I’ve heard many of our students and clients talk about mindset, their belief
system, and knowing their why, but I have to be real with you here, none of
that ever really resonated with me and I thought it was a bunch of fluffy,
unicorn, bologna until I recently read “Starts with Why” by Simon Sinek. I
haven’t been able to get this phrase out of my head…”People don’t buy
what you do, they buy why you do it.” So after tons of contemplation
surrounding the complexity of such a simple phrase, today I want to share,
with the help of Simon of course, the rules of the game to help you and
your team improve customer loyalty, inspire action, and uplevel influence.
Just a few days ago I was talking with one of our other super awesome
coaches about products that she buys from one of the companies we work
with and she said something that stood out to me which brought me back to
what Simon said. She said, “I know that I could get something similar at a
lower price….other companies and places have similar products, but I don’t
want to buy them somewhere else and I won’t, I just can’t in good
conscience.” There it was in human form, direct from a customer’s
mouth… she doesn’t buy these products and, might I point out, keep
buying these products because of the product themselves, there was
something more. Something driving her loyalty. Something hard to describe
that set the company apart from all the rest. But let’s stand back and take
an unbiased look at this scenario. From an outsider, there is nothing
explicitly special about this company. It’s just like any other company that
offers a similar product- they sell the same types of products, they have
employees, and systems, resources, marketing departments, and so forth,
so why is it that she is so loyal? It’s because people don’t buy what you do,
they buy why you do it. The reason isn’t what the company sells that
distinguishes them or positions them as superior, the products only bring
life to their cause- the why they do it.
Almost any business today is faced with the challenge to differentiate
themselves because we live in a world of choices and it’s almost
guaranteed there’s another business offering the same product in a similar
way. I think about the 17 years I spent in specialty coffee. You can buy
coffee anywhere, and I mean anywhere! A vending machine, 7-11, your
grocery store, Starbucks, or your local neighborhood specialty shop that
takes 5 minutes to make your morning fix. To an expert, like myself, I
understand the differences and why it takes 5 minutes to make the perfect
cup, but to the outside world, all coffee is basically the same. If it’s brown,
and if it smells like coffee, and tastes like coffee, it must be coffee. The
same is the case for almost any other business offering the same or similar
product and unfortunately, they all end up feeding off the same piece of the
pie because they fail to define WHY they do what they do.
So what does Simon say that will create loyal customers, inspire your
leaders, and differentiate your business? There are 3 things- WHAT, HOW,
and WHY:
1) WHAT: every single business or company knows what they do. This
is often very easy to identify and usually describes the goods or
services they offer. Let’s take Emerge as an example. The what we
do is that we are a sales training company.
2) HOW: how is not always quite as obvious as the what, but it often
helps to explain how the business or goods/services are different or
better. Again, using Emerge as the example, the how is that we offer
both online and live group training for network marketers who want to
uplevel their sales and leadership skills while being a good human. It
might be tempting to think that the recipe stops here because the how
is what makes your business different from all the rest, but there’s still
something missing.
3) WHY… very few businesses can clearly define why they do what they
- It would be easy to think that why any business does what they
do is to make money, but that is just an outcome. WHY is your
purpose, your cause, your belief. WHY does your business exist?
WHY do you get out of bed every morning? And as #meancoach
would say, WHY the heck should anyone care? At Emerge, WHY is
because we want to give hope, confidence, encouragement, and
skills to network marketers of all levels who want to help people
because we want to help all the people.
When most businesses think, act, or communicate they usually start with
the what and move to why, and this seems like the most practical thing to
do, going from the obvious thing to the most obscure thing.The problem is
that we say what we do, sometimes we explain how, but more often than
not, we leave out why we do what we do and that’s a problem because
people don’t buy what we do, they buy why we do it. If you’re having
challenges creating loyalty, nourishing inspiration, and maintaining growth
it’s probably because your why is hazy. Don’t get kicked out of the game,
do what Simon says and reverse the order. Rather than starting with what
you do, start with why you do it.
What if you ran your business in such a way where you wouldn’t feel like
you needed the hot new item or promo to drive sales? Imagine if you didn’t
feel like you had to convince the next potential business builder to say yes?
What if you could stop comparing yourself to someone else’s success?
Businesses with a clear sense of why never worry about these things. In
everything you do, it all goes back to your purpose, your cause, your belief,
your WHY. Instead of asking “WHAT can I do….?”, ask “WHY did I start
doing what I was doing in the first place, and what can I do to bring life to
my cause?”