Why Should Someone Buy from You? The Business Question Most Owners Can't Answer

If someone asked you one simple question...

"Why should I buy from you instead of your competitor?"

Could you answer it confidently in ten seconds?

It's a surprisingly difficult question. One that catches a lot of people out.

In this episode of What One Thing, Hayley Baxter and Phil Davenport are joined by business growth specialist Alastair Ruston to explore why so many business owners struggle to explain what makes them different, and why getting clear on that answer could transform your marketing, sales and business growth.

We Don't Buy What Businesses Sell

One of the biggest takeaways from this conversation is that customers rarely buy products or services because of what they are.

They buy because of what those products or services do for them. The results they get from that product or service.

As Alastair explains:

"People buy holes, not drills."

It's a simple analogy, but one that changes how you think about your entire business.

Nobody wakes up wanting bookkeeping, or IT support, or a structural engineer's report. They want peace of mind, a working office, a building that doesn't fall down. The thing you sell isn't the thing they're buying.

Where to start: write down what you technically deliver in one column, and what your customer gets as a result of that in the other. 90% of your messaging should focus on column two.

Why Most Businesses Sound Exactly the Same

Look at any group of accountants' websites, and you’ll find the same words pretty much. The same goes for IT firms, lawyers, professional services, manufacturers, etc. The same words, just in a slightly different arrangement: Proactive. Trusted. Approachable. Peace of mind. Tailored solutions. You could probably shuffle the logos around, and nobody would notice.

Logically, we can't all be the same, or we wouldn't all still be here. So why does the messaging read as if it came off the same photocopier? Because we're all so buried in the day-to-day- the invoices, the client calls, the situation that broke out at 4pm on a Friday- that we never get five quiet minutes to think about what makes us different.

Where to start: block an hour in the diary this week. Turn the notifications off. Ask yourself one question and answer it honestly: if a customer had to explain us to a friend, what would they say?

The Question You’re Not Prepared For

Throughout the episode, one question keeps coming up: Why should someone choose you?

Not your industry or service, but you, your business over someone else who does the same. If you got asked this, chances are you’ll stand gaping like a fish or saying errrrmmmmm… with mild terror in your eyes.

Not a great look, so this one is worth some time to figure out. It’s not that hard; it’s just we rarely get asked, so the answers aren't there at the ready. But knowing this can be like a secret sauce for marketing and sales.

Where to start: Think outside the box, go beyond the what to the why and the how. Your methods of working, what you do that others don’t.

Ask Your Team

The business owner has one view of the company. The staff have twenty. And some of the sharpest observations about what makes you different come from the people doing the work, not the person running the place.

Three questions to ask:

Why do you like working here?
How would you describe what we do?  
Why do you think people buy from us?

Simple to ask, once you get over the fear of the answers!

Where to start: pick one person on your team you trust to be honest and ask them the three questions. Don't defend or correct, just listen. You can process it afterwards.

Ask Your Customers

Your customers know exactly why they use you. Better than you do, probably. And it almost certainly isn't "because you do IT" or "because you do accounts." It'll be something about how you handle it when things go wrong, or how they feel after a call with you, or the fact that you pick up the phone.

Where to start: pick three customers who've been with you longest. Have a proper conversation, not a survey. Ask why they chose you and why they've stayed.

People Buy Emotionally

Think about the last thing you bought purely for yourself. Now write down why. The list won't have prices or specs on it. It'll be emotional reasons with logic layered on afterwards. Business buying isn't any different.

The trouble is most of us describe our businesses like an instruction manual. Features, services, deliverables. All technically true, and completely emotionally flat. Meanwhile, the person we're talking to is trying to work out whether we'd stress them out or take some weight off them.

Where to start: read the front page of your own website. Highlight every sentence that describes a feature. Now try to rewrite each one as the feeling it creates for the customer. It's harder than it sounds.

Your Weakness is Probably an Advantage

The bigger firms will always outsize you on paper. Bigger team, slicker process, more polish. What they can't offer is you, personally, answering the phone at half eleven at night when it's all gone sideways.

That "small company" thing you sometimes worry about? For many customers, that's the whole reason they're with you. You just never say it out loud, because it sounds like you're apologising for being small.

Where to start: name one thing about your business you've been treating as a limitation. Now reframe it and ask whether some of your best customers might actually value it.

What One Thing Should You Take Away?

Spend ten minutes answering one question:

Why should somebody buy from your business instead of someone else's?

Not what you do or how, but why you and your company over a competitor. IT might feel a bit uncomfortable to think about, at first. But just sit with it, ponder on it and see what comes up.

Once you can answer it clearly, you'll find it easier to market your business, sell your services and connect with the people you want to work with.