Can Your Big Bid Take Hold Like Snapchat?

Well, photosharing phenomenon Snapchat may have just turned down a $3bn buyout from Facebook. For a firm derided for buying allied concept Instagram for a mere $1bn, that is serious Zuckerberg cash. Snapchat’s appeal appears primarily in the sharer being able to stipulate how long the pic stays visible, before being erased forever.

The traditional media is all over this kind of story. Of all the interesting points, I noticed the way that the initial venture capitalists justify why they invested.

The most detailed on offer looks like this ten-point list from IVP. What’s doubly noteworthy here, is that it’s constructed not by the ‘seller’, but the ‘buyer’.

In this particular case, it’s also important to see that the title of each ‘point’ is not an overtly salesy heading. And there’s an obvious split between the logical and emotional:

Mobile First
Momentum & Engagement
A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words
Youth Is Not Wasted On The Young
Setting The World On Fire
Follow The Smart Money
Network Effects
We Love LA
Big Fish, Small Pond
Because They Let Us

There’s many a deal I’ve worked on where I squirm to think of ten reasons why the customer would have then bought. Especially as this is less about why they’d buy whatever it is, but specifically why they’d buy it from me.

So why not ask your prospect why they’ll buy from you?

It’s a juicy qualification exercise. And for those buyers that keep their cards annoyingly close to their chest, you can start off gently with potential reasons for doing anything.

If nothing else, it’ll provide a cunning page of summary wonders for your Prop or presentation slide that heralds a round-the-room.