The Kool-Aid Test: “Why do I need anything? Why do I need yours? Why do I need it now?"

By Frank Addante

The Kool-Aid Test:

1. Why do I need anything?
2. Why do I need yours?
3. Why do I need it now?

Put yourself in the shoes of your customers or users. If you cannot come up with very compelling answers to all three of these questions, you likely do not have a viable business. Answering only one or two of these questions won’t work. The more compelling the answer and wide-reaching the audience, the more successful your business will be.

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Examples:

B2C Example (for an eBay user):

1. Why do I need anything?
> I need to turn my junk into money.

2. Why do I need yours?
> eBay has the most reach.

3. Why do I need it now?
> I need to pay the rent.


B2B Example (for a StrongMail user):

1. Why do I need anything?
> I need to send marketing, e-commerce or e-statements emails to my customers to drive revenue or reduce costs.

2. Why do I need yours?
> StrongMail is proven to be the fastest, easiest and most reliable solution for email delivery. The world’s most demanding enterprises, such as Ticketmaster, Fox Sports/MSN, Intuit and Williams-Sonoma turn to StrongMail for their critical customer communications.

3. Why do I need it now?
> On average, 25% of legitimate business email goes undelivered and every day that I don’t fix it, I’m likely losing money or revenue potential.

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Most companies can answer #2 (Why do I need yours?) because they are so focused on being better than their competition. Some companies are good at answering #1 (Why do I need anything?) if they started a business that was driven by market demand (as opposed to new/cool technology). Few companies are good at answering #3 (Why do I need it now?) - what is the compelling event that will cause people to use it today?

For me, this test also serves as a strategic guideline for almost everything I do:

- business plans
- investor pitches
- sales pitches
- marketing messaging
- product management
- press/media calls
- etc.

Try it! Take your last business plan, the marketing/messaging on your website or sales PowerPoint deck and see if you have clearly provided answers to these three questions. If not, go back and update it – I bet you will find it to be much more effective!