Practical Sales Training™ > How To Convert > The Reasons Why Effect
The Reasons Why Effect
What Is It
The Reasons Why Effect is about providing your buyer with a list of the main reasons why they may wish to buy from you. Short, clear, and easy to scan.
It sounds obvious once you see it. But most businesses bury their best reasons inside long paragraphs, instead of putting them somewhere a buyer can take in at a glance.
A good reasons why list does the thinking for the buyer. It hands them the conclusion before they’ve had to work it out themselves.
Why Does It Work
It works because many buyers are trying to sift through information and understand an offering before they can decide to proceed. So a short list removes most of that effort in one go.
By detailing the reasons why you might buy something, and at the same time showing the reasons why others buy, you make it easier and more obvious for a decision to happen. There’s also an element of social proof baked in.
The format matters as much as the content too. A visual list reads faster than a paragraph, and speed is exactly what a busy, comparison shopping buyer wants.
How Can You Use It
Start from what actually triggers your buyer
Considering your buyer type, what triggers them to act, and what you’re actually selling, collate a short list of the main selling points of your offering.
Make it visual, not just a bullet list
Make this list available to your buyer, ideally as a visual list using icons and semiotics to further enhance the message. An icon does in a glance what a sentence takes several seconds to explain.
Keep the list short enough to actually read
Three or four reasons get read in full. Eight or nine get skimmed, and the strongest point risks getting lost among the weaker ones.
When It Works Best
This works best right where a buyer is comparing options, on a homepage, a landing page, or near a pricing table. That’s exactly the moment a quick reason to choose you matters most.
It also works best when your reasons are genuinely differentiating. If every competitor could claim the same list, it stops doing any real convincing.
When It Becomes Dangerous
It backfires if the reasons are vague or generic. “Great service” and “great value” tell a buyer nothing they couldn’t already assume about any business.
It also becomes risky if the list overpromises. A reason that doesn’t hold up once someone becomes a customer damages trust more than never listing it at all.
Overcrowding the list causes its own problem too. Too many reasons dilute the strongest one, and buyers remember less, not more.
Common Mistakes
Listing features instead of reasons
“24/7 support” is a feature. “Never wait for help when something breaks” is a reason. Buyers respond to the second one far more than the first.
Copying a competitor’s list wholesale
If your reasons why list could belong to any rival in your market, it isn’t doing its job. Build it around what’s genuinely true and specific to you.
Burying it below the fold
A great reasons why list nobody scrolls to see does no work at all. Put it somewhere near the top of the decision, not at the bottom of the page.
The Reasons Why Effect – An Example
Sky Mobile’s Icon Summary
Sky Mobile use icons and a simple list to summarise why you should use them.
Each reason gets one icon, one short headline, and one line of explanation. No paragraph, no scrolling, no working out what the point is meant to be.
See also
