Tony Robbins says if you can't answer a basic question about your business, you're 'failing miserably'

Richard Drew/AP

Find your niche. Tony Robbins pictured.

• Tony Robbins, a life coach, says it's crucial to know why customers should do business with you versus a competitor.
• Every company should fill a particular niche.
• If a business owner can't answer the question "Why should I do business with you versus anyone else?" Robbins said on an episode of his podcast, they're "failing miserably."

On an episode of the Tony Robbins podcast, Robbins helps the owner of a photography and video production company figure out how to expand her business.

The business owner, Darcy, says she's relied on word of mouth for years, but now she needs a new marketing strategy.

Robbins' advice includes a key question: "Why should I do business with you versus anyone else?" That is to say, what particular niche do you fill that no one else does?

As Robbins puts it, "If you can't answer that question in a compelling way, you don't have an effective business. … You should be able to tell people what your business is, and at least in a room this size get 30, 40 50% of the people to be interested. If you're not doing that, you're failing miserably."

Earlier in the episode, Robbins shares a somewhat unusual example of finding your niche, or doing what no one else does: a San Francisco Girl Scout who sells her cookies outside marijuana dispensaries.

"She understands her niche," Robbins says of the Girl Scout. "They [the dispensary customers] all know who she is; they all want to do business with her."

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