Features and Benefits: Selling Your Products The Right Way

Today, we’ll look at ways that you can increase your online business. Let’s start by looking at your own website. Take a look at it now, and try to see it through the eyes of a new visitor. Remember, it doesn’t matter that you can build stunning websites online. Your clients don’t care about that – they only care about the benefits your product offers.

Strangers have only one question about your website — “What’s in it for me?” If your website does not explain the benefits of your product or service, your customers will move on without a second glance. Let’s use an example from real life – a home study course. I could go on for hours about all the features of my new home study course, including the audio and video tutorials, the CD-ROMs, the manual and transcript, and more.

Big deal. Chances are, you don’t care. And why should you? As a busy consumer, you want to know, “What can this course do for me? How will it improve my life?”

By asking those questions, consumers are looking for benefits, not features. What happens if I try a different approach? I can teach you how to:

- Find a profitable niche for your website;

- Make $2000 dollars in an Internet business;

- Get your website on the Internet;

- Choose the right website;

- Register a domain name and find a web host;

- Find new customers every day;

- Set up a shopping cart;

- Make Money recommending other products;

- Give your website a professional look.

Doesn’t that sound better? Well, yes, but I’m still missing the point. I’m giving my clients good information, but I’m not truly giving them benefits. I need to put myself in their shoes.

Who is your customer? What do they want? Ask yourself a few questions about them:

- How will my audio and video tutorials on building websites help them reach their goals?

- How will audio tapes on Internet marketing techniques help them escape from overwhelming debt?

- How will reading manuals and taking notes give them the freedom they desire?

If you take time to know your customers, you learn what drives them. For example, customers interested in my home study program want to be self-employed. They want to be free from debt, with enough cash to follow their passions. They want a better life for their children, teaching entrepreneurial skills for life long independence. You probably share some of these dreams.

When you learn what drives your customers, you will be able to speak to them about the benefits of your product or service. Not only can this information help you to make $2000 in an Internet business, it will also help you build a business that lasts, attracting clients and providing steady income for years to come.

Many businesses list features on their webpage; that’s fine, but you must understand your customers are not buying those features. They want to know the benefits, the ways that a product will help them. They are attracted to my home study course because they want financial independence. Listing the benefits will attract your customers’ attention; they will read the list of features only after they understand the benefits.

Need another example? Take some time to watch commercials on TV. I know what I’m asking just watch for a few minutes. Car commercials are a perfect example of selling benefits, not features. Car manufacturers don’t talk about the type of fabric on the seats, the undercoating, the gear ratios, or other features. They concentrate on the benefits of a particular brand. Check out the successful looking middle-aged man, burning along a winding coastal road in an insanely expensive sports car.

Now really, are they selling the car or the image? Bingo! It’s the image. The only thing missing from the commercial is the image of that same man being admired openly at his high school reunion, chased by beautiful women and envied by all the men.

Admittedly, car commercials are an extreme example. Your advertising doesn’t have to go that far. However, those commercials do make the point. Your customers need to find the answer to the question, “What’s in it for me? How will this course benefit me? What will I get out of it, and how does that make my life better?”

To succeed with your website, you must answer these questions. Show your clients, with clear examples, exactly how your product or service benefits them. My home study course, for example, helps people develop an income, which in turn helps them quit their dreaded day jobs, pay off debts, and work fewer hours so they can spend time with their families. Through my course, they learn entrepreneurship, skills that they can pass to their children. I help them find the money to pursue their passions, combining work and play. Those are all clear benefits, and my clients can relate to them.

Try this concept, and put these ideas to work for your business today!

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© Stephen Beck, 2008
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Stephen Beck teaches 7 simple repeatable steps to starting a Christian Home Based Business. For a free CD discussing those steps, visit Start Home Business right now.