FEATURES, ADVANTAGES AND BENEFITS

FEATURES

A feature of your product is something which is hopefully unique in some way. It should differentiate you from your competitors, although many times features are similar between competitive products. A feature, for example, may be a graphical user interface on a software product. The important features of your product are Unique Selling Points (USPs) which are not available with the competitor's product.

So we need to identify our own product's unique selling points and ensure our customer agrees that these are important to them, otherwise our product is not being differentiated from the competitor's.

Most sales people think Features are Benefits but they are not. The customer likes the features because they provide them with an advantage, and the advantage then provides them with the benefits.                                                                                                                                                                 Here are some examples of Features:

    -The mp3 player has an intuitive, easy to use interface.

    -The car has built in sat nav.

    -The computer has a 3 year on site warranty.

ADVANTAGES

The advantage is a result of the feature and is providing something good for the customer. The advantage is dependent upon the feature and when the feature is listed, the advantage is not always apparent so sometimes needs to be explained. Good sales people always ensure the customer understands the advantages to the features the product provides.

Here are some examples of advantages for the features listed above.

    -The intuitive, easy to use interface provides the user with quick access to their music, ability to select more kinds of music, to play different genres of music, and to provide play lists previously organised for parties or other events.

    -The built in sat nav means that you don't have to buy one, that its more securely fitted into the vehicle so you don't have to carry it around with you all the time, and that it integrates with the other dials and buttons on the dash board.

    -The computer's 3 year on site warranty provides the customer with an engineer visit to customer's site to repair any problems the customer may have with the computer which is an advantage over having to send it in for repair.

BENEFITS

The benefits are the final results caused by the advantages, which in turn have been brought about by the features. Very few sales people really understand what benefits are, and can succesfully communicate them to the potential client. The benefit is the real reason the customer will make the buying decision to invest good hard money on the product.

The true benefits may need to be quantified in terms of a ROI or Break Even Analysis. These will be discussed later in more detail, however, principally here are some example benefits for the previous advantages listed above:

    -The benefits of the advantages provided by the intuitive, easy to use interface include saving time, having better parties, enjoying friends and family more and more.

    -The build in sat nav provides benefits such as peace of mind that you can relax and not worry about your sat nav getting stolen, and safety from being able to focus on driving the car instead of fumbling the sat nav around in the car and taking on risk of crashing from not paying attention to the road.

    -The 3 year warranty's advantages provide peace of mind that any problem will get sorted out quickly and easily without the hassle of sending it back to the supplier, and also saves the user a lot of time and money dealing with problems with the product.

Utilising the knowledge of FAB will enable you to bring this information to the awareness of the potential customer. Sometimes the advantages and benefits are not as easily understood as you might think, so its worth bringing them to their attention. After all, this is the real reasoning behind buying the product.