Sharing science and ingredients aren't benefits, they're interesting facts.
"I'd like to introduce you to our new moisturizer. It has the highest amount of niacinamide for hydration, especially long term. And my favorite, which I know you will love too, all the ingredients are naturally sourced. There is no fragrance or dyes and it is paraben free. It contains the same ingredients your skin already naturally makes, helping to support your skin's natural process. When you apply it, you will notice how elegant it feels, it is so nourishing and leaves the loveliest glow on the skin."
I bet you want to buy this moisturizer don't you? Highest percentage, hydrating, naturally sourced, fragrance free, biomimetic, elegant. It sounds like a good pitch, because I'm sharing a new product that you, the customer, will be interested in, and it is different from whatever else you are recommending right now.
Now hang on a minute. Did I share the benefits? I informed you about all my favorite parts, the ones I find interesting. The highest amount of niacinamide, natural, no fragrance. Tick, tick, tick.
You see it now, every one of those is a feature.
We may think we are sharing benefits while educating. But these are facts, great ones, but still not the benefits necessary to help someone understand why it is good or needed.
The 80/20 Rule
I'm sure we have all had the same training or guidance. When speaking to a client about a product, or anything for that matter, we focus 80 percent of the words on benefits and the other 20 percent on features. Lead with what it does, sprinkle in what it has. For the most part, we have tried to stick with this because it makes sense.
Now if we went back to my pitch, it should be clear. I was sure there were benefits. Here they are: percentage, sourcing, ingredient, formulation, texture. Five features should give me several. I landed one, and two is pushing it. That is most definitely not 80 percent.
So what happened?
Why Do We Reach for Features?
I think features fascinate us. The science and clinicals excite us. A new ingredient, an advanced delivery system or technology, the highest percentage of the ingredient everyone is using, biomimetic tech that echoes what the skin already does. It is new and smart, and above all different from the ten other moisturizers in this space or in the practice. When a fact fascinates us that much, we assume the fact is a reason. We share it expecting whoever we are speaking to to be just as excited and to say yes immediately.
And why wouldn't we? It convinced us. The science and ingredients were proven, so surely you are convinced too?
You are not inside my head seeing my reasoning, my understanding. You heard niacinamide, natural, no fragrance. You heard a list of information. It told you a great deal about what is in the bottle and very little about what it will do for your skin, your patient, or your business.
What Even Is a Benefit Then?
Fair question. If that was not it, then what even is a benefit?
The easiest way for me to explain it is that a feature is what the product has (ingredients, science, percentages). A benefit is what that feature does for the client (helps hydrate, smooth, calm the skin). What will matter most for the client.
"Highest niacinamide" is what it has. The benefit sounds more like this: "What niacinamide does is support the barrier, help calm redness, soften the look of uneven tone." The first one is a statement. The second shows you what the ingredient will do for your skin, how it can help the concern you or your patient has.
If you make a statement (a feature), make sure you are thinking about what this will do for the client. When you mention that, now you are educating and benefits become the hero.
Why The Fuss About Benefits?
A feature hands someone a fact. On its own, that fact leaves them to work out for themselves whether it helps them, and most people will not do that work, or they will get it wrong. A benefit does the work for them. It ties the fact to their concern, so they understand what it means for their skin, their goal, the reason they walked in. That understanding is what they lean on to decide, and to trust the person who helped them get there.
One part of this has science behind it. The self-reference effect: we hold onto information tied to ourselves far better than information we take in any other way. Tie a fact to their skin and it stays with them, because now it is about them rather than the bottle.
I am not sure I have heard a patient tell their friends, "I bought a moisturizer because it has the highest niacinamide percentage." It sounds more like, "my skin has not looked this calm in a long time." That is the benefit talking. It is what they understood, and what they came back for.
Let me introduce the moisturizer again.
"This new moisturizer contains niacinamide that helps keep your barrier healthy, keeping your skin calm, helping the look of uneven skin tone, and helping your skin hold onto its hydration. We formulated it without fragrance, dyes or parabens so your sensitive skin won't get as easily irritated or stingy. What I love is that it contains ingredients your skin naturally makes, helping support your skin's natural process, and with the feel, your skin will have a healthy-looking glow."
Keep Benefits The Hero
Take the feature you love, the highest percentage, the clever tech, the biomimetic magic, and add the question, why will this matter to the client?
A benefit, even a strong one, is still just words to a client until they can understand what it does for their skin, how it helps them. When they see how a healthier barrier holds water and calms redness, understanding that it is exactly what they need, the benefit becomes a solution. That is when they decide "yes."
Make benefits the hero, and you will start to see decisions and more "yes."
That's The Education Effect™.