It was an "a-ha moment" for me. I was reading a popular book on sales psychology, and it was the first time I'd heard the distinction between benefit selling and feature selling. It instantly resonated with me, because I knew it was true. We buy products largely because of the benefits we see in them, not the features they have. Writing about the benefits a product or service provides is far more powerful than writing about its features.

That distinction immediately revolutionized my writing. I can tell you all day long about my resume, but until you see the benefit to your bottom line in hiring me, you're not going to for over several thousand dollars for my copywriting expertise. But when I explain to you how your business can take off because of my work...or better yet, how my clients businesses have taken off because of my work...you're more inclined to see why my services are a valuable investment in your own business.

Good copywriting incorporates features primarily as supporting elements to the sales message, not the sales message itself. I've read cases where a move from features-based copy to benefits-based copy instantly doubled or tripled sales. That's because there is something powerful about matching the actual needs and desires of a reader to the offer you are trying to make.

Examples of a features-based approach to selling a custom website

• Content management system
  
• Customized design and layout
  
• 24/7 support
• 99.9% uptime
• State of the art servers

Here's how I might approach these from a benefits point of view

• Now you don't have to write a single line of HTML to maintain your own website...unless you want to, that is.
• If your services stand out from the crowd, so should your website.
• Have a question at 2:00 AM? It's okay, we're up late to help.
• You don't have to worry about your website being down and losing sales. We monitor it around the clock for you.
• You know how your computer is already out of date? Ours aren't.

Benefit selling is an art. It takes a conscious effort to go from a mindset that is focused on the features you are trying to offer to a customer, to a mindset that is focused on how he or she could percieve those features as real-life benefits.

Benefit selling is essentially the art of good listening. A good conversationalist is not always talking about himself, but asking questions and tapping into the interests of his partner in conversation. Likewise, good sales copy is the result of listening to your customers and understanding what they are interested in. Usually, that's very simple: How can your product help me?

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites