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Features, Benefits & Buyer's Remorse in Sales Copy

by balsimon
9 replies
Hello from Bellevue, WA - where the air is a crisp 47dg F,
and there's a near invisible moon that I can't see behind
patchy clouds, but I somehow believe is out there just the
same.

This is a question about how marketing is done.

I'm not any kind of guru, but I have done some sales in
another lifetime (or so it seems). My experience was
largely in industrial sales of hardware to industry and
to the military. Very logical. Hardly any emotion. Mainly
to specification.

I know that there are many who say "sell the sizzle," and
sell the benefits. I'm all for that - especially if it makes me
an extra dollar or thousand.

But what's the role, if any, of describing the specifications
or features of your product or service? Is it not to give the
prospective customer something real to hang onto as s/he
takes a chance on purchasing your stuff.

I've seen (we've seen?) sales letters that tout the benefits:

- You'll get more traffic
- You'll sleep better tonight
- Your dog's fleas will be someone else's problem

And testimonials are OK. They tell me that, assuming we're
not dealing with shills, that real people have found the
product or service to be beneficial. But I (we?) have also seen
situations where the testimonials feel - mmm... let's say
"traded" - where there's some kind of quid pro quo ("I'll
pump up your product and you pump up mine").

All of this goes to the emotion of the buyer - trying to induce
him/her (hir) to buy on an emotional basis.

But can't this lead to buyer's remorse? And is buyer's remorse
a calculated cost of doing business in some business models?

If I know exactly (or even more or less) what I'm getting,
I'm going to have less reason for regret, yes? The best
example I know of for that is the "trial model," where you
actually get to try it before you commit your money.

Next to that would be a good list of features. Couch the
features in with the benefits (the reasons why you think
the features will be good for me), and I'm not only going
to feel better about the choice I make, but I'm also going
to be much more likely to take ownership for that choice.
It will be so much closer to informed consent.

But if I buy on an emotional appeal - if the sales copy gets
me to "whip out my credit card," then doesn't the chance
of me feeling regret go up significantly? Doesn't that increase
the chance of me asking for a refund, or worse?

I'd be interested in the experience of:

1 - People who buy mainly on the basis of logic.
2 - People who buy mainly on the basis of emotion.
3 - People who prefer a good solid mix of the two.
4 - Copywriters and marketers who have experience
with writing for these three populations?

Am I missing any other good categories?

Looking forward to a good lively discussion about this.

Best Regards,
Bal
#benefits #buyer #copy #features #remorse #sales
  • Profile picture of the author Will Edwards
    Buyer's Remorse is definitely something to consider. I would suggest the popular method of over-delivering i.e. providing an unadvertised bonus or similar - it is a smart tactic that will reduce your refund requests.

    Will
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  • Profile picture of the author Paul Hancox
    Well, most of the time people buy based on EMOTIONS and FEELINGS, as well as BENEFITS. (I guess the military is perhaps a notable exception.)

    In my copywriting course, I gave the example of an accounting manager looking for new accounting software. Sounds like they'd make their decision based purely on LOGIC and BENEFITS, right?

    But on a deeper level, they may want to buy this new product because it boosts their ego, makes them look more productive to the board of directors, gives them more job security and the possibility of praise from the boss.

    You can't just specify these as "benefits", because they are subconscious, at a deeper level.

    That's why car advertisers don't directly say, "Hey, buy this car and you'll become a CHICK MAGNET!" However, they will put the attractive lady next to the car, to subliminally link the two.

    As for buyer's remorse, I guess it depends on a couple of things...

    (a) Making sure there are also good LOGICAL reasons for them to buy your product.

    People will usually consider their purchase from a logical point of view after they buy, so it still needs strong benefits.

    (b) How much of a mismatch there is between your sales copy, and the product itself.

    This is an argument for creating GREAT PRODUCTS as well as GREAT COPY.
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    • Profile picture of the author Loren Woirhaye
      I'll just illustrate this from personal experience:

      Buyer's Remorse is inevitable and common when you are selling
      income opportunities - it's an observable fact that less than
      10% of people who enroll on money-making programs actually
      move forward and promote the Biz-op themselves. Presumably
      most of the rest eventually realize they were mistaken in
      their intentions and experience buyer's remorse.

      I've spoken with dozens of people who bought $5,000 coaching
      programs as an upsell from some modest thing sold on TV. Never
      did I speak with anyone who hadn't wasted his or her money -
      largely because the "coaches" were just walking them through
      basic internet stuff.

      In "success" education, training or money-making programs you
      won't make much money at all if you allow people to think that,
      statistically speaking, they will be in the 90% who don't make
      money - that would be folly. You can of course work to deliver
      value through a lot of follow-up.

