The Reluctant Entrepreneur: Turning Dreams into Profits

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BENEFITS AND DEEPER BENEFITS

Marketing geniuses take this one step further and identify the product’s deeper benefits.

In our example, the marketing genius wouldn’t be satisfied with the ordinary benefit of “easy to sharpen.” He would ask himself, “Who is my target customer? And why might he want sharpening pencils to be easy?”

There’s no single answer to such questions. It depends partly on who the target customer is. If he’s an executive, his deeper reasons are going to be different from those of a college student.

Perhaps the executive wants more ease because he’s buried in minutia. Perhaps he senses that if he could just get a little more spare time in his day he could be more productive—finally get his inbox conquered and his e-mail cleaned up. Perhaps he could write that memo or make that phone call that would boost his career.

So the marketing genius asks himself more questions: “Why does my customer want to be more productive? Is it because he wants a better salary? And if so, why is that? Is it because he wants a nicer home? And if he wants a nicer home, why? To please his family? To impress his friends? And why does he want to please his family and impress his friends?”

By digging below the surface and figuring out the answers to questions like these, you will hold your prospect’s heart in your hand.