Simon Sinek's bad advice

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There's a video that's been going viral in marketing teams for more than a decade now - Simon Sinek's Tedx talk called "start with why".

In the 2009 video, Sinek - a marketing guru, influencer, whatever -  insists that "people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it." 

In other words, people don't actually care about whether your product or service adds value to their lives. All they care about is the grand, higher purpose behind whatever it is you do. 

So if you want to succeed, all you need to do is identify your organisation's higher purpose, lead all your marketing messaging with that purpose, and, just like that, everyone who likes the sound of that purpose will buy what you have to sell. 

It's a seductive idea: do this one thing, do it well, and success is guaranteed.

There's just one problem, though. It's bad advice. Terrible, in fact. You should not follow it. Here's why:
 

You are not that important

Starting with "why" is all about you. It's about your values, your priorities and what you think is important. It's internally-focused. 

But successful marketing isn't about you. Successful marketing is about the people it's talking to. It's about their problems, their anxieties, their aspirations.

When you lead your marketing with some visionary statement about your values, you're essentially saying that those values are more important than the things your customers care about. That is not a good way to connect with people and convince them to do something. 

A better approach is to start with your customers, and find out what's important to them. If they truly do care deeply about your business's higher purpose, then by all means, lead with that in your messaging. But I think that you're going to find that most customers really aren't that interested.

They're too busy living their lives to turn their minds to your lofty visions. 

 

Your business is bigger than the marketing team

Sinek's main example is Apple. He says that people are willing to buy new products that Apple introduces (the iPod, the iPhone, the watch) because Apple has such a strong "why" - something about challenging the status quo and thinking differently.

According to him, that "why" is what inspires someone to buy a phone from a company that previously just made computers, or a watch from a company that has never made a watch before. 

Maybe. But isn't it more likely that people buy new Apple products because they're so thrilled with their experience with their previous Apple products?

Apple has spent decades building up an amazing reputation, mostly by building really good products that people love using. That has nothing to do with their "why" in their marketing. That's just great design and engineering - and only a bad marketer would handwave those divisions of a business away.
 

Nothing is that simple

I think people find Sinek compelling because he promises so much in exchange for very little. "Starting with why" looks so easy.

But successful marketing is not easy. 

In reality, marketing is full of hard problems. And hard problems don't have easy solutions. Hard problems require you to make decisions that involve tradeoffs, make sure different moving parts work together, and sometimes just put in the grinding work to get things done.

None of that is easy, but it gives you a much higher chance of success than just sprinkling some purpose statements in your messaging. 
 

Wrapping up

I think it's pretty clear by now where I stand on Simon Sinek's "start with why." It doesn't take customer needs into account. It undervalues the rest of the business. And it tries to apply a simple solution to a hard problem.

All that aside, there are places where your "why" can be useful. Internal communications are a great example.  Big, expensive above-the-line awareness campaigns can also benefit from a bit of this thinking, as can investor relations. 

And I'll say this: he is a great speaker. Gifted, even. It's hard to watch his video without getting inspired. So do that! Watch his video, soak up some inspiration, then channel that energy into literally anything other than following his advice. 

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