WIIFM: What's in It for Me in Business Success

WIIFM stands for “What’s in It for Me?” and is an adaptable business strategy for companies struggling to engage or motivate people to achieve an established milestone.  

WIIFM is a technique that helps you as a business connect with customers on a deeper level and outline factors that help sell your products or services. 

As a part of change management, the method can help you as an employer implement a major change in the company that your employees will accept and go along with. 

WIIFM is a straightforward yet effective tool that can change the working environment through communication and boost your sales by tapping into what your customers need. 

Ready to find out how to implement the what’s-in-it-for-me angle into your business? 

Key Points

• WIIFM stands for “What’s in It for Me?” and helps strategists find out what are the needs of customers or employees. 
• WIIFM requires strong communication skills but also making sure employees clearly understand the expected deliverables.
• WIIFM stresses the features of a product or service for customers rather than a list of ingredients or technology that you use.  

What Does WIIFM Mean?

The WIIFM strategy cannot be defined alone as simply understanding what gains and benefits a person can achieve. It goes beyond outlining the pros and cons and excluding the bad parts from daily operations. 

What’s in It for Me is a way to tap into what your employees or customers want to obtain from your offer or see whether a particular change is worth the hassle. Apart from analyzing the immediate attitude to your implementation, sometimes it’s worth paying attention to a smaller picture rather than generalizing everything. 

There is a clear distinction between WIIFM for employees and customers, and we’re going to delve into it. 

For Employees

Employees quickly get used to standard processes and rarely wish to be introduced to a change at work, especially when their tasks follow a set procedure and yield a desired result. Although change may be difficult, it’s an indispensable part of business. And what matters is that everybody is integrated into the organization and has their needs met. 

Establishing clear goals is essential for employees so that they are up to date with what is expected from them and have their concerns answered. 

For Customers

It’s a different story for customers, where WIIFM helps marketers understand what factors drive sales, primarily what perspectives are present to the potential buyers. A better way to phrase the strategy could be WIIFT, short for What’s in It for Them? 

The question instantly prompts marketing strategists to dig deeper into what customers look for and why they would spend money on your products or services. By knowing what drives customers to buy, you will be able to list key points or triggers that make a difference in sales. 

Example of WIIFM

When persuading customers to purchase your products or services, you need to demonstrate their benefits. Let’s assume you’re selling an electric scooter. Your prospective buyer is a student. You can tell them about the quality of the material and good brakes, but they may not be very persuasive. Instead, you could point out that by purchasing an electric scooter, the customer will save up on transportation costs and get basically anywhere in the city traffic-free. These benefits may be closer to your prospect’s WIIFM. 

Finding Employees’ WIIFM

A straight-to-the-point communication with your employees will help you identify their needs, including those that are not aligned with the company goals but are no less important. In most scenarios, as a manager, you should sometimes keep quiet and make notes when speaking to individuals sharing their thoughts. Asking and actively listening to your team members will help you understand their needs. Even when you have a pre-written pitch or plan, going off plan will open you up for an honest conversation.

When introducing a major change, it may scare some of your employees, and you need to act before it happens. Talk to your team members one by one to learn what obstacles they face at work and what stops them from completing the tasks. If you notice demotivation lurking in your office, it’s your responsibility to find the cause and eliminate it; otherwise, your colleagues might not speak up about the issues. 

There are ideal work environments, and every position comes with certain limitations. Sometimes, there is nothing much you can do, but you can make your workplace a better place. All you need to look out for is triggers. Triggers that hatch uncertainty and demotivation, and your goal would be to stop them from occurring again. 

In short, when there is a change, you need to be on the same wavelength as your employees, starting with understanding the need for change, accepting it, supporting it until it’s implemented, and reinforcing it within the company. 

Finding Customers’ WIIFM

Finding customers’ WIIFM is a totally different matter. Here, you cannot stop a customer and ask a few questions because their wants may be completely different from their needs. Hence, knowing what’s going on in the mind of your audience requires a different approach. 

Since you're thinking about trying the WIIFM strategy, we can suppose that you know what your target audience is. And if it’s not the case, it should be your first step - identifying what group of people is interested in your offer. Once you establish a Marketing Persona for each of the groups, delve deeper into finding out their interests, benefits they are looking for, and problems that they want to fix. 

Content plays a big role in WIIFM because it allows you to speak directly to your audience. The way you phrase your content will either spark an interest in your customers or make them disinterested in your offer. Claiming “Our products are the best quality” will persuade your audience to take out a credit card and make a purchase. 

Instead, focus your marketing materials on features buyers will benefit from instead of counting ingredients or functions of the offer. Although it doesn’t mean buyers aren’t interested in what the offer is made of, it means advantages should be placed first. 

Let’s say you send out postcards to your audience, informing them of your new pizzeria in the neighborhood. Instead of wasting time on a list of the freshest ingredients they can offer, you can highlight the Italian style you adhere to with a traditional oven that bakes the softest dough in a short time span. Mentioning free delivery for bigger orders wouldn’t harm, too. 

Why Should You Consider WIIFM?

The WIIFM strategy can be applied in many aspects of your life, including business. The concept’s main idea is to understand what drives people to take action - hence, it’s so common in marketing. 

The short answer is “What’s in It for Me?” helps tailor your communication and foster mutually beneficial relationships. Although there are as many WIIFMs as there are people, the method can indicate factors that motivate people to work or make a purchase. 

The long answer is this question identifies the benefits that encourage people to take action because every behavior has a reason behind it. It answers the fundamental question of why someone should care about a particular situation or proposition. 

For purely business purposes, WIIFM helps companies clearly communicate the value and benefits of products or services to their customers. The concept identifies what’s in it for the customer and crafts persuasive sales pitches and marketing messages. 

Management uses WIIFM to align individual and corporate objectives so that employees feel valued and motivated. 

Final Word

What’s in It for Me is an effective strategy that will help you streamline your business operations and improve marketing efforts to drive sales. It lets you connect with your customers and employees on a different level, where you are not just trying to make a profit but actually showing your understanding of people’s needs. 

Maintaining open communication with colleagues will help you improve the quality of work while tapping into your customers’ minds with proper research will give you an insight into what they need.  

So, what’s in it for you in your business?