Why You?

This is an excerpt from an archived Rogue Dispatch, our free monthly newsletter. If you sign up for the newsletter here then you can read these articles before the rest of the world gets their hands on them!

Why should I?

When you need a new service, how do you choose it? Say you need a lawyer to help you purchase a new home, or your dentist has retired and you’re looking for a new one. Perhaps you’re looking to buy one of those capsule coffee machines, or you need to reorganize your business flow and you are deciding whether to take it on yourself or outsource the project. How do you decide? Regardless of how you search for these services, you will encounter options, sometimes dozens or more. Do you take the one who has the most ads? The one who screams the loudest? The one who sponsors community events? The one that’s closest?

Although we make spending decisions every day there is a tremendous amount of thought that goes into them. Loyalty to a brand happens because all those decisions have been made and the brand continually delivers on its promise. On some level, every purchase someone makes has had a significant amount of thought behind it, even impulse purchases. When you choose to buy something, you are weighing factors and making decisions you may not even be conscious of.

So why should someone choose to spend money on you? Trust me, they are going through that same decision-making process in their heads, part consciously, part subconsciously. Once you have their attention, you have a golden opportunity to answer the key question: why you? When there are seven other companies that do the same thing. What’s the difference? Why you?

There’s a reason that we’re discussing this in the first issue of the Rogue Dispatch. Everything in your business flows from this. Why you? What do you offer your customers that your competition doesn’t, can’t or won’t? How can you answer the “why you” question in the most compelling relevant way? This isn’t something that marketers can ‘paint on’ afterward. This has to be operating at the core of your business. When you have this question answered, all your decisions about growth, acquisitions, recruitment, investment and development will have a target. You can measure the daily activities of your business against the question and make the best decisions for your company and your customers.

So as this year progresses, dedicate some time to answering this question from the customer’s perspective. Why should I come to your company and pay you my hard earned money for your product or service? Why shouldn’t I choose one of your competitors? Why you?

By Randy Brososky - Randy is the “Chief Rogue and Bottlewasher” at Group of Rogues. He also blogs about marketing and behavioural economics on the Brososkablog.

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