Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle theory brings us back to the importance of leading our business aligned with our mission, vision and values. And that what we do and how we communicate must always start from our “why.”
Focusing on why you sell what you sell and not directly on what you sell allows your customers to connect with your message on a more emotional level and has a more persuasive effect.
This is what it’s all about.
Understanding your reason for being (Why) is the basis for finding out how to get there (How) and with what (What).
Thus, assuming everyone’s intrinsic motivations are unique, we can deduce that all offers will require different positioning.
Whether it’s your website, your branding, or the descriptive texts that present your products and services: everything should be personalized and consistent with the core values established for your company. That’s why you need to ask yourself all these questions *before* initiating a branding approach or any other marketing strategy. Ideally, you should be ready to tell us about it at our first meeting.
Find your Why
Finding your Why, or your raison d’être, requires self-analysis and a good dose of introspection. The “why” focuses on your values and what you want to bring to the world. To the emotion you wish to arouse in your customers. This is often why you get up in the morning and continue on the thorny path of entrepreneurship. You have to believe strongly!
Your reason for being (also called Mission) goes far beyond your products or services. Your company should not limit itself by summarizing what it does by saying, for example, “we sell wedding shoes.” Once you see things differently, you could say that your mission is to “allow brides to enjoy the most beautiful day of their lives.”
The important thing for your communication (in all its forms), will be that it is centered on your values and on what you wish to bring. This is why it is usually important not to be “against” but “for” something. That said, when you don’t know where to start, sometimes it’s not a bad idea to exclude the things you don’t want first… Read more here.
Define how to get there – How
Once we have found our mission or motivation, we need to know how to get there. The answer is not “by offering X or Y,” but how you will offer your products and services to the world. What method or approach is unique to you? What behaviour is evident in the way you deal with your customers?
You can probably see me coming. I’m talking about your values here. Values are often put aside to work on the mission or vision. But it is what will attract your customers and is usually based on values that your customers will want to associate with you. Clients, suppliers or collaborators, we like to do business with people like us, with whom “it clicks” and who act with values similar to ours. Often, values are all that differentiate one service offering from another. For example, at Alexem Studio, our values are Ingenuity, efficiency, availability, loyalty and empathy. They guide everything we deliver and shape every business relationship we have. In our wedding shoe example, we could imagine a company with the following values: Innovation, Trust, Quality, Freedom, and Pleasure.
Establishing your corporate values will allow you to go into business in a manner consistent with your purpose. These two elements will guide you in specifying your service offer (or products) to your target clientele. Usually, your clientele is already targeted by your mission. It is better not to be too general, and dare to target a niche that will allow you to dominate a market. So we don’t want to “change the world”, but rather specify we want to change the world of whom, and how 😉
Through what offer – What
Let’s go back to our example of wedding shoes. Of course, there are many ways to help your clients “enjoy their wedding,” but what would you suggest? This could be through event planning services or by creating wedding invitations. Your initial service offer should be…
- Fairly well defined (not too wide)
- In line with your purpose and values
- In line with your skills and interests
- Have a strong distinctive element (if it is not concretely in the products, then it must ABSOLUTELY be in your “How”
- Ideally, with growth potential.
So, maybe for you, who have been in the fashion business all your life and suffered too often from wearing beautiful but uncomfortable shoes (for example at your wedding), it was only natural to choose to sell shoes. But not just any shoes: they would be “quality, stylish shoes that provide unparalleled comfort all day long thanks to a unique manufacturing technique”.
Knowing your aspirations and values will allow you to reflect on your service offering or the products you offer.
Seeing things differently
The golden circle will allow you to work with motivation and passion, and to attract clients who will be attracted by your reason for being. You will differentiate yourself through your values.
This way of thinking and communicating allows you to place yourself and your target audience at the heart of your decisions, actions and communications.
Of course, our team is here to guide you every step of the way!
