Start With Your ‘Why?’
By Shai Patel
Businesses are established for various reasons. Some are set up to embolden a hobby or passion into something of benefit to a wider group of individuals, whilst earning an income at the same time. Some are established by people wanting to have more control of their lives and not be tied up with a corporate lifestyle or being managed by other people. Others are established by serial entrepreneurs, seeking the next big fad or exploiting a gap in the marketplace.
Many start-up businesses and established businesses plateau and falter after the first few energetic months or years. The initial drive, ambition, hurtling pace of setting up and running a business also included long hours and sleepless nights. After some time, the days become despairing but yet still full of long hours and sleepless nights wondering from where and when the next customer or cheque will come from.
Investment and time may have been committed to marketing – in local press, on social media platforms maybe even a slot or two on the radio, to little or no avail.
In this article, business growth professional, Shai Patel discusses that it is often necessary to get back to the roots (excuse the unintended pun) of your business – understanding your WHY.
People Don’t Buy What You Do, They Buy Why You Do It
Simon Sinek, known today as an Optimist and Motivational Speaker, introduced the concept of ‘Start With Why (How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action)’ in 2009. Whilst concentrating on leadership skills, the concept extends into business management.
As arborists, picture the lateral view of a tree – only this has three concentric circles:
These concentric Circles have WHY at the Centre, followed by HOW at the middle and WHAT at the outer circle. Every member of CAS knows WHAT they do, these are the services you offer and products you may sell.
Everyone reading this newsletter knows what they do and HOW they do it whether you call it your differentiating value proposition your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) or proprietary process- these are the things that you think make you different or special or stand out from the competition from everyone else.
However, very few people and very few organisations can clearly articulate WHY they do what they do. By WHY it is not just a reference to making money - that’s a result of your activities. By WHY, we mean what is your purpose, what is your cause, what is your belief. WHY even does your business exist? Do we really need another arborist to do what you are doing?
In business and life in general we tell people WHAT we do – ‘I teach young adults’; ‘I inspect and report on the health of trees and surrounding natural environment’; ‘I coach businesses on how to grow’.
We tell them HOW we are better or different or how we are special, and we anticipate some sort of behaviour - a purchase, recommendation, support, whatever it is.
Very rarely will we come across a business owner or leader who discusses WHY. WHY do we do WHAT we do.
Sinek uses Apple amongst one of many examples of inspiration and the traditional WHAT model turned on its head to the WHY model.
If Apple were like most other companies, a marketing message from them would move from the outside in of The Golden Circle. It would start with some statement of WHAT the company does or makes, followed by HOW they think they are different or better than the competition, followed by some call to action.
With that, the company would expect some behaviour in return, in this case a purchase.
A marketing message from Apple, if they were like everyone else, might sound like this:
“We make great computers. They’re beautifully designed, simple to use and user-friendly. Wanna buy one?”
It is not a very compelling sales pitch, but that is how most companies sell to us. This is the norm.
First, they start with WHAT they do—“Here’s our new car.” Then they tell us how they do it or how they are better—“It’s got leather seats, great MPG, and available with great financing options.” And then they make a call to action and expect a behaviour.
But that is not what business owners or leaders with the capacity to inspire do. Regardless of their size, regardless of their industry every single one of them thinks, acts and communicates from the inside out (WHY to WHAT).
Reverting to the Apple example, let us examine the order Apple actually communicates with – Apple starts with the WHY
“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?”
This feels different, just reversed the order of the information starts with WHY its not WHAT you do that matters . What you do is the tangible proof of what you believe. People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.
It is not what you do that matters its WHY you do it that matters
You have to have the following three for this to work:
- YOU must have to know WHY you do what you do. If you don’t how else will anyone have clarity of WHY. The WHY does not evolve, each persona has one WHY born from our upbringing e are products of our childhood
- YOU must discipline of HOW you must hold yourself and your people accountable to your own guiding principles and your own values. HOW is the strategy, the structures and the processes.
- YOU must have consistency of WHAT everything you say and everything you do has to prove what you believe. WHAT is the Tactics – you have a goal and sometimes you change it that’s the tactics but the strategy is the HOW.
Communicate your WHY
So, you have your WHY which is genuine. You believe it and your fellow arborists believe it. However, it is your leadership that will help put your own desires, your own beliefs into words.
There is an inextricable link between leadership and communication.
Those who lead are the ones who can clearly talk about what they believe and those that can clearly talk about they believe are the ones who can lead
When people believe what you believe, they will work for you with blood sweat and tears. When they don’t believe what you believe they for your money. Your goal therefore as arborists and business owners is not to surround yourself with everybody who needs what you have - the goal is to surround yourself with people who believe what you believe.
There are a million reasons people will choose to do business with you that have nothing to do with you, you happen to meet some checklist that they have, price, availability, sincerity may be those on the checklist. Your customers may just happen to dislike your competition more.
There is a difference between repeat business and loyalty. Repeat business is doing business repeatedly. Loyalty is I’ll do business with you, even though there is a better product at a better price.
It is those loyal customers and partners who believe in what you believe, and WHY you believe in what you believe.
So, given the challenging times that the pandemic has brought upon us, now may be a good time to re-visit your WHY.
Go back to the roots of WHY you started the business (beyond just making money). Be genuine in your examination – it is something you should be comfortable communicating to your fellow arborists, alliance partners and ultimately your customers.
The WHY is the beginning. This leads to you successfully developing your values and mission for the business – topics we hope to visit over the coming few weeks
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