book study

Start With Why – Book Study – Part 4

As we’re well into the book study of Start With Why, and we’re starting to focus much more on the ‘How’s and the What’s’. The first half of the book framed ‘Why’ very well, but chapter 8 was titled….Start With Why, But Know HOW! So we’re switching gears slightly…

start with why book study

I really loved this quote referring to the image above;

“What a company says and does are the means by which the company speaks…”

He compared the side view of our Golden Circle as a megaphone. The reason why projects our what’s and how’s. That was a very good visual description for me to understand how everything begins at our why, but the how’s and what’s are what people see and hear.

Think about it…Most CEO’s aren’t rubbing shoulders and shaking hands with their customers (sadly) so they need their what’s and how’s to represent them. Why do employees in companies like Apple and Southwest have such loyalty to their ‘CEO’? They are all on the same wave length, they all believe their WHY, so what they project is a representation of the big reason WHY for the entire company.

Pretty powerful stuff when you think about it.

The next few chapters discussed how just being loud for the sake of being loud, may grab attention but might not be the best game plan to develop loyalty.

This quote summed it up brilliantly;

“Volume is reasonably easy to achieve. All it takes is money or stunts. Money can pay to keep a message front and center…”

Made me think of advertising of days past. The mass marketing of a message, and keeping it in front of people for the long run. Sure it may work to get your brand out there, but are your customers loyal?

Huge food for thought?

So what makes customers loyal? What creates lifetime business between you and your customers?

Start With Why is beginning to answer that in a big way. It starts with…WHY. And getting everyone on board with it. From the executives, to the people in the trenches. To your customers to your marketing team. The way to build lifetime loyalty, is to prject a reason why that everyone adopts as their own.

2 thoughts to “Start With Why – Book Study – Part 4”

  1. Very good points Jon! The ‘why’ is the basis of everything else. Why I started this current project is the same ‘why’ that has customers wanting to be on a waiting list even though we are not in production yet. It is ‘why’ people come by almost daily to talk to me, see the ‘how and what’ as it develops, and are becoming ‘loyal customers’ BEFORE they have even seen/bought the product.

    Define the ‘why’ – keep that focus as you build. It pays! 🙂

    1. Thanks RT. Yeah man, reading this book has helped me in so many ways. Really got excited the more I thought about my why from a decade ago and how much its changed. I’ve lost focus. Need to bring it back.

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