Page 23 - Oscar Adler - Sell Yourself in Any Interview_ Use Proven Sales Techniques to Land Your Dream Job (2008)

THE POWER OF FEATURES AND BENEFITS

Similarly, an eraser lets you remove pencil writing. That’s
a feature. A benefit might be: “The eraser lets me get rid of my
mistakes.”
So let’s do our first exercise: See Exhibit 1-1—stop read-
ing in order to complete the exercise now. These worksheets
are vitally important because they will help you to test how
much you know about effective interviewing. Once you have
completed this worksheet, continue reading so that you can
check your answers to gauge how well you did.
Every statement made on the list in Exhibit 1-1 is a fea-
ture. They are simply facts—they do not tell the listener the
benefits of the given feature. Features without benefits do
not mean very much to the interviewer. Benefits are the only
thing people really care about. Remember, you are always
answering the question: “What will you do for me?” This is
the only thing interviewers care about. In fact, it’s the only
thing most people care about.

TRANSLATING FEATURES
INTO BENEFITS

People do not automatically translate features into benefits
when they hear them. We do not necessarily ask ourselves:
“What will that feature do for me?” We are far more likely to
think: “So what?”
An interviewer will be listening only for the benefits of
hiring you. She cares only that she makes the right hiring
decision. If you answer questions with features but fail to
relate the benefits, you are not selling yourself to the inter-
viewer. You must learn to highlight every answer by ending
with an appropriate benefit.
It’s important to note that just because someone is listen-
ing to you, even if they are listening intently, they are not nec-

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