Why You Should Care About What You Sell

This should be an easy concept to understand, but I’ve talked to a few new business owners lately that have a hard time grasping this:

you should care about what you’re selling.

If you’re already on board with me, check out the practical applications in how to market the business you care about by clicking here.

If you think that you can be successful long term by selling something that you don’t give a rat’s ass about, you need to reevaluate your definition of success and the way you think about business in general.

Then vs. Now

I’ll start with a little story…

I was in Mornas, France a few weeks ago and something struck me as odd about the little village—and not just the fact that there were more cats than people milling around.

The city put up signs for things like, the tailor, the butcher, the vegetable shop, the boulangerie, etc that looked like this:

At first it struck me as odd because I thought, “what about the other shops?” Then I realized: there aren’t any. There was one option to go to for each type of shop so they just had a basic sign post for their business.

The people that were “the butcher” and “the baker” in the shop, did that work day in and day out. They cared about their reputation because they knew all the people in their town.

Sure, they didn’t have to work for customer loyalty or market their products but the townspeople were also dependent on them to have the goods they need—that’s a lot of pressure.

Why Does History Matter?

Because you have to realize that people are wired to think the same way today as they did 50  or 100 or 1200 years ago.

• They go to the same cafe every day to get their latte done the way they like it,
• the same gas station because they like the attendant,
• and the same laundromat because that’s the one they always go to.

The difference between then and now is competition. The workspace is crowded and you have to find a way to stand above that crowd with the business you run if you want to be successful.

What makes people choose one new business over another?

Here it is, plain and simple: trust and care.

Caring Makes it Easy on Your Customers.

In case you missed it: eliciting trust is how you get people to want to choose your company over the competition.

In other words: when you set off someone’s bullshit-radar, they’re not going to buy from you.

We’re social creatures; we don’t live in a vacuum or feel excited to shop at some random boutique with no personality. If you don’t care about the business you’re running—if you don’t run it with any plan or purpose other than, “I want to make money,” people will know.

On that same note:

People want to be able to say, “thanks, I got it at [insert brand name boutique], they really care about [insert ideal customer passion] and I want to support that.”

I can basically guarantee you that there is someone out there busting their butt in the same niche as you to build the shop they love because it’s their passion. They’re putting more time, effort, and attention to detail into building out every last piece of their business with care.

They’re focused on creating consistent content and falling in love with the process of building their dreams.

Those are real entrepreneurs. They might have a slower start than the fast cash mindset you’re in, but they’re going to be the ones with loyal customers and the free shout outs from influencers. They’re going to outlast you.

Caring Makes it Easy on Yourself.

At this point I’m throwing spaghetti at the wall—hopeful this one sticks.

If you care about what you sell, you can talk about it.

Building a business is never going to be easy. Ever.

There are details and data and taxes and quality issues and ads and calendars… I’m inducing my own anxiety here so I’m going to stop the list, but you get the picture, there’s a lot of things to handle as a business owner.

Why on Earth would you choose to saddle yourself with a whole set of to-dos over something you don’t even care about?

Building a real business isn’t a “set it and forget it” operation. You know you’re going to have to create consistent content and provide value to the people in your audience.

Making something that you care about ensures you’ll have more to say. It means you’ll have something in common with every single person that shows up at your website and it means you have the chance to be an authority in something that you’re passionate about.

It seems like a no-brainer, but we still hear from people that are focusing on building their online presence around something they’re not super into.

My two cents? If you don’t care, don’t bother even starting.

What are you passionate about? Tell us in the comments below!

Photo from Unsplash