Features and Benefits: Connecting for Persuasive Presentations

Feature: This minivan has ten cup holders

Benefit: You never have to hold hot coffee between your knees again.

Often, when we talk about a product or service we describe its features: what it looks like, how it works, what it can do.

When we can draw a line for our audience from a product's features to its benefits, we often create a shortcut to getting the audience on board. Because now we're telling them how the user's problems are solved, life is made better, or goals are put within reach.

This may seem so obvious to you that you wonder why we're writing about it.

Yet, we notice that, in nearly every organization, talk about features comes easily. People can readily describe what they're making or doing. In their own minds, the benefit is clear. But for an audience taking information in for the first time, benefits may not be quite so apparent.

Linking features and benefits can be another way we make our messages work better for audiences.

Feature or Benefit: What's the difference

A feature is a quality or attribute of your product or service: 24-hour roadside assistance, memory foam insoles, an elastic waistband, or an in-house design team are examples of features.

A benefit articulates what the customer or client will enjoy or gain from that feature:

You won't be stranded at midnight if your car breaks down.
Your feet will feel cushioned after a long day of standing.
You can enjoy dessert without having to unbutton your pants.
We can eliminate delays because we're all on the same team.

Sure, your audience may be able to make these connections or come up with other benefits you don't describe. Often they do this without your prompting.

But it may take them time, which means they had to temporarily stop listening to your next point while they think. Or, it may not occur to them at all.

Finding the right balance

Features are useful, because they describe what you do, what the customer is getting. When you include benefits, though, you help the audience more quickly grasp how they can use your product or service and what those benefits can mean for them.

How much do you say about one or the other?

There's no perfect formula. As public speaking coaches, we see people go too far in one direction and ignore the other. Maybe they omit talking about benefits completely and focus on describing their internal processes. Or they get so busy talking about benefits that they neglect to tell the audience what they do or what they make (something we see in a lot of About Us pages on websites, by the way).

To help you find the best balance for your message and audience, consider:

Have I described in simple, concrete terms what we do? How easy are our features to understand?

For example, we worked with a commercial real estate company that kept describing itself as a lifestyle company. The presenters knew what they meant, but people unfamiliar with their company did not. Once they started describing some of their outstanding projects, audiences nodded with appreciation. The features of their work were interesting and easy to comprehend, once it was described simply.

If you know what we do, are the benefits obvious? Are there benefits you'd appreciate that you may not readily imagine?

Recent presentations we've seen about artificial intelligence are great examples of how benefits can help an audience embrace the possibilities. Yes, it's important to know what AI can do. But there are ways it can benefit the audience that they may not be equipped to dream up on their own.

Make the link: Pay off your example with a benefit

One helpful way to get an audience to understand what you do is to provide an example or story about your work. It shows in concrete terms what you can do. That story tends to illustrate features, though—how you work, how you solved a problem. Consider making a final link to the payoff, the benefit.

You can do that by filling in the last part of this statement: I'm telling you this story because ______________.

Filling in that blank can help you make the point that:

Having roadside repairs any time, day or night, can keep you safer.
Long hours standing on a concrete floor don't have to leave you in pain.
You can be comfortable and still look great.
Your project can stay on budget and be completed on time without the typical hassles.

There's another plus to considering the benefit when using a story or example. It will help you make sure your story has a clear point that furthers your message, one of the keys to effective storytelling in business presentations.