I write marketing content for a living, and I still stop and look and think:  Is this a feature, or a benefit, or what?

And I can clearly remember my early days trying to understand the difference – and ending up confused about which one, features or benefits, I was supposed to be focusing on.  (It’s benefits, just in case you were wondering.) 

I also remember my past life in the corporate world, helping the sales staff write proposals and conduct sales meetings with clients…and even those professional, high-$ sales guys didn’t always get it right.

For most people, the linguistic distinction between “feature” and “benefit” – your understanding of the difference between the two words – is subtle, to say the least.  You might even call it obscure. 

So if you’re confused sometimes, don’t feel bad.  Instead, look at it this way:  you’ve got a lot of company, since it’s something so many people struggle with!

Here’s one way to decipher it.

A feature is a part of your work that matters to you.  It’s probably something you’re especially proud of, and therefore are eager to talk about.

A benefit is something that matters to your customer.  It’s what they get from working with you.

(Want to get really geeky about it?  “B” for Benefit comes right before “C” for Customer.  So the Benefit is what matters to your Customer, and so it’s what you want to focus on when you’re talking to them.)

Benefits and features should be closely related (if they’re not, you’re probably not selling very much).  They’re often, though not always, flip sides of the same coin – which only serves to further complicate things!

I recently had a fascinating discussion with a colleague about this whole question, including ways to help people really get the difference, and really get what it means to talk about your work from the customer’s perspective.  The whole conversation is far too much to go into here, but I’m chewing on it and thinking about how to turn it into a workshop and/or a workbook. 

He made two key points.

1. Everyone operates from a perspective of “what’s in it for me,” also known as WIIFM (the oldest radio station in the world!).
2. Even when this is explained, and even when people think they get it, they still don’t get it.  WIIFM operates on such a loud, wide, powerful bandwidth that it drowns out other perspectives even when you’re trying to see them.

I can remember thinking, way back when, that it didn’t really matter.  Of course, that was because I was so frustrated trying to figure it out.  

It does matter.  And it’s not hopeless.  But it takes practice to stop listening to WIIFM, to set aside all those lovely aspects of your work that you’re deservedly proud of, and to step into your customers’ world.

What’s your experience trying to distinguish between benefits and features?  Do you feel like you’re successful?  I’d love to hear your success stories, and I’d also love to hear of your challenges. 

Let’s open this up and see if we can help distinguish benefits from features.  What are some that you’ve been working with, and how have you approached it?

Have you noticed how many people in business for themselves use an email address that’s not connected with their website?

They’re using the email they get through their internet service provider.  Or they’re using one of the free email services.

So their email extension (the bit after the @) is something like cox.net, san.rr.com, gmail.com, yahoo.com, or hotmail.com.

There’s no excuse for this.  None.

I know many self-employed folks aren’t technical.  I get that, and that’s perfectly okay.  But there are plenty of people out there who can help you get a professional email address set up.  It’s not hard!

Here are the two biggest reasons why this is important.

1. PROFESSIONALISM 
   Simply put, if your business card has an email on it that’s not related to your website, I immediately – probably unfairly, but there it is – feel as if you’re not really serious.  There’s an implication that you’re running an expensive hobby, or that you’ve only just gotten started and aren’t really in business. 
2. Marketing! 
   If I can figure out your website URL from your email address, I might go look at it.  (Do you do this?  I often do.) But I never have that option if your email address doesn’t have your website URL in it.

Your website hosting service should include unlimited email addresses.  If not unlimited, it should certainly include at least enough for you, your partner(s) or team member(s), your webmaster, an assistant, and maybe a generic “info” email.

If you don’t know how to set up an email with your website URL, find out how.  Find someone who can help.  Get it done. 

And then reprint those business cards.

That is, if you want people to take you as a serious professional.

Everyone loves getting referrals.  It feels good to know your work was appreciated and trusted enough to be recommended, and it’s a wonderful way to enroll quality clients with relatively little effort.

As delightful as they are, referral clients are also a two-edged sword.  They can cut both ways – positively and negatively – and need to be handled carefully.  Because if you screw up, even the slightest bit, with a client who found you through someone else’s recommendation, you risk cutting off that stream of referrals. 