      Buyer's remorse with bigger-ticket things is going to happen...
      and in many cases the responsibility rests in the hands of the
      buyer him or herself. At a certain point after your refund
      period you just have to be willing to keep the money.

      ______________________________________________


      When you are selling "the big idea" - and the benefits are intangible
      or require work - well you won't do a lot of selling unless you
      make the work part appear easier than it is.

      You can observe this most easily with info-mercials on cable TV.
      I love the salesmanship but let's face it - most of the products
      are crap. They set up an emotional need to buy to get the
      INSTANT benefits of flat abs or whatever. Of course Infomercials
      are targeted at the lowest-common denominator so the appeal
      is based on emotional desire and also "is it true?" incredulity/curiosity -
      as in the famous "blublockers".

      As you go up in price and start to target people who have more
      money you are out of necessity moving into a group of people
      that have higher-level critical thinking skills. It's best when possible
      to give all the physical details of the product - ie. how much
      it weighs, dimensions, how it is shipped and so on.

      Really a lot of what you need to know is covered in "The Adweek
      Copywriting Handbook" by Joe Sugarman.

      People making investment decisions will tend to be in the smarter,
      more skeptical class of consumers. Clayton Makepeace is well
      known for creating direct mail pieces that hit both the emotional
      hot-buttons (often concerned with fear-of-loss) and also doing
      the logical side of things - because, believe it or not, reason and
      logic do play a role in making buying decisions for some people.

      If you want to know how paranoid and weird fear-of-loss can
      get subscribe to the right-wing "Gary North's Reality Check" -
      read by many people who both have some money and are
      terrified of losing it. Bill Myers is also a good guy to study
      in this respect - he specialized in this market for awhile.
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      • Profile picture of the author balsimon
        Originally Posted by malibumentor View Post

        Buyer's Remorse is inevitable and common when you are selling income opportunities - it's an observable fact that less than 10% of people who enroll on money-making programs actually move forward and promote the Biz-op themselves... [snip]

        ... Never did I speak with anyone who hadn't wasted his or her money -largely because the "coaches" were just walking them through basic internet stuff.
        Are you saying that the coaches had over-sold and under-
        delivered?

        Originally Posted by malibumentor View Post

        In "success" education, training or money-making programs you won't make much money at all if you allow people to think that, statistically speaking, they will be in the 90% who don't make money - that would be folly. You can of course work to deliver value through a lot of follow-up.
        If you're going to be a principal in this field (and not merely
        a sales person (affiliate) for someone who is), then don't
        you have the responsibility of providing that "follow-up" and
        making sure that your clients (following Jay Abraham's usage)
        are well served?

        Originally Posted by malibumentor View Post

        Buyer's remorse with bigger-ticket things is going to happen... and in many cases the responsibility rests in the hands of the buyer him or herself. At a certain point after your refund period you just have to be willing to keep the money.
        Agreed - there has to be something like a statute of
        limitations unless your guarantee says something like
        "lifetime guarantee." But usually this would be built
        into the guarantee, yes?

        Originally Posted by malibumentor View Post

        When you are selling "the big idea" - and the benefits are intangible or require work - well you won't do a lot of selling unless you make the work part appear easier than it is.
        Or unless you make the "dire consequences" of not buying
        very vivid in the prospective customer's mind. (One would
        hope "honestly dire consequences.")

        Originally Posted by malibumentor View Post

        If you want to know how paranoid and weird fear-of-loss can get subscribe to the right-wing "Gary North's Reality Check" -read by many people who both have some money and are terrified of losing it.
        Gary North! Wow - Now that's a name I'd forgotten all about!
        He was big on predicting the end of the world when we were all
        aTwitter about Y2K destroying civilization. That brings back
        memories.
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    • Profile picture of the author balsimon
      Hi Paul,

      Please see below.

      Originally Posted by Paul Hancox View Post

      But on a deeper level, they may want to buy this new product because it boosts their ego, makes them look more productive to the board of directors, gives them more job security and the possibility of praise from the boss.

      You can't just specify these as "benefits", because they are subconscious, at a deeper level.
      Right - but in your sales copy you'd still try to anticipate
      the ego-boosts and apparent productivity, yes? I mean
      even if they're unconscious to most of your customers,
      you'd still try to have an insight of your own into that
      unconscious "need," yes?

      And then you'd want your product to deliver on these, or
      else wouldn't your customer suffer from the regret
      we're discussing?

      Originally Posted by Paul Hancox View Post

      That's why car advertisers don't directly say, "Hey, buy this car and you'll become a CHICK MAGNET!" However, they will put the attractive lady next to the car, to subliminally link the two.
      Got it. Yes - they anticipate but don't promise. So the
      insight is there, it's just not explicitly addressed.

      Originally Posted by Paul Hancox View Post

      As for buyer's remorse, I guess it depends on a couple of things...

