They Ask, You Answer, 2nd Edition

17 The Big 5, Topic 3 Versus and Comparisons

The third major content subject of The Big 5 is that of “versus” and/or “comparisons.” As consumers, we’re fascinated with comparisons. We love knowing the best, the worst, and everything in between. And having all the information in the world at our fingertips has made this thirst even more prominent.

Think about the last major purchase you made—were you looking only at one option or multiple? If you’re like most buyers, before you made the purchasing decision you researched multiple options, ultimately making your decision after stacking them up against each other and then choosing the one that you felt was best for your needs.

But you’re not alone. Hundreds of thousands of comparisons are searched online every single day.

When I was a pool guy, the story was no different. In fact, our biggest competition wasn’t other fiberglass pool builders, but rather concrete or vinyl-liner, in-ground swimming pool companies. Because fiberglass was “the new kid on the block,” other pool companies would continually criticize it, claiming it was flawed, inferior, cheap, “not a real pool,” and so on.

Over the years, one of the top questions I received from potential customers was, “OK, Marcus, why would I get a fiberglass pool over concrete?”

For a long time, like most pool builders, I didn’t address this question on our company website. We simply talked about fiberglass, and that was it. In hindsight, this was really, really dumb.

I can’t even ...