The first question I always ask a customer/business is "Why should I do business with your company"? or “What makes you unique?”
When is the last time you asked yourself "Why should I do business with my company"?
What's new
Does your customer know how healthy your business is
When is the last time you told your customer you love them?
When should you... Before your competitor does
When is the last time you looked at your business plan? (you do have one don't you)
Failing to plan is planning to fail
Before the spring summer busy season...
Let's evaluate
- where we are,
- where we have been, and
- where we are going.
Yogi said "if you don't know where you are going you will probably end up somewhere else"
“Why should I buy from you?” More often than not, I receive one of the following responses:
- We have the best product.
- Our company offers more.
- We have better service.
- We have been around forever.
Although you may think these are reasons to choose you, they aren't.
First, your competition makes identical claims.
Second, there is absolutely nothing specific or quantitative about any of the above statements.
Finally, there is nothing that supports any these statements.
Prospects don't care what salespeople or marketing departments think are important. When they see proposals or hear statements that contain these phrases, it has no positive impact on their decision because there is nothing unique about them. All things being equal, they will choose either the lowest priced competition, or the solution which they trust the most. This is why it’s so hard to oust a current vendor - better the devil you know, than the devil you don't.
Before you can answer “Why should I buy from you?” you need to know how you are uniquely different than your competition. In order to do this, create a side by side spreadsheet comparison.
You should evaluate the following:
- Company
- Are you big or small?
- Are you safe or innovative?
- What’s your niche’?
- Do you have an extensive product line?
- How does your guarantee compare?
- Product
- Specific Feature(s) - Is there any one particular feature(s) that’s unique? Or, when you consider all the capabilities as a whole, does that make our product unique?
- Durability – How long is its expected life span?
- Productivity - Is it faster or more efficient?
- Operating Costs - Will you save energy?
- Standard Options – What does your product include?
- Price – Are you more or less expensive?
- Ease of Use – How long does it take to learn how to use your product?
- Size and weight – Is it heavier / lighter?
- Noisy versus quiet – What kind of environment is it going in?
- What is the warranty?
- Service
- Is it included or additional?
- Is it local?
- How about glass replacement
- What is the average response time?
- Are they using OEM or remanufactured parts?
- Do they specialize?
I've managed to come up with numerous areas where you can potentially differentiate yourself. This list is by no means exhaustive, and your side by side comparison will probably be different for each competitor.
Once you have completed a comparison, you then need to determine your strengths and weaknesses versus your competitor. I think you'll be amazed at how many ways there are to distinguish yourself from your competition. This simple exercise will help you better understand how and when to set up your competition, as well as, who your best prospects are.
"Compete with value or die with low price"
Assuming you've done your homework and you know your unique capabilities, you still don't want to answer your prospect’s question immediately. Why? It doesn't do any good to spout off your differences, if your prospect doesn't consider it a positive.
The next time you're asked Why?, simply respond with, “I'm not sure you should buy from me. Although we have a great product/service, it’s not always the best fit. Let me ask you some questions, so we can both determine if our product/service makes sense.” Not only do you keep from putting your foot in your mouth, but you also just earned significant TRUST with your prospect. In addition, you're only providing information that your prospect deems as relevant.
After you have done a comparison, verified what’s important to your prospect, then it’s time to demonstrate or share how you're different and worth the investment. If you can't actually demonstrate your difference, then you should provide support material that backs up your claim (testimonials, referrals, quantitative data, polls, etc.).
The better you demonstrate and/or articulate why your prospect should buy from you, the better you'll be able to differentiate yourself from your competition and ultimately win more business.
