“What’s in it for Me?” is probably the most important question in marketing any business or selling any product or service.
It is the question that everyone you ever deal with in business will ask themselves BEFORE they do business with you.
They will of course ask lots of other questions too, but this one will always beat the rest hands down in terms of its importance to them.
Whether they are a prospect, a customer, a supplier, an interested third party, a journalist, or someone who reads your website, your sales literature or your newsletter, their underlying question is always… ”What’s in it for Me?”
If someone sees your advertisement in a newpaper, magazine or directory, they will ask themselves, ”What’s in it for Me?”
If you make a sales call, speak to a visitor in your store, or have a conversation with someone at a trade show, or a breakfast club, you can guarantee the number one question on their mind is, ”What’s in it for Me?”
Often people ask themselves this question before investing any time reading or exploring further. “What’s in it for Me?” is a way of testing for something’s usefulness to them.
This question is the reason why any marketing campaign should always be targeted at a specific target market rather than taking the blanket approach of targeting everyone.
It is the reason why people turn down your ‘amazing’ offers, ignore your advertisements and won’t take your calls. It is why people walk straight past your stall at trade shows and throw your sales letters and flyers away. Its why people ignore you on social media sites and why they say “I’m just looking” when you approach them in your business premises. It is also why people you meet at business functions never call you.
So before you pick up the phone, write something, pitch your products, strike up a conversation or anything else that engages people in business, ask yourself “What’s in it for THEM?” and be brutally honest with yourself about your answer. Tip: Having a unique selling point will always be helpful when answering this question.
Everything you say, do and write about your business, products and services should always address this question.
Often though, in order to be able to answer the question at all you need to know a lot about who the person you’re communicating with is and what they want, need, like, hate, etc. – You need to know who they are.
Only once you’ve taken the time to understand who they are and what their motivations are can you truly answer the question ”What’s in it for THEM?”
If you are able to put “what’s in it for yourself” to one side and concentrate solely on ”What’s in it for THEM?”, you will find your marketing efforts to be hugely more successful, and your enquiries, leads and sales to increase accordingly too.
Try it; – make a concerted effort to understand the other person and what they are looking for. Put your own needs on hold UNTIL you have at least answered their most basic burning question… ”What’s in it for Me?”
