Whenever I walk into my bank, I see pretty banners and signs that portray couples, families, and individuals in different stages of their lives–explaining that with “such-and-such” bank, they’ve been able to retire/pay off a mortgage/buy a car/etc. These are obvious and obtainable benefits, sure, but are they backed up with anything?

You’ve heard it before: “Customers buy benefits, not features…” and that is true, for the most part. Your company should focus not on what technology is involved, what makes it “special,” or even why those things set it apart from the competition–your customer doesn’t care about your competition. As you know, you’re supposed to focus on communicating to your prospect what benefit they’ll receive if they buy from you. Makes sense. But what about companies who forget to prove that these benefits are actually desirable, possible, or even acheivable?

If you are new to building a company (as a college student, first-time entrepreneur, or just new to an industry) don’t fall for the false security of selling only benefits to your prospects. Your prospects need to understand what the benefits to them will be, but they need to see the verifiable truth in these benefits by examining your product’s features.

That’s right! Show your product’s benefits, but explain why the benefit is possible guaranteed. For example, my bank’s advertisements should show me not only that I can one day retire, but that I can retire if I use their banking services because they offer a locked-in interest rate, special Roth-IRA, or a government-backed loan program (arguably that might not actually be a feature…).

The best way to determine what features you’ll need to include in your sales presentation is to reverse-engineer the pitch–you know what your benefits should be, right? Most companies build features first, and “transform” these collective features into benefits. Let’s switch things around a bit. Here’s a quick chart for common “benefits” and what features might be involved:

• A scale that “remembers” your weight. Benefit: Helps you lose weight. Feature: Keeps track of weight loss by showing day-by-day weight information.
• A car that displays mileage information. Benefit: Improves gas mileage. Feature: Tracks mileage data and displays it in a simple way.
• Amazon’s Kindle. Benefit: Convenience. Feature: Stores numerous books and takes up little space.

You’ll notice that these features can be somewhat obvious, and therefore most people can take the benefit’s merit at face-value. But what about more technological applications? What is the benefit of Microsoft’s new BING, a “revolutionary” new search engine? It has been hailed as the “next Google,” and Microsoft advertises that it “helps people make better decisions,” and it will “set a new standard.” Those are GREAT, solid benefits, and whoever came up with them is doing their marketing job well. However, I’m not sold. HOW will a new search engine help me make better decisions? WHY is it the next Google, and do I even need one?

Marketing a benefit without at least one supporting feature makes your product vague, incoherent, or pompous. Sell your benefits with your features.

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Amazon, bank, Bing, Google, Kindle, Microsoft