The Superpower Known as F-B-V

This is a post about identifying features, benefits, and values, and—just as important—delineating between them. This is also going to be a post about my taxes. (Don’t worry, not yet.)

When I first started working with Maestro Group, there were acronyms that I didn’t know on first exposure, which meant faking it in the moment and researching later. Googling “FBV” gave me entries on industrial valves and music equipment, neither of which seemed likely. But once I understood the acronym as “F-B-V,” which is a prompt to consider the relationships between a product’s features, benefits, and values, I found the concept transformative. 

DOWN WITH F-B-V (YEAH YOU KNOW ME)

Have you ever bought a new thingamajig, been thoroughly impressed by its built-in technology, tried to explain that technology to someone else, failed, tried to explain what that technology helps you do, failed, and then blurted out: “My life is better because of this [thingmajig]!”

Congratulations, you’ve mapped F-B-V, you just didn’t know it. Also, you didn’t use the most efficient map and maybe veered into a ditch. But we can get you back on the highway. 

In simple terms, a feature (F) is a component of the product at hand. Features often take the form of a named technology or proprietary process. Let’s say your thingamajig is a wrist-mounted health-monitoring device. If you spend ten minutes (or more) explaining how something on your wrist measures heart function, you’re stuck at the features level. If we spend a lot of time talking about features, we periodically fall victim to the curse of knowledge.

The benefit (B) is what that feature can help you do. We often encounter people rolling features into benefits when discussing their products. That’s natural; what’s the point of capturing irregular heart patterns, if it isn’t information you then share with a doctor? Once you know something may be wrong, you go see a cardiologist who offers a diagnosis of an atrial fibrillation (“a-fib”). He prescribes beta blockers and says you can consider getting an ablation. Great! The case has been made for that thingamajig on your wrist being worth the money, right?

Except, what’s a beta blocker? What’s an ablation? Benefits are often obscure or opaque to people who don’t fully understand the situation. The curse of knowledge still applies. Because of the information recorded by your thingamajig, you’re taking a medication and considering a surgery (an intentional minor scarring of the inside of the heart, if you’re curious) to protect your cardiac health. Now we’re not just talking about features or benefits; we’re saying, “Wearing this thingamajig helps keep me alive.” 

The value (V) is what a benefit accomplishes for the user on a broader level—think conservation of blood, time, money, or all three. When someone says, “My life is better now because of this,” people listen, because that’s the language of a committed customer. Data metrics associated with core values motivate sales decisions. When you can say, “This prevents churn,” and your prospect understands that preventing churn saves time and money, your statement has impact.

PEOPLE WHO NEED PEOPLE

Sometimes, a “product” is really a service. Your company is not offering something that is shipped in a box or carries a trademark set of graphics; what your company offers is incredibly valuable but, also, a virtual facsimile to what other companies do in terms of the result. There is a variable timeline attached to that result. You can do it better, faster, with greater acumen and precision. How do you convince your prospects of that conclusion, to close the deal?

Price is rarely the only differentiator for someone who cares about results when it comes to services. You can craft a persuasive pitch by drilling down into the qualifications of your team. In this scenario, the feature is what your team members can do. My colleague Rachel’s years of working in science education makes her an expert at digesting complex technical ideas and suggesting how to relate them in terms that are accessible to all readers. In ten minutes, Rachel can read a jargon-filled draft of an email, figure out what actually needs to be said and how to explain it, and move the bottom line up front. 

The benefit of Rachel’s feedback is what the email’s author can now do: send a clear, compelling message. Which is terrific, except life isn’t an email Olympics and there are no medals for “clear and compelling.” So let’s map to value: the email’s recipient is engaged, and agrees to a meeting that results in a major sale. (Emails edited by Rachel get results.) The challenge of mapping F-B-V for services is to cite your team’s certifications and years of experience, yes, but do so quickly. Move on to what matters, which is the impact of what they help clients accomplish.  

THAT THING YOU DO

Okay, so about my taxes. September is the time of year when I’m thanking my lucky stars for Nick. Who’s Nick? He’s my accountant. Taxes are due in April. Shouldn’t you be thanking your lucky stars around, oh, March? No, because—as I do in most years—I asked for (and Nick filed for) an extension to October. April is always a tough time for me to handle major deadlines because it is also National Poetry Month, which means that it is a time full of travel for readings. 

Nick isn’t a “magic” accountant. He doesn’t make our tax bill disappear. He charges a fair price; he’s not the cheapest deal in town. He’s also smart, quick to respond to emails, meticulous, knowledgeable about the latest tax law, and good-natured. He doesn’t begrudge my shoebox stuffed with 1099s from varying institutions and literary journals or the weird Schedule C expenses associated with a life built around creative writing and teaching. 

Although many friends use TurboTax, I find the inflexibility of blank fields stressful. What I want is the feature of someone willing to read my plain-speak description of expenses and figure out what’s “home” and what’s “office.” While other accountants might also hold a master’s in taxation degree, they don’t have institutional knowledge of how our household of two artists cobbles together an annual income. That feature is unique to Nick. 

When someone asks about finding an accountant and I recommend Nick, however, I don’t mention the features. I don’t even talk about the benefit of having someone who anticipates (and pre-emptively preps) paperwork to file for an extension, and who writes out instructions to make sure I know how to properly submit payments to both the federal and D.C. governments. Instead, I go straight to value: My husband and I don’t fight over interpreting what’s deductible and what’s not. I never worry about whether our taxes being prepared accurately and filed professionally. Nick is my hero. 

Ask yourself: do you understand how to go straight to value and get someone’s attention on behalf of your company? 

Think about the move you’d use to go to the mat, to borrow a wrestling term, and procure a win. Your product or service has superpowers, of course, so you don’t need wrestling moves. But on occasion, even the brightest capes get tattered by the competition. You’ll never regret being able to quickly relate how the thingamajig you make or “that thing you do,” your service, makes your clients’ lives better. 

Don’t get lost on F-B-V’s backroads without a map. Reach out at mastery@maestrogroup.co for more information on training, coaching, assessments, and more.