Why Customers Should Choose Us Over Our Competitors: The Power of Convincing Purchase Arguments

Marketing and sales managers usually know why they want to sell something to their company’s target customers – for example, to achieve the desired sales. It is much more difficult for them to answer the question: Why should our target customers buy from us – and not from a competitor?
Or to put it another way: You have many arguments ready with which you can explain to your sales staff why active selling is necessary (selling arguments). What they cannot serve them with, however, is a convincing argument as to why “dear customers” should buy their company’s product and not a competitor’s product (purchase arguments).

Buying arguments are extremely important in uncertain times

However, a convincing purchase argument is extremely important for sales success – especially in economically uncertain times like the current ones, in which customers prefer to keep their wallets closed because they don’t know what will happen next.
Because no matter what industry a company operates in, the following always applies:

• It has competitors who are also vying for customers’ favor – competitors who are often even more established, cheaper or more innovative. And:
• His target customers can only spend their money once. So they have to decide: Do we invest our money in this or that?

That’s why marketing and sales employees need powerful arguments as to why the target customers should ask their company for an offer or place an order with them. Otherwise they will neither be able to write advertising letters nor design brochures that achieve the desired effect. And they won’t get very far in sales discussions without convincing purchasing arguments.

Marketing and sales managers in many companies find it difficult to formulate such purchasing arguments. The more you think about it, the more you realize that our competitors aren’t bad either. Your products are good. Their service is also passable. And their prices? They are even a little lower than ours. That’s why they sometimes ask themselves: Why should our target customers be enthusiastic about our company and its products or services?

One reason for this is that when it comes to formulating purchasing arguments, many marketing and sales managers are desperately looking for the USP (“Unique Selling Proposition”) – that is, the one feature that distinguishes their company or product from all competitors or competing products. But at some point they realize with disillusionment: There is no such “unique selling point”! And if so? Then no longer-term marketing and sales strategy can be built on this – for example,

• because the competitors have copied the current unique selling point in the service area within six months at the latest, or
• because in three or four months they have caught up with the lead in the technical area or design.

Combine multiple features into one image

The attempt to formulate a USP or a unique selling point is often like a desperate attempt to describe a person with one sentence. That doesn’t work!
This is illustrated with an example. Suppose an acquaintance of yours wants to describe you to a friend. If he just says to him, “Klaus is about 1.80 tall,” then no concrete image emerges in the other person’s head. Because there are many men of this size. This is different if your friend also says: “Klaus studied electrical engineering, is a communicative guy, usually has a smile on his face, likes hiking and is an absolute fan of Bavarian cuisine.” Then a picture gradually emerges.
The situation is similar with companies and products. Only when you combine several of their features do they usually gain profile (in the market) and ideally become unique and unmistakable.

Derive purchasing arguments from facts

So your job as a marketing or sales manager is to identify the characteristics that, when combined, create a unique profile. But this alone is not enough. Because the profile shouldn’t just be unmistakable. It should also be attractive. This will only happen when you derive the advantages for the customer – i.e. the purchasing arguments – from the individual features.

Why this is important is illustrated again with an example. Suppose you were a single male and would like to ask a woman whose personal ad you read for a date. Then you could say to her on tape, for example: “I am 1.90 m tall”. However, this would just be a fact. This fact only becomes a “buying argument” when you derive from it: “That’s why I would immediately be recognized as your friend if we went to a party.” Or let’s assume that you are a “communicative type”. Then the purchase argument derived from this could be: “That’s why you’ll never be bored with me.”

The same applies to the characteristics of a company or product. A sober list of these usually does not motivate customers to buy or contact you. As if it is your job as a marketing or sales manager to derive customer-related benefits or purchase arguments from the facts. Another example of this.

Let’s say your company has been producing copiers for 20 years. Then the derived purchase argument could be: “Our devices are correspondingly sophisticated and reliable, which is why they will run problem-free in your company for years.” Or suppose your company has branches throughout the German-speaking region. This too would initially just be a fact. A derived purchase argument could be: “Our service technicians will be with you quickly if, contrary to all expectations, problems arise.”

Determine: Which purchasing argument suits whom?

Developing such purchasing arguments and communicating them to target customers – be it through sales letters, advertisements, brochures or posts on social media – is one of the core tasks of marketing specialists in companies. But this alone is not enough. All employees with customer contact must have internalized the purchasing arguments so that they can use them easily and specifically in customer discussions.

However, you and your colleagues should keep in mind that not every purchasing argument appeals equally to all customer groups. So when it comes to customer contacts, it is always important to pick out the purchasing arguments from the collection that are relevant to the respective customer or customer group. And sometimes it is even necessary to derive different purchasing arguments from the same product or company features. Another example from everyday life.

Suppose you are a communicative type. Then the statement “That’s why you’ll never get bored with me” can certainly be “appealing” if you, as a single, want to warm up a man or woman to a first date. However, this would be different in a job interview. The derived purchasing argument could be, for example: “That’s why I quickly find a connection to your customers.”
The same applies to the purchasing arguments that you formulate in relation to your company and its products. They must be credible, i.e. provable – i.e. derived from real characteristics of your company or product. They should also relate to a specific need of the intended target group or the respective counterpart – otherwise they will not have the desired effect. So it is important to first identify this need in customer contact.

Goal: Bring about the desired investment decision

This is especially true in times like the current ones,

• in which there is a very high need for change or innovation in many companies (for example due to the shortage of skilled workers, increased prices and the uncertain global economic situation),
• On the other hand, they are extremely hesitant with their purchasing decisions because they don’t know what will happen next (and there may be less money in their coffers than in boom times).

In them, without a convincing purchase argument that focuses on the companies’ so-called “coat-burning factors”, you will rarely be able to lead them to the desired investment decision.