I hear this question often: “Why would I want a lizard?” “Why would I go there?” “Why would I…”
And I wonder if that’s an unfair question. Unfair because it’s impossible for a respondent to answer that question well. The only good answer I can think of is: “I’m not you, you tell me.”
Marketers like to ask a similar question. Why would someone want to buy our product? And to answer that question, they need to have some hypothesis about the purchasing motivations of their target audience.
But to the non-marketer or business-person, perhaps that question is rhetorical. Perhaps the esoteric meaning is: that’s a ridiculous suggestion you made, do you even know me. I think I would likely just say that versus using rhetoric.
What if the question invites an opportunity to persuade? What if the why would I could be esoterically thought of as an invitation to brainstorm and think of interesting reasons. Unless you knew the asker to be a literal communicator, you might need a lot more context clues to help you know that was the intent. Also, I don’t believe the median person is that literal a communicator.
So I’m left wondering, how do I best engage with that question when it’s asked outside of business? The weirdo in me wants to answer literally… but the part of me that desperately wants to crack culture code knows an esoteric meaning may be present. Perhaps my response could be: Why would I want to invest any time figuring out why you would want to join me for coffee?
I think I’ve arrived at a conclusion point.
Ask people about themselves first and listen.
if you can connect someone to a thing that solves a known-problem or indulges a known-interest, connect.
If step 2 fails, go back to step 1.