I recently referred a client to the photographer who took the photos I use here on my website.  I’d enjoyed working with this person, and I thought he did a good job for a good price.  So I was happy to recommend him, and have done so several times.

My client had a very different experience.  Not only that, but when she gently mentioned that she wasn’t happy with the results of her photo shoot, the response was unhelpful – it boiled down to “too bad, so sad.”

I’ll never refer business to this photographer again.  I’m emailing everyone I’ve told about him in the past to tell them the story and suggest they look elsewhere.  And although I’d planned to call him when I need my photos updated in the future – well, I’m sure it’s obvious that I’ll be looking for someone else.

Being unresponsive to any customer has the potential to hurt your business.  Sometimes it’s necessary – I’m the last to suggest we should all bend over backwards to take abuse from a client! – but it should be done consciously and carefully.

Being unresponsive to a customer who’s been referred to you is even more likely to hurt your business, and in my view, makes very little sense.

Being unresponsive to a customer who’s been referred by someone who works with people in your ideal market … well, sorry, but that’s just dumb.

I was going to start the week by writing about how doing what works - by which I mean, what works for YOU, not what works for anyone else – is the best way I know to succeed.

But then Marissa Bracke beat me to it.  So I felt a bit stuck about what to post instead.

And then I spent yesterday morning in the most fantastic meeting with a corporate client.

This is a delightful company who I won’t name because I haven’t got permission and there’s no one there right now to ask (it being almost 8:00 p.m.!).  They brought me in to help them do market research to validate key assumptions they’re making about their customers and their marketplace.  These key assumptions are foundational to strategic business decisions they’re making – decisions that will set the direction for what’s next for the company.  Serious stuff.

There’s a lot that’s fun and interesting about this company and the project.  What I’m particularly interested in – and very happy about having a part in revealing – is how they’ve got a powerful cultural attribute that they were overlooking.  It wasn’t figuring into their strategic discussions, and it was likely to be badly undermined if they’d taken the direction they were thinking about.

What was the attribute?  A deep commitment to customer service.  A bend-over-backwards commitment.  And they simply didn’t recognize how important it was, how much their customers appreciate it, and how valuable it could be to leverage it as they move into new ways of doing business.

As I told them and also mentioned in a previous post here (There’s Value in Them Thar Blind Spots), this is incredibly common.  In fact, I’d say it’s universal:  every business, whether it’s a solopreneur operating independently or the largest company in the world, has blind spots about what their customers value. 

The largest company in the world probably doesn’t need or want help figuring out what their blind spots are. 

But if you’re an independent, or a small- or medium-sized business, you really want to look at this.  Whether you’re making strategic changes in your business model or planning to keep right on going the way you are, you want to look at this.

It’s something you’re already doing.  It’s something your clients appreciate and value.  And if you only knew what it was, you’d have something very cool to include in how you talk and write about your work.

It’s something that could significantly increase your success.  And not only that, because it’s something you just do, naturally and pretty much instinctively, it’s something that, if you were only aware of it, you could focus on a little more … and have more fun DOING and MARKETING your business.

Seriously, folks.  This is no joke.  This is something worth paying attention to.

My client?  They’re paying attention.  And they’re choosing to put strategic focus, attention, and structure around what they already do naturally.  I can’t wait to see what happens for them!

When I talk with people about their websites, one of the first things I often hear is, “I get great feedback.”

It’s always comforting to hear people say nice things about your website.  It makes you feel good to know they like your design and they think the content is clear and informative.

Nice.

But … what are they doing?

Because the only thing that really matters is the action that people take when they land on your site.

And if what they’re doing isn’t what you want them to do - then all that good feedback doesn’t mean much, does it?

We all, without exception, have blind spots in our understanding of what we do.  I see it in myself.  I see it in my clients.  I see it in my colleagues.

No matter how aware someone is about what they do well, and no matter how diligent they may be in gathering top-quality testimonials that help them understand more about what their clients appreciate, there are always blind spots.

And those blind spots hide gems.  Nuggets of value that you provide to your clients without realizing it.

I posed a question along this line to a mastermind group of small business owners that I facilitate.  I asked them to reflect on things they deeply enjoy doing – but that they’re not bringing into their businesses.  What would it be like to put more focus on that talent or activity, and bring it into their work more fully?

