How to answer the single most important question in business and life

Why should I choose you? That's the question every customer asks every single time he buys a car, picks a shampoo, or chooses a distributor, a brokerage house, an animal hospital or a hairbrush. Sometimes the question is spoken out loud; other times it's subliminal. But the fact is that every product, service or decision is a choice. And often it's a choice we make within seconds.

Ian Chamandy and Ken Aber understand just how essential that choice is. Their Toronto-based consulting firm, Blueprint, helps businesses define their specific promise-the one thing that sets them apart from every other organization that does more or less the same thing-in seven words or less.

Their blueprinting process has produced extraordinary results for organizations big and small, in all sorts of industries, in both the for profit and not-for-profit sectors, including construction firms, marketing/communications consultancies, boutique investment banks, and hospitals.

Combining combines practical steps with case examples, Why Should I Choose You (in Seven Words or Less) will:

• give you confidence you never had before to lead into a bold new future
• make your employees more innovative and creative
• reveal revenue streams you never knew existed
• give your employees a newfound sense of purpose that motivates them to contribute at a higher level
• and help you sell faster and more easily because you will inspire, rather than try to convince, customers to buy

IAN CHAMANDY co-founded and spent fifteen years running YOUtv, a company that developed, sold and managed format licences and marketing programs for broadcasters around the world. In this capacity, Ian created branding, marketing and sales strategies for national broadcasters and local TV stations including CBS, Fox, Post-Newsweek and Meredith in the US; Flextech Television in the UK; Venevision in Venezuela; El Tiempo in Colombia; Jyrki in Finland; and Citytv, MuchMusic, CBC and YTV in Canada. He also designed and executed branding, marketing and communications programs for Procter & Gamble, Bell, Warner-Lambert, Labatt, Molson, Loblaws and The Lung Association in Canada; and Kroger and the New York State Department of Health in the US. He has a BA in social psychology from the University of Waterloo.

Ken and Ian write regularly for The Globe and Mail and the Huffington Post.

KEN ABER has spent his career creating innovative strategic partnerships and media programs for blue-chip companies, and he has led marketing and communications programs in the categories of beer, fast food (such as McDonalds), packaged goods, financial services, automotive and tourism (such as Ontario Tourism). Ken has a MBA from Harvard University.

Ian Chamandy's profile page