Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle

If you haven’t taken the time to watch, Simon Sinek’s Ted Talk on the Golden Circle, you are really doing yourself an injustice. The message that Simon gives has been viewed millions of times and helped people from all walks of life achieve more in their business. The overall theme of the message is one that is simple to understand, “people don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it”.

As you can see Simon’s Golden Circle is in three different parts. The outside is the least important feature because it is very evident. Every organization or person knows what products or services they bring to the table, but fewer dig deeper and discover how they do it.

This brings us to the second ring of the circle, HOW. Simon explains that no matter what you call it this is thing that allows a company or person to achieve WHAT they do. It can be, for example, a new method of building cars that allows you to produce faster or cheaper than your competition.

Finally, that brings us to the WHY circle. A typical marketing message from a car manufacturer might be, “We sell amazing cars (WHAT). They’re are made right here in the United States and have some of the highest safety features on the market (HOW). Wanna buy one?” Simon tells us that great companies reverse this pattern of communication and begin with the WHY. The example that he uses is Apple. Apple has distinguished itself from the rest of the market by communicating, “In everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently (WHY). We challenge the status quo by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use, and user friendly (HOW). We just so happen to make great computers (WHAT). Wanna buy one?”

This simple communication technique has allowed Apple to flourish in numerous spaces and not be held down by consumer expectations. Had they just sold themselves as a computer company they might never have had the success they have with Apple TVs, Apple Watches, iPads, and so on. If real estate agents began to think about their WHY they would have a better chance of success in their sales.

For my team this exercise is really important. In everything we do we believe that in order to succeed, we must genuinely serve (WHY). We serve our clients by helping them generate more customers in their business (HOW) with technology that we developed that grows their company for them (What).

Find the why in your business plan and start generating the business that you want to.