New Boston Creative Group

by Lisa Sisley on November 13, 2009

Susan and I just got back from the Mid-America Manufacturing Technology Center’s 3rd Annual Manufacturing Executive Conference in Kansas City. In their own words, MAMTC “provides manufacturing expertise to companies throughout Kansas to improve productivity, profitability and
overall business performance.” We’re a third-party marketing vendor for MAMTC, a not-for-profit consulting group, and we met a lot of smart business leaders at this conference. (If you’re a manufacturer of any size, get in touch with MAMTC — they can help you cut expenses and improve profitability, no matter which manufacturing field you’re in.)

Anyhoo, in a terrific session on new product launches, several of these leaders talked about the difficulty of differentiating between “features” and “benefits” in proposals, websites or brochures, a problem that we often help our clients with. The example the presenter used was a boiler with a six-inch-thick wall. That wall is a feature. The benefit of that wall is that people are less likely to die in an explosion than if the wall was only two inches thick. Not dying…that’s a pretty good benefit.

Here’s how we help our clients address this problem: You must be able to answer the question, “So what?” Think about each feature and ask, “So what” or “Why should I care?” To you — the person with a terrific idea or product — the benefits are completely evident, maybe even “duh”-worthy. However, it’s dangerous for you to assume potential customers will spend a lot of time unearthing benefits from a list of features. Often, they just won’t bother. If you need somebody to help you spell out the benefits of your features, get in touch with us. We’ve had a lot of experience helping folks tell the rest of the world how awesome their products are. You could be next!