“People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.” ~ Simon Sinek
Business leaders and advisors who have worked with me know that I believe that they need to be crystal clear about their answers to three questions:
- Who do you work with? (Who are your customers/clients?)
- What do you give them that they want or need? And
- Why will they buy this product or service from YOU (and not someone else or using some do-it-yourself workaround)?
In his eye-opening TED Talk several years ago, author Simon Sinek talked about how communicating your WHY is the most important factor in growing your business. Sinek drew what he called the “Golden Circle”….
“Most companies sell from their WHAT,” he told the audience. He used computer companies as his example:
We sell great computers. They’re beautifully designed, simple to use and user-friendly. Wanna buy one?
“The most successful companies,” he continued, “sell from their WHY.” He used Apple as his example:
[In] everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently. (WHY) The way we challenge the status quo is making our products beautifully designed, simple to use, and user-friendly. (HOW) We just happen to make great computers. (WHAT) Wanna buy one?
Sinek went on to tell his audience that leading with its WHY allows Apple to sell other electronics products with similar ease, while other well-known computer and peripheral companies had difficulty launching related products.
What’s your WHY? What do you believe that drives what you do and who you do it with? Once you are clear on that, you can talk about WHAT you do and HOW you do it.
If you want help figuring this out, contact me. And always keep REACHING…
P.S. If you’re interested, you can find Sinek’s talk here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp0HIF3SfI4
