“People Don’t Buy What You Do, They Buy Why You Do It”

written by MO.com Subject Matter Resource Sledge Smith

Learning how to sell, or, at the very least, having opportunities to learn what it takes to do it, can be of tremendous added value with business goals. But if you work in a business development role, it’s important to understand that capacity isn’t about pure sales. You’re not “dialing for dollars” to sell whatever it is you have so to speak, but identifying and qualifying opportunities for (or better yet with) prospects who would benefit from what could be monetized in business scenarios that don’t exist yet.

I was thinking about what it takes to convince prospects to hear you out when such opportunities are identified, and it reminded me of two things. Number one, that it can be so tough to get the time desired with prospects, you can become more focused on getting the opportunity for yourself, and less so on the opportunity’s purpose — Why that prospect would greatly benefit. Number two, it brought to mind a TEDx video I received from my friend, branding expert Susan Lee, on this very topic: the power of why people are motivated to do things, which in business evolves around why they meet with you, buy from you, etc.

I wanted to share that video. In 2009, Simon Sinek, author of a great book called, “Start With Why” gave a talk at TED on a concept he’s popularized around human motivation he calls The Golden Circle. While all entrepreneurs are inspired to achieve an end result, be it raising capital, driving sales, or, landing a monster client, those are all great, important milestones but strictly end results just the same. What matters even more than how you achieve such things is the why behind them…it’s what makes those accomplishments possible and Simon Sinek knows a lot about that. Watch the video and hope you enjoy it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4ZoJKF_VuA