San Antonio has some really smart people here in town who can help you with various elements of your startup. We’ll periodically have contributions from local thought leaders like Salesby5’s Nan Palmero and Erik Darmsetter.

In this post, Nan and Erik give their view on focusing on benefits.

When was the last time you saw a restaurant advertising free salt and pepper? 

We often ask startups this question and always get the same grin – they know we are trying to tell them something, but they’re not quite sure what. 

Advertising “FREE SALT AND PEPPER – ALL YOU CAN EAT!” is ridiculous and guess what, you might be advertising exactly that.  How many millions of dollars per year are spent on banners, posters and mailers advertising “Free Checking?” 

If we asked what is special about your startup, would your answer be your people, your customer service or your prices?  Is any of this truly remarkable; meaning would anybody want to remark about any of those offerings?  If they would, then what exactly is it that is fantastic?  Do your reps deliver flowers to clients that are having a bad day?  Does your customer service stay after hours to help you figure out your BlackBerry, even though their job has nothing to do with technology?  Are your prices DRAMATICALLY lower or maybe dramatically higher than the competition? 

What the world wants is new news.  If you have this, your startup is on the right path.  Now go out and tell people what the benefit is in working with your startup with 5^th grade simplicity in under 15 seconds!

Remember, even if your startup is best in class, you may not have stretched enough to do something remarkable where people want to talk about you.