By Dean Whittaker

During our webinar this month, “The Seven Deadly Sins of Community Marketing”,
Roger Brooks taught us that one of those sins is overlooking the “why” aspect of our marketing efforts and instead focusing too much on the “what.” Often, we attempt to sell features and benefits before we ever convey our beliefs and values to our audience.

Ironically, I also watched Simon Sinek deliver a similar message in his TED Talk, “How Great Leaders Inspire Action”, in which he describes the communication style of great leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Wright brothers. Great leaders inspire and motivate us by focusing on the “why” and using the “what” to teach a new concept. Sinek said that most selling starts and ends with what we are selling. What if, instead, we shared the beliefs of our organization and the opportunities for our client in joining us in those beliefs?

As we are all struggling to make sense of this crazy world that we have helped to create, it might be a good idea to step back and reflect on both our personal and organizational values and beliefs. How are we communicating those in the way in which we do things? Asking why is an important question to give some thought.