Using Features And Benefits To Motivate People Into Action
- Give people what they want, and they will give you what you want!
- Use benefits to fulfill needs.
- Make yourself unique, and you will have the advantage!
In these articles we are going to be taking a look at what motivates people, and find out what causes them to act or feel in a certain way. This is an extremely important area of persuasion, as it is feelings which lead directly to action.
For example, if a person is feeling extremely depressed, they are unlikely to want to do very much. However should you motivate that person, and change how they are feeling, they will be much more willing to get up and take some kind of action.
To fully understand this area of persuasion we therefore need to understand what exactly a person wants. Fortunately, the answer is quite simple.
The thing a person thinks most about is themselves, and so what they want to know is how they will personally benefit.
This is one of the most basic fundamental principles of persuasion, and unless you can answer this question from the listener’s perspective, you will never successfully persuade anyone.
Learning From Sales Professionals
Salespeople are taught that in order to make a sale, they must first show how their product can meet a persons needs. The more needs that product can successfully satisfy, the greater the likelihood they will make a sale.
In order to successfully satisfy a persons need, the salesperson requires some kind of knowledge about the features and benefits of their product.
Features are the facts that describe what the product is, and how it is made or operates. Features are cold, remote and impersonal. In other words, features do not relate directly to a persons needs.
Benefits on the other hand, do relate to a persons needs. Benefits are statements of ways in which the product, or the features of that product, will help a person fulfill their needs. Benefits are therefore warm, tempting and personal.
Selling With Features And BenefitsÂ
Successful sales usually occur with a mixed description of a product’s features and benefits. For example, this new computer processor runs at the speed of 3 GHz (a feature) this allows you to run the latest applications smoother and quicker saving you time (a benefit).
To someone who has little knowledge about computers, just stating the feature by itself (i.e. the processor speed) means little, as it is impersonal and conveys no direct benefit to them.
However once you add a benefit (i.e. what a fast processor can do for you) this feature (the processor speed) then seems more attractive and desirable because it fulfills your needs.
This is an important point to remember about persuasion, because many persuaders make the mistake of simply talking about what they want, what they need and how they are feeling. To the listener this means little, as it is of no benefit or relevance to them and does not fulfill their needs.
Remember, they are asking how they will personally benefit from your proposal, and you must satisfy these needs through a mixture of features and benefits.
Features will attract their attention, whilst the benefits will produce the action (i.e. buy the product or agree with you).
Using Benefits
Once you have decided upon a list of benefits, your next step is to decide which of those benefits most appeal to your listener. However in order to do this, you first need to understand what is likely to motivate a person into taking action.
Speaking in very general terms, people tend to be motivated to gain something they do not have, or are motivated to avoid losing something they do have.
This can be simplified further by saying that people are motivated away from pain, and motivated towards pleasure. For more information on this please see : pleasure vs pain focused people.
However this a big generalisation, and there are many different factors which can motivate people to take action. Here are a few:
Things That Motivate People
- To make money
- To save time
- To avoid effort
- To achieve comfort
- To have health
- To be popular
- To experience pleasure
- To be clean
- To be praised
- To be in style
- To gratify curiosity
- To satisfy an appetite
- To have beautiful possessions
- To attract the opposite sex
- To be an individual
- To emulate others
- To take advantage of opportunities
Ultimately, the benefits you choose to present should satisfy and appeal to the things that motivate that person the most.
The stronger the motivation to fulfill that need (for example, to be healthy) the greater the likelihood they will take action upon your proposal, and the greater the likelihood you will successfully persuade them.
Make Yourself Unique
Whilst the methods described above are absolutely essential for successful persuasion, unfortunately they are not enough.
The reason they are not enough is because your target (the person you are trying to persuade) will most likely also have other people trying to persuade them. This is known as competition, and gives the person other choices and options to think about.
Therefore, whilst you may have some tempting benefits that fulfill their needs, someone else may also present the same benefits that satisfy the same needs.
In cases like this you need something extra, something that makes you unique, and makes the target want to choose you over your competitor. In other words, what can you offer a person that someone else cannot?
Or to help you visualise this, imagine you have two identical bowls of ice cream, but one has a cherry on top. Which are you most likely to choose? Probably the one with the cherry, because it gives you that little bit extra, something different.
So in summary, always think about how what you are saying will benefit the other person. When deciding what benefits to present to that person, think about what needs they most desire to fulfill.
If strong enough, these needs will motivate that person to act on your benefits, resulting in successful persuasion.
When faced with competition, make your proposal unique, and give them something nobody else can give them.
Some real world examples of this could include Volvo, who are known for safe and reliable cars. Or Sony, who are known for high quality electronic equipment.
