Why You Need to Stop Talking about Features in Your RFP Response
Benefits Sell. Features Don’t.
Have you ever stood in the toothpaste aisle, thinking, “I want a toothpaste that includes pyrophosphates and a fair amount of sodium N-Lauryl sarcosinate.”
Probably not.
What you’re really thinking is: “I want a toothpaste that gives me amazing breath, whitens my teeth, and keeps me out of the dentist’s chair, because I freaking hate the dentist.”
So you’re probably wondering what this has to do with proposals? Everything.
Toothpaste packaging never lets you miss its benefits. With statements like, “Whitens in 7 Days!” or “Stronger Teeth!,” you can’t help but buy the toothpaste that meets the benefit you want. That is why you’re never going to see packaging that proclaims its main feature: “Pyrophosphates!”
Your proposals need to make the benefits as easy to find for the customer as that toothpaste packing does (sans the foil letters).
It’s Not about the Features
It’s possible your product’s features or services really are the best in the market. But really, those features don’t mean a thing to customers unless they see how it will benefit them. A list of features or a features matrix is rarely persuasive; a story on how your features benefit them is always persuasive.
Never make your customers wade through paragraphs of features to find the benefits. This will lose their attention and be much less persuasive.
Knowing What Benefits the Customer
Not every customer cares about the same benefits. Just because you mentioned a benefit in one proposal, doesn’t mean you should talk about it in the next proposal.
One customer may consider something a benefit, while another customer may consider something else a benefit. That’s why knowing your audience is crucial.
Hint: Look at the RFP’s evaluation criteria to find out what they care about. If the RFP weighs 40% on one section, and 5% on another, you can probably guess they care about the 40% topic more than the 5% topic.
The Best Way to Talk about Benefits
The sad truth is most people only read the first sentence or two of our answers. That’s why your first sentence should directly say that you fulfill the requirement, and that you’ll provide them with a specific benefit.
Never make your customers wade through paragraphs of features to find the benefits.
But for those wonderful few souls who actually read your proposal, you need to prove that you provide that benefit. The best way to do that is to give them a real-life example. Show them how a current customer is benefiting from a feature by:
Telling the customer’s story on how they benefited.
Providing quotes about the benefits of your product.
Including statistics that prove the benefits.
Benefits in Practice
For example, if you’re a company that sells cleaning services, and you receive an RFP that clearly cares about very fast service, you should answer your questions targeting that benefit. When the RFP asks you about the speed of your service, you answer the question by:
Telling them a story about a similar customer who was thrilled with how quickly the cleaning was done, without loss of quality.
Insert a glowing quote from the customer’s CEO about how fast you are.
Include a chart that shows how much faster things were done since they hired your company.
Your proposal is going to be much more persuasive than the proposal that answers the question by saying, “Our service is quick because we use the newest and fastest Floor Waxer 550+,” and then goes on to describe the Floor Waxer 550+’s fast features (Pyrophosphates!). Maybe that floor waxer really does make your competitor fast, but no one really cares about floor waxer models (I don’t), and that answer probably doesn’t mean anything to the customer.
"I write about benefits."
No matter how excited you get about it, the nitty gritty of your product’s features are probably no more exciting to a customer than a floor waxer is to you.
So the next time you start writing a feature-heavy answer, follow these steps:
Press CTRL A (or CMD A, for you millennials).
Click the delete button.
Chant, “I am not stupid. I write about benefits, not features.”
The benefits are obvious: You’ll be more persuasive, and as a result, win more customers.
Now it's your turn. How do you write about benefits in your proposals? Tell me what you think!
