Decisions, Decisions, Decisions
You’re faced with an unbelievable number of decisions every day.
What are you going to wear?
Will you need a jacket?
White toast or brown?
Jam or marmalade?
Orange or apple juice?
Tea or coffee?
And all this before you’ve even finished breakfast!
Some of these questions are easy; maybe the answer’s obvious, the options are limited or you make the same choice so much it’s become second nature (Do you take sugar in your tea?)
Other times you may have to think a bit harder, maybe you don’t make that particular decision often enough to have a quick choice. I personally agonise over restaurant menus for ages before deciding (and then only when it’s forced upon me by the approach of the waiter).
In fact, considering how much practice human beings get at decision making, it’s a wonder that we’re still so bad at it. Some websites have entire sections devoted to helping people with their desicions. I bet that you struggle to make choices, big and small, all the time.
And the modern world isn’t helping with this problem.
The Sea of Options
In the past if you wanted to hire a builder, there would probably only be a handful in your locality. The chances were quite high that they would have worked with your neighbours, so it was easy to get recommendations and make an informed choice.
Nowadays you may turn to the ubiquitous Google; but a search for builders near Cullompton (where I live) turned up 186 results.
One hundred and eighty six.
And it’s not even a big town!
How could you possibly begin to whittle a list of 186 people down to just one? That’s just a ridiculous number.
It’s the Sea of Options, and it’s ready to drown you.
And it’s not just builders. Someone could easily drown whilst trying to choose a mechanic, a restaurant, caterer, farm fresh boxed veg supplier…
When faced with too many options and no stand-out choices people tend to do one of two things:
- They don’t make a desicion (drowning’s quite a peaceful way to go apparently).
- They default to the easiest (cheapest, closest, most popular, closest to the top of the search results) option, a bit like desperately grabbing the nearest piece of flotsam.
You’re One Tiny Drop
For your target audience, you are one tiny drop within the Sea of Options.
That’s not to say you don’t offer excellent customer service, or a fantastic product. In fact; I’m sure that you do.
I bet your current customers are crawling over each other to give you repeat business (and if they’re not, you may have come to the wrong place. Sort that out first). But if I haven’t heard of you before, what would make me choose you over any of the other options out there?
What’s the Difference?
If I lined you up with all of your competitors, and asked “What do you do better than everyone else here?” what would you reply?
Genuinely, think about it: what would you say?
When you answer that question, you establish a difference…your difference.
Your difference is really important. It’s the thing you should be shouting loudest about.
It’s the thing you should be building your everyday decisions around.
It should be the first thing I notice when I find you on Google, or walk into your shop, or read your Twitter bio.
Your difference makes you stand out among your competitors.
When someone’s drowning in the sea of options; your difference is a handle they can hold onto.
And if you can pull someone out of the Sea of Options, even for a second, you’ve made an important move.
You’ve stopped being an option; you’ve become a choice.
So tell me…What makes you different?