No matter what type of business you have, in your marketing materials you MUST sell benefits, not features. People only care about one thing, "what's in it for me?"

A feature is a characteristic of your product or service. A benefit is what that feature does for a customer. Here are a couple examples of features and benefits:

Feature: At Consolidated Bank, there's NEVER a charge for using other bank's ATMs.

Benefits: You can get cash wherever you are, when you need it, and save money.

Feature: At ABC Employment Service, we test applicants office skills, such as typing speed.

Benefits: When we send you an applicant, they meet your minimum requirements, and you don't have to waste valuable time testing them yourself.

Here's a little trick for finding benefit within feature. List a feature then ask yourself, "So what?" What does that feature do for my customers? For example:

Feature: Personalized service.

Benefit: The benefit of our personalized service is that we take time to understand your needs."

Don't stop there. So what? What does working with people who take time to understand their customers needs do for your customers?

Benefit: Since we take time to understand your needs, we can better anticipate potential problems and save you time, money and aggravation.

Bingo! Almost everyone likes to save time and money, and less aggravation is always good, so this is a real benefit statement.

Benefits Categories:

Though benefits can be described in a million ways, there are really only five main categories:

1. Convenience: Saves time or effort.

2. Saves money or increases money.

3. Provides peace of mind.

4. Appeals to image or ego.

5. Fun or enjoyment.

In addition, one single feature can have lots of benefits to one customer. Benefit statements don't necessarily have to include one feature and one benefit, each.

Also, keep in mind, just like beauty is in eye of beholder, so too are benefits. One person might buy an SUV because he needs room to transport five kids; another person buys same SUV because she likes comfortable ride and enjoys sitting up high overlooking other cars.

Another powerful psychological strategy is using a technique that appears to lower price of your product or service, without actually doing so.

For example, if you charge $1000 per year for your product or service, you can break it down for reader so that they understand it's really only $19.23 per week." It's exact same price, however, $19.23 per week is a lot easier to psychologically digest and justify than $1000.

If you would like to start utilizing immense power of psychology immediately in all your marketing efforts, I highly recommend following books:

"Compelling Selling: A Framework for Persuasion," by Philip R. Lund and "Secrets of Closing Sale," by Zig Ziglar

Since they're all-time classics, you should be able to find both both books at your local bookstore or on Amazon.com. Enjoy!

Can you imagine what this will do to Company? It'll put it head and shoulders above its competition.

Many business owners often wonder why they should be unique. They wonder what's wrong with being a "me too" business.

The fact is that if you're unique, you're almost guaranteed to outperform and outdistance your competition. It's also a fact that a "me too" business will eventually go to wall.

Let me ask a question:

Do you set up shop before identifying and formulating your USP? If you do, don't!

Here's an illustration why...

You set up a provision shop in an area where there're already four of them operating in it.

The current market share is being split amongst four provision shops, and out of four, three of them are struggling.

By setting shop in that area, it means that current market share will have to be further split amongst five of you.

What makes you so sure that you'll be profitable if you're not unique and operate as an "also ran"?

The fact is that odds is really against you because you're no different from rest of your competitors.

The days where businesses compete on price and service alone is no longer that effective because potential customers can always get what you have to offer much cheaper and with a better service somewhere else.

What you really need is to be different and unique in order to outperform your competitors.

By now you can see how powerful a statement of USP is to your business. As I've mentioned in beginning, it is focal point around which your business is built. It forces you to be clear and define exactly what advantages your customers can expect from doing business with you.

And as such, it'll drive your marketing efforts and have a profound impact on your operations.

Coming up with a clear statement of your USP doesn't cost you money - just some of your time and thoughts. At end of day, it'll be time and thoughts well spent because of increase in sales and profits that you'll reap.

Just do it today; this step is absolutely crucial.

Copyright by Larry Lim, MarketingSphere

Larry Lim is a practising marketing strategist and tactician who dishes out highly effective marketing strategies and tactics.