Why Your “Why” May Miss The Mark — And What You Can do About It

I touched a nerve yesterday.

In my Monday Mash-Up yesterday, I shared an article that called “B.S.” on Simon Sinek’s “start with why.”

I received lots of replies from subscribers who agreed. No one defended Sinek.

Sinek’s big idea from his 2010 TED talk, “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.” 

That idea caught fire. 

So for the past 12 years, companies around the globe have conducted brainstorming sessions to craft their WHY’s.

I sat through one of those sessions once when I was CEO of MarketVolt,  the email marketing company I ran for 19 years. 

One of my clients read Sinek’s book and then invited me and a small army of his employees to a half-day session to craft their WHY. 

They scribbled ideas on the white board. They pasted sticky notes on every inch of wall space. They laughed. They cried. They hugged. 

For five looonnnnggg hours, they talked about themselves – their history, their vision, their heartfelt origin story. 

They spent ZERO hours — not a single second — talking about their prospects and customers. 

And that, boys and girls, is a big, common problem. 

Your fancy WHY statements and origin stories are just a bunch of navel-gazing B.S…unless they reflect your prospects’ stories. 

Your story means nothing to them unless it reflects theirs. 

My client crafted a “WHY” statement that made them feel great – loaded with crap about doing good and changing the world.

I have nothing against doing good and changing the world. 

But it had nothing to do with why their prospects buy. And so it had no marketing value. 

Subscriber Susan T. nailed it in her reply to yesterday’s email: “​​I have spent years feeling that I am in the wilderness when it comes to ‘Knowing your Why.’ The why should get you out of bed each day, but other than that, it’s useless as a driver of business.”

…unless your why aligns with THEIR why. 

Why do prospects buy? Because they want to solve a problem, overcome a fear, achieve a goal, fulfill a dream. 

They want to journey from before (pain, confusion, struggle) to a better after (relief, clarity, success). 

Why do you exist? To help them on that journey.

If you don’t have that right, your why may make you feel good, but it won’t sell diddly.