Don’t tell me about your lawn fertilizer…

One day during my first venture I was rattling off a list of product features to one of my mentors. He very kindly stopped me and said something quite odd "Don’t tell me about your lawn fertilizer, tell me about my lawn." As we sold software I was confused at first, but then it sunk in.

Which of these two lawn fertilizer would you rather purchase?

1. Features: all natural ingredients, the right ratio of macro-to-micro nutrients, and plenty of magnesium… OR…
2. Benefits: A lush, green lawn that is safe for our children, pets, and the environment.

As entrepreneurs, we learn the pain points of our customers and invest vast energy into creating products/services that SOLVE those problems. But we, of necessity, obsess on the operational details of execution – the FEATURES of our products. But people do not buy features. They buy BENEFITS.

You can find some more good words on this topic here and here.