Features or Benefits?

In a recent article in MediaPost's Marketing Daily, Best Buy's Shari Ballard (EVP of retail channel management) makes the point that consumers aren't interested in simply acquiring technology products, but in using them to do things. Shari says, "We think one of the reasons we exist on the planet is to help people find connected digital solutions that work with their individual needs."

This is the old "features vs. benefits" question. Customers are not interested in all of the bells and whistles - the features - of a product; they want to know how the product can benefit them and meet their needs.

Customers don't want you to tell them that your brand new, state-of-the-art vacuum cleaner has a super-sonic suction machine and a microfiber carpet brush and a 20-foot hose that compresses to two inches. They want you to tell them that your brand new, state-of-the-art vacuum cleaner will help them clean their homes better, faster, more economically, and with less hassle.

Going beyond the business world, how do you - as a person - benefit others? Maybe you are the best wordsmith who ever lived; your writing communicates exactly and compellingly what you intend to say. That is a gift, a skill, a feature. How are you using that gift to serve the world? Are you helping people to understand one another? Are you inspiring people? Refreshing them? Calling them to action? How are you helping others?

What benefit is your product or service offering to your customers?
What benefit are you, yourself, offering to the world?

You are already strong and beautiful and talented and smart and important and loved; you don't need to prove that. You were created to make the world better; don't just show off your features.