In a subsequent meeting, one woman, Rebecca Everett, was excited to share her report.

She’s a performance coach.  As she describes it, she works with individuals and organizations to help them improve team and individual performance.  Her particular approach is to target what she calls “interaction intelligence” – since it’s the quality of the interactions between people that ultimately determines performance.

As a result of my question, she had rediscovered her love of music and singing.  She’d signed up for classes, joined a group of fellow singers, and was scheduled to perform publicly in the upcoming month.

We were thrilled for her, of course.

What I found fascinating, though, was that she prefaced her story by saying, “I don’t think this has anything to do with my work.”

A performance coach doesn’t think that taking voice lessons, joining a group of performers, and performing in public is relevant to her business. 

Yet I’d bet that the ways she learns and grows personally in her singing and performing will impact - perhaps subtly, but probably quite directly - the work she does with clients.

And I’d also bet that potential clients would love to know this about her, and that it would be a real boost to their feelings of confidence and trust in her abilities.

Don’t misunderstand, and please don’t think I’m just confused here.  I get that it seems like we’re dealing with two different meanings of the word ”performance.”  

But … are we really? 

Isn’t it true that how an individual or team performs in their work is, in many ways, about performing in the sense of being present in their role, being alert to their audience, being able to show up in situations and interacting with people in ways that may not be altogether comfortable?

It’s fascinating to me how we all have blind spots about what we do.

What are yours?

And if you see mine, will you please point them out to me?

I get that this is tough, believe me. That’s why I created the business intensive workshop. A BIG part of what we’ll work on is this whole question of really getting your value to your clients. From your clients’ perspective. It’s all this blind-spot stuff, and then some.

I’m strongly opposed to the typical canned “elevator pitch” approach.

When you use a canned message, you’re going to sound – surprise! – canned.  And that equates to inauthentic, stilted, and phony.

That’s obviously not the impression you want to make.  You want to sound engaging, excited, interesting, intriguing, passionate, fascinating… anything but canned.

Yet my clients often list “figuring out elevator pitch” as one of their priorities in our work together.  They want a way to answer the “what do you do” question that they can feel good about – that doesn’t leave them feeling uncertain, unclear, confused, uncomfortable.

Most of my clients quickly add that they don’t want a traditional elevator speech.  They know they don’t want to sound canned.  What they do want is to feel comfortable that they sound clear and compelling – and to feel like they know what they’re talking about.  It’s as simple and understandable as that.

Here’s the thing, though:  Your elevator pitch should never feel completely comfortable.

In fact, when it starts feeling comfortable, that’s a good sign it’s also starting to sound canned and uninteresting.

Your business is evolving.  It never stays still.  Even when you’re solidly settled in certainty and confidence about the power of what you do, your work still keeps evolving – perhaps only slightly at times, and perhaps with great leaps at other times.

There’s a leading edge to your work.  Think of the very tip of a wave as it curls…and that’s the very tip of where your business is growing.

Your explanation of what you do is always slightly behind that curve.  It has to be; there’s no way for it to be right up there on that leading, growing edge.

And so your explanation of what you do is always going to feel slightly off, slightly not-right, and therefore slightly uncomfortable.

That doesn’t mean you can’t get more comfortable.  You can.  Finding clarity about your message is a wonderful and exciting journey that’s worth taking.  

And when you know that a little discomfort is actually a good thing, you’ll start discerning the difference between the discomfort that arises from being just slightly behind that leading edge of your business’s evolution – and the deeper discomfort that arises from truly not being grounded in what you do.

Looking for clarity in your message?  You can find it in the Business Clarity Intensive workshop.  Yes, we’ll be covering elevator pitches – of the non-canned, vibrant, alive, engaging, compelling variety!

There are times when I really have no idea what’s going to pop out of my mouth.

A few days ago, at a chapter meeting of a local professional organization, we were talking about what had inspired us to start our businesses – and what enables us to keep going.

I said, “Having the wisdom to listen to my clients instead of my fears.”

If I’d stopped to think about it, I probably would have come up with a far more intellectual and far less heartfelt answer. 

I’m glad I didn’t stop to think about it.

What keeps you going?

Strategy.

