During the past 4 weeks, I have been privy to many marketing plans. None looked at the biggest question each prospect wants to be answered: “What’s in it, for me?”
Each plan faced a significant flaw. Most of us small business owners do not know who we’re selling to. Or who is actually buying. Or why they’re buying. Or even what they’re buying.
For instance, if I am selling an advertising service to a business owner, what is he actually buying?
Is he buying because I am cheaper everybody else? Is he buying because he can display more information on my system? I don’t think so. Or because he can display ads en route to the airport where there is a lot of traffic? I don’t think so. These are mere features of my service.
He is buying more clients. And if I don’t sell him on this one issue, then I am wasting his time and mine.
Almost all the sales literature that I read focuses on the supplier and his product.
- This product is state of the art [who cares],
- or revolutionary [ho hum],
- or unique [yawn].
But nobody tells me exactly how it will benefit me! Allan Pease talks about WII-FM in his book Write Language.
What’s In It For Me? (WII-FM)
If you want to sell to me, then get onto my wavelength and tune out all the other stuff.
And my wavelength is pure: What’s In It For Me?
Dan Kennedy says the same thing in a different way:
“It takes extreme, extraordinary measures to compel people to act in a way that is contrary to the way they normally act (do nothing, decide on nothing, buy nothing).”
If you’re selling to a business, keep it simple. Show your prospect how he will benefit from your product. Tell him what it has done for others like him.
But don’t waste your time telling him how fantastic the product is. (Unless you can translate fantastic into instant money for him. That’s why he is in business.)
When talking to prospects focus on one thing: WHAT CAN YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE DO FOR THEM.
- How much money can it save them?
- How much time can it save them?
- How many more clients will it bring them?
- How many people can they fire by using you instead? How much more mileage will they get?
- How much admin will it cut?
Good luck in finding questions your clients want to hear.
This article was first published in May 2000.
Updated July 2020.