Thursday, June 10, 2010

Pondering the Power of Why

I’ll begin this blog post with a thank you to a start-up client of mine who drew my attention to this fantastic presentation by Simon Sinek at the September 2009 TED conference in 2009. Sinek’s presentation, and the topic of his book (available on Amazon) is entitled, ‘The Power of Why.’


Not to steal his thunder, the presentation is well worth the five minutes to watch it, but Sinek asserts that businesses typically have their approach wrong when framing out what they do for the market (think investor, customer, media pitches). Typically, folks start by talking about WHAT they do, then move to HOW they do it and finally get to WHY they do it. Sinek asserts that truly visionary companies and individuals actually succeed in captivating their audiences by turning that approach upside down. Begin with the WHY, and you instantly lock into people’s psyche.

Inspired, I just used this formula to rewrite a sales letter for a customer, and boy, did it make a difference.

Lead off with the business challenge. Use stories to relay your message. These are all concepts I relay to clients on a daily basis, but I like simple things and concepts. And as this formula goes, it’s about as simple as it gets.

Check it out. http://www.startwithwhy.com/What/TheBook.aspx