      (a) Making sure there are also good LOGICAL reasons for them to buy your product.

      People will usually consider their purchase from a logical point of view after they buy, so it still needs strong benefits.

      (b) How much of a mismatch there is between your sales copy, and the product itself.

      This is an argument for creating GREAT PRODUCTS as well as GREAT COPY.
      I think we see things very similarly. Thanks for
      articulating it so well.

      Anyone else with other insights on this? I'm thinking
      that this can't be the last word on a subject like this ...

      ==========
      addendum - I came back to this thread the wrong way.
      Obviously there's a lot more said than what Paul wrote.
      No disrespect intended...


      Bal
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  • Profile picture of the author Eric Engel
    One of the big things you should look at here is who people are buying for. I mean if someone is buying for themselves, even a purely practical purchase has an element of emotion to it.

    And when a person is purchasing (even when they're purchasing for someone else) and they're the end user, there will be emotional points.

    But when a person is purchasing for their company (or the military), the emotion gets kind of lost.

    The whole "show benefits and not features" routine has been largely over-rated. In some cases, it just doesn't work. Even if there's an emotional trigger you have to pull, hem-hauling around and not giving a very straight specification list can cost you sales.

    If you have to make an emotional appeal, you do it subtly...like mixing your 'benefit' in with your features somehow.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kyle Tully
      Originally Posted by Eric Engel View Post

      One of the big things you should look at here is who people are buying for. I mean if someone is buying for themselves, even a purely practical purchase has an element of emotion to it.

      And when a person is purchasing (even when they're purchasing for someone else) and they're the end user, there will be emotional points.

      But when a person is purchasing for their company (or the military), the emotion gets kind of lost.
      I don't agree with that.

      Look at Paul's post above for a good example of emotions coming into business purchases.

      Yeah you've got to meet the base features a business purchaser requires (might be a hard sell convincing a Windows-based business to get shiny new Mac laptops, no matter how "cool" you make them), but over and above that emotions are still running wild.

      You've just got to appeal to a different set of emotions, with different benefits.

      E.g. If I'm buying new laptops for my company I might not really care how fast they are (despite that being a requirement of my users), but I really care about meeting my budget and making my boss happy so he puts me up for that promotion.

      I've been involved with $10+ million dollar software buys and there were plenty of emotions involved in those decisions -- despite them being year-long decision processes involving multiple departments and anal-levels of quality control.
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      • Profile picture of the author Eric Engel
        Originally Posted by Kyle Tully View Post

        E.g. If I'm buying new laptops for my company I might not really care how fast they are (despite that being a requirement of my users), but I really care about meeting my budget and making my boss happy so he puts me up for that promotion.
        Interesting...buy my laptops, and you'll get a promotion.

        Have you ever seen a successful split where 'meet your budget' was an emotional selling point?

        Originally Posted by Kyle Tully View Post

        I've been involved with $10+ million dollar software buys and there were plenty of emotions involved in those decisions -- despite them being year-long decision processes involving multiple departments and anal-levels of quality control.
        I'll give you that. The IT departments get pretty dang buffered when it's time for a company to make a purchase. But I gotta say--by that time, your marketing efforts are pretty much insignificant. Marketing got you there, but it'll be salesmanship (and that feature list I mentioned) that gets in.
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      • Profile picture of the author balsimon
        Originally Posted by Kyle Tully View Post

        E.g. If I'm buying new laptops for my company I might not really care how fast they are (despite that being a requirement of my users), but I really care about meeting my budget and making my boss happy so he puts me up for that promotion.

        I've been involved with $10+ million dollar software buys and there were plenty of emotions involved in those decisions -- despite them being year-long decision processes involving multiple departments and anal-levels of quality control.
        Hi Kyle,

        When I was selling to the military and to companies that contracted
        with them - and even to straight commercial/industrial sales, the
        emotion came after the specifications. There was almost always a
        minimum spec that the vendors had to meet, and no amount of
        emotional appeal would get around that. At least not in my
        experience.

        I saw women who dressed provocatively disappointed because,
        even though the buyers might have been lecherous, they valued their
        jobs more and would be fired if they couldn't justify the sale on a
        technical specification basis. I saw others sales people, men &
        women, both, who dressed reasonably and did great because their
        companies did meet the spec. Unless the job was truly custom,
        seeing the competition's literature was rarely a problem.

        Now - if the spec was met, then emotion could and did come into
        the game. But the spec had to be met.

        I'm betting the same was true for your experience.

        What this means to me is that we as consumers want to be
        persuaded (emotionally), but we don't want to be shown, after
        the fact, that we were idiots who were flim-flammed. Thus
        getting me to "whip out their credit cards" is fine, as
        long as after the sale, I'm going to be happy clams instead
        of one of the Walrus and the Carpenter's oysters.

        Regards,
        Bal
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