Find customers who believe what you believe

Start With Why is a TED talk by Simon Sinek that has been watched more than 24.8 million times. Plus a further 701,000 views on YouTube. It takes 18 minutes to watch and is inspiring.

There is also the book, advertised as a global bestseller. It will take you four to six hours to read and I recommend that you take longer than this.

While the talk is brilliant and the book seems to say not much more across its 200 pages, the benefit of spending time with Sinek’s ideas comes from challenging how well you can answer the question: “Well why should I do business with you?”

The first part of the book is all about business as usual. The manipulations that companies use to keep customers - price, promotions, fear, aspirations, peer pressure, and novelty (a.k.a. innovation) - are all entertainingly eviscerated.

“Price always costs something. The question is, how much are you willing to pay for the money you make?” Sinek prompts.

Manipulations are perfectly valid strategy for driving a transaction or for any behaviour that is only required once or on rare occasions, he argues. However in any circumstance in which an organisation wants a loyal, lasting relationship manipulations do not help.

Building loyalty requires you to know your WHY? Sinek shows how the way your brain is hard-wired underpins this truth. He says too many companies are good at saying what they do. Some can say how they do it. But only the great companies can say why they do it. This is because people buy why you do what you do rather than what you do. Sinek explains using the example of Apple versus its competitors.

Its competitors say: We make great computers. They’re beautifully designed, simple to use and user-friendly. Wanna buy one?

Apple says: Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user-friendly. And we happen to make great computers. Wanna buy one?

“The goal of business should not be to do business with anyone who simply wants what you have. It should be to focus on the people who believe what you believe. When we are selective about doing business only with those who believe in our WHY, trust emerges.”

Also, if you attract the early adopters who believe in what you do, they will bring the rest of the market to your door. That is challenging stuff.

Sinek discusses the missions of two stonemasons. One is building a wall. The other a cathedral. “The role of a leader is to create an environment in which great ideas can happen,” he writes. What kind of business are you building? “We don’t want to come to work to build a wall, we want to come to work to build a cathedral.”

He writes about the success of CostCo where Jim Sinegal’s WHY was: “We are going to build a company that’s on a first name basis with everyone.” As a result he determined to pay his employees more than everyone else. Wall Street analysts said that Costco was better at serving the club member and the employee than the shareholder. Sinegal replied that he was in the business of building a business that would be around in 50 years based on word of mouth.

Sinek is on shakier ground using Walmart as an example. He claims Sam Walton’s WHY was that he valued people above all else. I reckon his WHY was more likely about cutting out all the margin being taken by the middlemen who frustrated his attempts to give shoppers what they wanted at the lowest possible price and that was a seam his company successfully mined for 50 years. But I agree there was a WHY.

If this book inspired you, please pass it on to someone you want to inspire, Sinek finishes. He provides a long answer to the why should I do business with you question. Part of the answer is: “Our goal is to find customers who believe what we believe and work together so that we can all succeed.” If that’s your goal, this is a book for you.

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