Why should I buy from you?

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Why should I buy from you?

Now, I don't expect your prospects to be that rude and just kind of lean back in the chair, kick their feet up on their desk and ask you that question. Then kind of watch a squirm and struggle as you try to come up with the correct answer that makes them happy.

Now, your sales coach or your chief marketing officer might be that blunt because at the heart of every purchasing decision, the buyer is asking that question.

Why should I buy from you and not someone else.

Over the years, I've heard and even used some of the standard answers that are out there. You know what they are.

• We have the lowest price.
• We have the best product.
• We have the most features.
• We have the largest selection to choose from.
• We offer the best value.
• We deliver things quickly.
• We partner with our clients.
• We hire only the best and brightest people.
• We have great customer service.
• We care.

Yeah, the list goes on and on

But there are three problems with these standard answers.

The first is, did you hear it?

We.

All of these reasons begin with we.

We do this

We do that

Nowhere in these statements is there any mention of your prospect, their problems, and what they're trying to solve.

Remember: People buy goods and services in order to solve a problem. Their problem.

When you talk about you, your company, and all the wonderful things you do, it kind of makes them wonder, do you even understand my problem?

The second thing is that all of these reasons are tactical.

They're short -term and they really talk about features and benefits.

Almost kind of like you're talking like a used car salesman.

Now, those folks who know me know that I used to work for Toyota Motor Sales. So a lot of my metaphors revolve around cars

But yeah, it kind of makes it sound like a car salesperson talking about the features and benefits of a car.

• Our car has 300 horsepower
• It comes on all of these colors
  
  It has heated and ventilated seats
• or hey, our car is got 10 cup holders.

And it sounds like you're just throwing out these features and benefits and seeing if anything sticks.

And here's the thing, even if it solves one of their tactical problems, these kinds of reasons, are they good long -term competitive advantages and reasons to buy from you in the first place and continue to buy from you later?

It's a pretty straightforward process to match prices or build an engine with the same or more horsepower or heck, add a few more cupholders in the backseat.

I'm going to tell you, if you say that one of the reasons that people should buy from you is because you have low prices or best value or the most

Yeah, these are not good long -term strategic reasons of why someone should buy from you.

Finally, the third problem is psychological.

It has to do with how people think. It's how we're built as people and humans.

All the reasons that we just went through, they're all logical reasons. They're left brain logical reasons of why someone should buy from you.

There's no emotional appeal. There's no right brain activity.

Remember people buy on emotion and justify on logic.

That's why when you see car commercialists, you don't see them fill a screen with all the features and benefits and the stats of their cars.

The commercials are trying to stir up an emotion.

If it's a truck, it's some rugged outdoor adventure.

If it's a sports car, then they're showing that car going really fast and maybe they're on a track doing some drifting kind of like right out of the Fast and Furious movies. Yeah, it's probably not legal to do that on the street. And if you look closely on the bottom of the screen, they probably say something like, this is a closed course or professional driver and don't try this at home.

But my point is they're trying to stir up an emotion and tell a story.

So how do you answer the question of why should I buy from you without sounding like an automaton reading off of features and benefits from a spec sheet?

Well, here's how I answer the question if someone is rude and bold enough just to walk up to me and ask,

"Hey, Dave, so I see you offer fractional CMO services. Why should I buy from you?"

You know what my answer is?

"I don't know."

I mean, I don't know anything about you, your company, your team, your problem, your challenges, your deadline, your budget. I don't know anything about what you're trying to solve.

So, I don't know if we're even a good fit for you and your company.

It's kind of like going to your doctor and saying, hey doc, man, I don't feel very well. What's wrong with me?

He or she probably looks at you with a caring but somewhat confused face and then starts asking you questions like,

Well, how do you feel? Maybe they take your blood pressure, shine one of those lights into your eye to check your pupils and now you're blind for 30 seconds.

Maybe they tell you to go downstairs and get some blood work, take a CT scan, get an MRI scan, do a biopsy.

My point is you can't figure out what you need to do for someone, how you add value, how you can achieve their goals or solve their problems without knowledge and understanding.

Luckily, there's an easy way to get this knowledge and understanding. When your prospect is asking you that question of, why should I buy from you?

They're actually asking three separate questions. And those questions are,

1. Do you understand my problem?
2. Do you have the experience and expertise to solve my problem?
3. And third, are you easy to work with?

So if you can answer these three questions, you'll be able to answer that bigger question of, why should I buy from you?

Now you don't actually have to go out and do a survey and talk with your customers.

You could do this all by creating a buyer persona. The buyer persona is a description of your ideal customer.

And the great thing is once you've created your buyer personas, it can be used by different teams, your sales team, your marketing team, your marketing agency, web designer, graphic artists, copywriter, customer support.

There is a huge value in creating a buyer persona because it can be leveraged by all customer facing teams.

