A feature is a factual attribute of a product, service, or offering. It’s something it has or does. It is usually immediate and certain.
A benefit is the outcome or advantage that the customer is expected to experience because of that feature. It usually appears later and is not always certain.
There are a few things that fall somewhere between features and benefits, but most are clearly one or the other.
When your purpose in selling is to influence someone’s desire for something you offer, it makes a lot of sense to use benefits instead of features. This is the idea behind Traditional Selling.
When your purpose in selling is to discover instead of to persuade, then features work better than benefits. This is the idea behind High Probability Selling.
We do mention benefits in High Probability Selling, but only after the prospect has decided that they want what we are offering, and has indicated that they are likely enough to buy from us if we can meet all of their Conditions of Satisfaction. Even then, we always balance the benefits (potential positive outcomes) with the detriments (potential negative outcomes). We remain objective.
We would love to hear your thoughts and comments on this topic. Please leave a reply on this blog post, so others can join in the conversation.
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