Day 3: Back to your stuff

Objec­tive:Learn the dif­fer­ence between fea­tures and ben­e­fits and how to use ben­e­fits to focuse on value only you can provide.

Today we are going to start drilling down into those issues we uncov­ered on Day 1. Remem­ber so head back here to jolt you’re mem­ory.
The baby step today will be more about that stuff you sell…so let’s get started.

Ok, your stuff is…

Hand made, you put lots of sweat and tears and maybe some blood into mak­ing it and it is spe­cial, not doubt about it.

That spe­cial­ness is what is going to be THE thing that none of your com­pe­ti­tion has, it pro­duces ben­e­fits for those lucky enough to own it.

Because we are artists, we are going to take a dif­fer­ent path here, we’re not going to even think about fea­tures because fea­tures are like leather seats in a car.

We don’t have no stinkin’ fea­tures because all our stuff has benefits!

One more time:

Fea­tures come from say­ing “wouldn’t it be nice if …” with­out con­sid­er­a­tion as to whether the super cool fea­ture added any­thing to the prospec­tive owner’s expe­ri­ence of using it.

A ben­e­fit is some­thing that hap­pens to or for the per­son who owns your stuff, it is some­thing  you or your stuff does that no one else does for their owners.

Exam­ple

The Bad

My pho­tographs are cool to own so you’ll be cool if you have one.

Your funky knit­ted wrap is all cre­ative and cool.…

Why Bad ?

Sure my pho­tos taken with that Holga cam­era are cool but maybe I’m not going for cool as a benefit.

Or that wrap has more to offer than coolness.

The Good

My Holga pho­tographs make peo­ple think and see some­thing new each time they look at them.

Those pho­tos can become a set, a wall collection.

That hand knit wrap not only makes buy­ers feel warm it also lets them feel wild aban­don­ment, joy, and because it spe­cially made a con­nec­tion with the materials.

Why Good ?

The ben­e­fit of col­lectibil­ity give the buyer of the photo per­mis­sion to own more, and helps them in the design of their house by mak­ing rooms interesting.

The wrap con­nects the buyer to the artists inten­tions as well as evok­ing other emo­tions. The fact that it is hand made as well as one of a kind encour­ages the buyer to feel spe­cial and have a cre­ative con­nec­tion with the artist.

Now…

go out and fig­ure out at least five, that’s five ben­e­fits of your stuff;

do the same with your­self because who you are in your busi­ness can have as great or greater effect on who will buy your stuff.

Fig­ure Out…

Why would some­body want to buy from you?

What do you have that can be of ben­e­fit to buy­ers that no one else can offer?