So let's run through an exercise of creating a buyer persona for your company.

Now, I'm gonna skip over the demographic stuff like age and gender and education, job title, all that stuff.

We're gonna jump right into the good and juicy stuff so you can get some insights on how to answer these questions. So I want you to think about your best customer.

If you can clone that customer, you would the customer that you want to sell to again and again and again. Got it? You know who your best customer is?

Instead of directly identifying the problem, we're gonna go about answering this question in a roundabout fashion.

The reason is that most people really can't articulate or explain their problem, but they know what they want and have an idea on the solution, or at least they think they do.

For example,

if they're sick, they wanna feel better.

If they're hot and thirsty, then they want an ice cold frosty beverage. That could be a beer, but it also could be a Coca -Cola.

If their five -year -old phone is too slow, they want a new phone.

So instead of asking, what is your problem, for this exercise, I want you to ask, what do they want? What does your ideal customer want?

Now the first response back was probably something superficial like, well, they want a car or they want a widget or they want someone to help them publish content on their website.

Yeah, that's not good enough. Go deeper. What's so special about that car, that widget, that rider?

Keep going deeper until you get to the point where you have enough detail and can make a statement like,

They don't just want a car, they want a sports car. In fact, they want a sports car that can go 0 to 60 in less than four seconds.

They just don't need a widget, they need a widget that can handle 300 psi of pressure.

They don't need a content writer, they need a content writer who can create content that is unique to their company.

Repeat this process about a half a dozen times to have a nice list of attributes or a wish list of stuff that they're looking for.

Now look at this list altogether and answer this question. If they got all of this, if you can wave your magic wand and grant them all of their wishes, what's the outcome? What are they going to get? And most importantly, how is it going to make them feel?

Look, I know feelings are all gushy, but I need you to be able to connect with your prospects on an emotional level because people buy on emotion.

There's an emotional payoff we experience when we get the results or we get the things we're looking for.

Sometimes when I ask people why they bought from company A and company B, they can't even give me that logical reason. They just tell me, I don't know. It just felt right.

So emotions is a very important part of the purchasing decision.

So if it's a sports car, they want it because it makes them look good and feel cool when they drive that Toyota Supra.

If it's an engineer and they get their project delivered on time and on budget, then they get a nice bonus and praise throughout their company.

Or it could be that marketing manager or business owner who finally gets that content that isn't generic. And now they're happy and proud to ask people to read their content.

That, what they get and the emotions they feel, that's the outcome.

That is the true problem they're trying to solve. It's not features and benefits. It's the outcome and how it makes them feel.

So now that you know what the true problem is and what they're looking for, you now need to figure out how you can show you have the experience and expertise to help them achieve that outcome, to solve that problem.

So for each of those attributes and that wish list you just created, I want you to come up with an answer. so if it's a sports car with fast acceleration, well, how are you going to achieve that?

Is your solution a naturally aspirated big V8 engine or is it a smaller V6 or an inline four with a small turbo, a twin turbo or an electric turbo? How are you going to deliver that fast it's a widget, then how does your manufacturing and quality control process make sure you can deliver on their product requirements

Or how your engineers will help your customers get their project across the finish line.

If you're a copywriter, what's the process that you come up with to create compelling content that doesn't sound like everyone else and tells a great story that's engaging?

The problems that your prospects are facing are not one dimensional. Your solutions should not be one dimensional. They should not be a one liner of features and benefits.

Your answer should explain how you help them achieve that goal and outcome and how it produces that emotional response that they crave.

Finally, how can you show, show, not tell that you're easy to work with?

So for cars, it may be something like, I have a wizard on the website so you can configure your car online, find the dealer that's closest to you and go get your car. And that's how it's easy to work with you.

If it's a widget, it could be showing how your engineering team works directly with your clients to make sure that their projects are on time and on budget.

Or if you're in the medical device manufacturing industry, how do you help your clients achieve their FDA certification?

Or if you provide copywriting services, well, how does your process work so that you save your clients time and then show them examples of your finished work.

You need to show them how easy it is to work with you because you know what? No one wants to work with a jerk.

Remember, when your potential customers are asking why they should buy from you, they're really asking three questions.

• One, do you understand my problem?
• Two, do you have the experience and expertise to solve my problem?
• And three, are you easy to work with?

Make sure you have an in -depth understanding of your buyer personas so you can answer their questions, tell a story, and connect with them emotionally.

Then make sure that you demonstrate and answer the questions at every point along their buyer's journey, no matter what the medium.

Meaning that it should be on your website, it should be in your emails, your brochure, your sales deck, and yes, it should be in your conversations that you have during your sales process.

I hope this was helpful for you. Please visit us at DoWhat .Works for more information and some other great educational content on marketing, sales, and how to get marketing results faster. I'll see you next time.