benefits (which likely motivated the inclusion or development of those features in the first place). Beyond benefits, consider the overarching values they speak to. Connecting these dots helps us better communicate the thought and care that goes into the creation of our offerings and how they are relevant to the prospect we’re speaking with.
Value here does not refer to monetary value or a good bargain; instead, it pertains to the underlying personal values that drive your prospect’s behaviors. It’s what they care about.
Here’s a visual example:
Refer to the sample dialogue about a phone’s motion photo feature, previously mentioned under “Relevant Questions” in the ASSESSMENT stage, for another example.
Here are a few more examples:
“You mentioned you like taking pictures at night (acknowledging their want). This particular camera has the longest shutter delay, allowing more light to be captured (feature). This enables you to take clearer pictures at night (benefit). With that, you’ll never miss capturing a valuable nighttime memory again (value).”
“You mentioned you often download movies through torrents at home (want). I believe the Hi-Speed broadband package will be the best for you. With that package, you get download speeds of up to 128 Mbps (feature), allowing you to download an average movie in less than 15 minutes (benefit)! This means you’ll waste less time waiting and spend more time enjoying (value).”
“Not a lot of people know this, but given what you’ve shared about the bad experience your building’s strata has had with their previous snow removal and salting contractor (want), you’ll probably appreciate that we offer our clients the real-time ability to decline service (feature) if you disagree with our assessment based on the day’s weather report or if you wish to handle it yourself on those days. This extra layer of control and flexibility prevents unwanted, unnecessary visits (benefit) and helps strata councils save money (value).
If you’re finding it hard to distinguish Benefit from Value. A simple way to put it is:
Benefit = how the feature will directly solve their problem.
Typically articulated in terms of money (save/make more), energy (requires less), or time (saved).
Value = how the solution will change the prospect’s life or enable them to express their personal values.
Typically expressed as positive motivators through identity, sense of purpose, or adventure/surprise. Or as an alleviation of negative motivators such as fear, shame, or guilt.
If you need to educate your prospect, you can also highlight how other customers have used specific features and relate them back to your prospect’s personal values using FBV. For example:
“Since you mentioned that delivering exceptional customer service (value) is important for your business, it’s worth noting that many businesses setting up marketing campaigns often overlook the experience that follows. XYZ company used our calendar booking system (feature) to maximize the number of inquiries that translate into actual booked meetings (benefit). This will be crucial in designing a great customer service experience (value) as it ensures inquiries aren’t left unanswered.”
When you’re recommending, you’re not discussing every single feature of your solution. Avoid rambling on about features that have no relevance to what your prospect has said. Instead, select the most relevant ones you believe could be beneficial for your prospect’s particular situation and share that information with them. Also notice in the sample responses above, you should lead with what they care about, not your features.
As you improve your skills in ASSESSING and listening (and taking notes), reiterate benefits and values in the prospect’s own words where possible, not yours. Subtle nuances in language can make a significant difference. I know of an entrepreneur who adjusted the copy for his social media training program from “Freelancer” to “Digital Nomad” and observed a significant (approximately 20% increase) in conversion. Avoid industry labels and use language that your prospects identify with.
The “Don’t Mess with Texas” campaign is another great example. The state was able to successfully reduce littering by about 72% between 1987 and 1990 by communicating in a tone that resonated with their target audience (18-35-year-old men, who they identified as the demographic most likely to litter). Had officials adopted the more notoriously polite approach, e.g., “Please stop littering,” it probably wouldn’t have been as effective. It has since gone on to become a statement embraced by Texans as a quintessential part of their identity.
ASSIGNMENT
Your FBV: List 3-5 features you’d like to highlight about your solution.
- What are some underlying or direct benefits?
- What values do these benefits reflect? Conversely, which features were derived from your company values? For instance:
Our customers care a lot about privacy (Value) → We provide enhanced security authentication (Benefit) → which utilizes 2-factor authentication and 256-bit encryption (Features)
Sustainability is one of our core values → To reduce the plastic that gets into the waste stream (Benefit) → we upcycle and make our soles from reused plastic (Feature).