Page 27 - Oscar Adler - Sell Yourself in Any Interview_ Use Proven Sales Techniques to Land Your Dream Job (2008)

THE POWER OF FEATURES AND BENEFITS

Benefit: My education will allow me to implement the
latest research in best business practices for your
organization.

Feature: I have been a paralegal for 10 years.

Benefit: My experience will allow me to step in and be
productive for you on day one.

Now take a minute to compare your sample benefits
(from Exhibit 1-2) with the ones shown in Exhibit 1-3. Have
you truly stated a benefit, or have you merely listed another
feature? Let’s take a closer look at one of the examples:

Feature: “This automobile has heated seats.”

What benefit could we offer to a potential customer that is
related to this feature? The temptation is to say something
like, “They are comfortable.” Although comfortable may seem
like a benefit, it is in fact another feature. Simply throwing an
adjective into a sentence does not make it a benefit. In this
case, a benefit would be

“These leather seats have a two-level heating
system, so even in the coldest weather you will feel
comfortable quickly.”

Saying that the seats “are comfortable” is stating a feature;
showing how the heated leather seats will help the customer
“feel comfortable” is giving a benefit. Once you can see a fea-
ture through the eyes of a customer, then it will become clear
how to state a corresponding benefit.
In the context of a job interview, the interviewer is your
customer. Keep this in mind as we take another look at the

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