Years ago there was an ad for Wendy’s featuring an elderly woman asking a fast food worker, “Where’s the beef?”

It was a great “burger war” commercial that helped Wendy’s gain a lot of recognition and be seen as different from their main competitors in the burger wars, McDonald’s and Burger King.

This past week I was reminded of this old ad when I read Wendy’s was redoing their logo and giving Wendy herself a long-due makeover.

The news got me thinking about how that question asked more than 30 years ago is still relevant today.  No, not for fast-food but for what you sell.

“Where’s your beef?”

What is it your customers would say separates you from others?

If neither you nor your customers can identify the beef quickly, then I hate to say it, but you have a problem.  If we’re going down nostalgia row, then let’s go ahead and use the famous line, “Houston, we have a problem.”

The fear I have is too many salespeople think they know where the beef is, but their customers are either thinking something else or nothing at all.

If we are going to even have a chance at maximizing our profit potential, our customers have to be able to clearly see the beef.  Not only do they have to see it, but they have to know why it is superior to what another salesperson might be offering.

A top objective of every sales call is to be able help the customer clearly see where your beef is, but remember —  people like their beef served differently.  This means while one person might like their beef rare, another might like it well-done.   What I’m saying here is you might be selling the same thing to multiple customers, but each customer is going to find their value in slightly different ways.

Go ahead, ask yourself, “Where’s the beef?”

And begin a list right now of the key things your customer knows you for and, more importantly, why they value these things.  In the burger wars, you’re not going to be successful if the customer can’t find the beef.  Same thing is true in sales, regardless of what it is you’re selling.





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