Are the "Benefits > Features"?

“I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.” - Oscar Wilde

Have you ever bought anything or made a decision in life that went entirely against the facts, strictly for the emotional win and took rationale and reason out of the picture?

Of course, you have! We all have!

Some Neurological studies have shown we make decisions strictly off emotion over 90% of the time.

The spontaneous purchase, the thing you didn’t need but wanted nonetheless.?

There is a saying in sales or marketing that “we reason with facts, and we purchase on emotion.”

It’s the strategy around how grocery stores are laid out the way they are. We go in for oat milk and come out with too much stuff to carry in our arms, we need to buy a bag because we didn’t bring one in... “I’m just going in for Oat Milk.”

It’s also why we say the features are nice and make sense, but I’m going to buy this strictly off the benefits and what I gain from it emotionally. How is this going to make my life better or how will this get me to somewhere I dream of being?

Don’t we all do that? Buy strictly off the benefits and not off the features, for the most part. Stripping away rationale and facts to get what we want rather than what we actually need.

You do this in planning too.

You do this in investments.

You do this in every aspect of life.

We can apply this even beyond purchases, it relates to the most basic aspects of life.?

Why do I work out every morning? It’s not because I love the pain or sweat or bending in odd angles doing yoga (the Features), it’s because I love the outcome of looking and feeling better (the Benefits).

Why do we cook a meal from scratch when it takes longer and often times costs more? It is not due to a love of all the extra time spent, the dishes at the end, the mess in the kitchen throughout, or all the time allotted to this task and not doing something else (the Features), it's because I love the outcome of the meal itself and knowing exactly what went into it along with the feeling of accomplishment or maybe the Instagram photo (the Benefit).

Why did you save or not save earlier for retirement? Logically it made sense, put away money slowly over time rather than waiting to do it all over a short period of time, long-term investing and dollar-cost averaging in a balanced portfolio (the Features), enjoying life now instead of planning for down the road or saving for a dream (the Benefits).

We reason with facts but we purchase on emotion.

Whatever you are selling, because yes we are all 'selling' something, it's vitally important to paint a picture of why the individual should do what you are advising them to do. It's also important for the individual to understand the "What's in it for me." piece.

We can rationalize all day long about facts, but humans are going to (95% of the time) make a decision on the benefits. "It might not do exactly what I need but I like how it will make me feel, SOLD!"

Don’t give me the Features as I’ll only purchase in the Benefits. Hopefully they both align.