After asking around a bit, I’m pretty much convinced that most people don’t really know what it is.

I’m also pretty sure that a lot of small business owners and independents secretly believe it’s not necessary.  That it belongs in big corporate boardrooms and gets developed on expensive corporate retreats … and that it ultimately doesn’t amount to much but a lot of hot air and hand-waving.

If you’ve spent time as a corporate employee, or if you’ve been reading the business news over the last few years, I can hardly blame you for thinking that way.  Hey, up until fairly recently, I’d’ve agreed with you.

But then I began realizing something. 

I began realizing that my ability to make clear decisions about (for instance) what speaking engagements to accept, and which ones to turn down … about what networking events to attend, and which I can safely skip … about who’s a good referral partner and who might not be …

All those decisions – decisions I used to wrestle with – became instantly clear when I looked at them strategically.

I began noticing that my work with clients – defining their services, helping them find crystal clarity about who their best clients are – is really strategic work, and that it results in their being able to make better decisions as well.  And – as they’ve repeatedly told me – results in greater focus on what they really want to do, and significantly more confidence about the true value of their work.

The dictionary defines strategy as “a plan, method, or series of maneuvers or stratagems for obtaining a specific goal or result: a strategy for getting ahead in the world.” 

I say it goes a LOT farther than that.

I say it’s the foundation and guiding principle of my business.  It’s what I need to understand in order to make clear decisions about what projects to take on, which clients to work with, and who I want to connect with.

Knowing my strategy means I have certainty and confidence.  I know what I need to know to be successful.

Instead of being dry and dusty, strategy provides my business with vitality, purpose, direction – and most of all, with ease.

And that makes strategy a whole lot sexier than I ever expected.

What about you?

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of going to my dentist for a routine cleaning and checkup.

Note two things: 

1. I said “pleasure” and meant it, and
2. I said “my” dentist, not “the” dentist.

I’ve been going to this dentist for over 12 years – ever since I moved to Southern California.  He’s not just good, he’s great.  And not just because he’s technically the best dentist I’ve ever encountered, but because of his whole approach.

It starts with his office staff.  They know me when I walk in the door.  And it’s not my winning personality, or the fact that they get a kick out of my sock-knitting while I wait.  They’re the same with everyone.

All the hygienists and assistants are like this:  friendly, interested, engaged. 

It’s obviously a fan-freakin’-tastic place to work.  There’s zero turnover; it’s all the same people from the beginning, except for new additions as the practice has grown.

They’re efficient, organized, and on the ball.  In 12 years, I’ve never had to unravel even the smallest mistake. 

And … there’s one more thing.  One thing that means so much to me, and is so completely symbolic of the whole experience.

Are you ready?

They never use me as a table.

You know what I mean, right?  You’ve been to dentists where either the dentist or the hygienist uses your shoulder as a table.  They put an instrument down on you, they plop the little container of tooth polish there, they rest the slurpy suction thing … on your shoulder.

These people?  They don’t do it.

I have no idea if they have an official policy about it, or if they simply have such inherent respect and appreciation for their clients that it never occurs to them to do this.  And I don’t care.  I just appreciate it.

The small stuff. 

One of these days, I’m going to have to ask them if they realize what they’re doing – and how much it means to me.

And that brings up a big question.

Do you sweat the small stuff?

What’s your equivalent of this small gesture that means so much – that’s symbolic of your whole approach to doing business?

I know mine, and you can read about them over on my services pages.  Which, you’ll note, I’m not linking to – because I want you to stay here and think about this question and then answer it in the comments.

Do you know what you do for your clients?  Do you know what apparently “small” stuff you do that they appreciate? 

Do you know how to find out?

Okay, there is one link in this post that you should follow, if you don’t know how to find out.  Because it’s the small stuff that adds huge value to your work, the small stuff you don’t even know you’re doing - but which makes all the difference to your clients.

And how to find out what it is you’re doing is just one of the things we’ll be covering in the business clarity intensive workshop.

Because when you know, you can talk about it.  When you know, you easily and naturally know what differentiates you – what makes your work utterly, beautifully, uniquely different from anyone else who might be doing similar work.

Go look.  And then call me and let’s talk about the small stuff in your business.  It’s an MBA in your own business.