The Hanover Consulting Group
Executive Search for the Financial Service Industries
Feature - Accomplishment - Benefit
How To Build A FEATURE - ACCOMPLISHMENT - BENEFIT Presentation
When you present background and experience to an employer, you want to show how your employment will benefit both the organization and the employer as an individual. You want to demonstrate how you can help improve profits, reduce costs and just make things run better.
We have learned that resumes, more often than not, result in rejection rather than interviews. We have, instead, developed the Feature/Accomplishment/Benefit Presentation – FAB for short – to use in presenting your background and experience to an employer. Features are listed in the left column, accomplishments in the center and benefits in the right column. The FAB presentation does several important things. It shows specifically what you can do for the employer – how you will benefit him or her and the organization. It details what you have accomplished in your current and previous positions. Finally, it highlights your unique features and experiences. How do you prepare a FAB presentation? Let’s start by defining some terms:
- FEATURES - Facts about yourself.
- ACCOMPLISHMENTS - Significant measurable results you obtained from your education and experience.
- BENEFITS - Educated guesses of what you can do for a new employer based on your accomplishments.
Next prepare a chronology of your work history. Make sure you have included all of the positions you have held. Don’t forget the promotions! After you have prepared the chronology, list all of your significant accomplishments for each of the positions. Go ahead and list them all. This is not the time to be humble. The accomplishments should be very specific and contain quantitative measures where appropriate.
After your lists of features and accomplishments have been completed, study them over. Now identify what you can do for a new employer. How can you benefit him or her? What are the most compelling reasons for a new employer to want to hire you over someone else? Put these answers in the benefit column.
After you have completed your FAB presentation, go over it. Study it carefully. Have you forgotten anything? Where can you include additional quantitative measures? Numbers tell! Can a benefit be rephrased so you will look more attractive to an employer? Is there an accomplishment from early in your career that is particularly significant that should be included?
And finally, when you go to your interviews take your FAB sheet with you and be sure to answer questions by relying on your FAB information – especially stressing how you can benefit the new company.
Questions To Ask Yourself Before Completing Your Feature-Accomplishment-Benefit (FAB) Presentation
Significant measurable results you obtained for your current or past employers
This has saved the company approximately 20 man hours per week or $400 per month. In addition, the accuracy and reporting function has dramatically improved.
He has a proven track record in cost savings and could bring that knowledge to you and your company.
Educated guesses of what you can do for a new employer based on your features and accomplishments
accomplishmentsFacts about yourself
Identified costly, labor intensive office duties which were inefficient & costing approximately 35 man hours per week at an average cost of $9.00 per hr. Total weekly cost was $315. Totally automated, installed and trained staff to utilize a computerized system.
FEATURE
BENEFIT
ACCOMPLISHMENT
1. Did you excel at anything that relates to this position?
2. Did you have to put in extra time and effort to learn something new?
3. Did you resolve any difficult problems?
4. Did you overcome a difficult challenge?
5. Did you catch up in a critical area of study?
6. Did you help to increase sales, productivity or efficiency?
7. Did you save your company money?
8. Did you institute a new system or procedure in your company?
9. Did you identify a problem in your company that had been overlooked?
10. Were you ever promoted?
11. Did you train anyone?
12. Did you suggest any new programs for your company that were put into effect?
13. Did you help to establish any new goals or objectives for your company?
14. Did you change, in any way, the nature of your job?
15. Did you ever take on a project that was not part of your job because you were intrigued with it?
16. Did you ever do anything simply to make your own job easier?
17. What would you say would be the most important qualities of the “ideal candidate” for this position?
Example
Feature-Accomplishment-Benefit (FAB) Worksheet. Divide page into 3 columns
****************** ******************** ******************
******************** ******************GENERIC BENEFITS
1. He can take the load off of you.
2. Can come up to speed right away. No training.
3. Such a whiz on ____________. She can help others.
4. Such a breadth of ______________. She can pick up any new technologies.
5. Good people person. You can rely on him to help you with community relations.
6. Hard worker. He will meet your deadlines and budget. Save you money.
7. Start to finish, she can be completely responsible for your projects.
8. Thorough. His research will bring up all your options.
9. Motivator. She can bring that spirit to your team.
10. Such breadth. Will enable him to contribute new solutions for old problems.
11. Well educated. Takes classes, seminars, reads. Someone on staff who is state-of-the-art.
12. Stable record. You will have less turnover and be a good role model.
13. Fast tracker. “Gets it done”. He’ll make you look good.
14. Team player. Improves synergy in the group.
15. She’s so good. You can get home at a decent hour.
Advantages of using The FAB Presentation Tool
1. Gets you thinking about how to interview
2. Organizes your thoughts
3. Adaptable for each position you interview for..
4. Gives ammunition to the interviewer for his/her boss
5. Makes you unique in the eyes of the interviewer
6. Saves time
