People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. Simon Sinek explains how Apple communicates to inspire action. Do you know your “why” or just your “what”?

business, strategy, planning, growth, competition, market, analysis, innovation, decision-making, leadership, tactics, implementation, success, challenges, opportunities

If Apple were like everyone else, a marketing message from them might sound like this. We make great computers. They're beautifully designed, simple to use, and user-friendly. Want to buy one? Meh. And that's how most of us communicate. That's how most marketing is done, that's how most sales are done, and that's how most of us communicate interpersonal. We say what we do, we say how we're different or how we're better, and we expect some sort of behavior, a purchase, a vote, something like that. Here's our new law firm. We have the best lawyers with the biggest clients. We always perform for our clients, do business with us. Here's our new car. It gets great gas mileage. It has leather seats. Buy our car. But it's uninspiring. Here's how Apple actually communicates. Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use, and user-friendly. We just happen to make great computers. Want to buy one? Totally different, right? You ready to buy a computer from me? All I did was reverse the order of the information. People don't buy what you do, people buy why you do it. People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. This explains why every single person in this room is perfectly comfortable buying a computer from Apple. But we're also perfectly comfortable buying an MP3 player from Apple, or a phone from Apple, or a DVR from Apple. But as I said before, Apple's just a computer company. There's nothing that distinguishes them structurally from any of their competitors. Their competitors are all equally qualified to make all of these products. In fact, they tried. A few years ago, Gateway came out with flat-screen TVs. They're eminently qualified to make flat-screen TVs. They've been making flat-screen monitors for years. Nobody bought one. Dell came out with MP3 players and PDAs. And they make great quality products, and they can make perfectly well-designed products, and nobody bought one. In fact, talking about it now, we can't even imagine buying an MP3 player from Dell. Why would you buy an MP3 player from a computer company? But we do it every day. People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. The goal is not to do business with anybody who needs what you have. The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe. Here's the best part. None of what I'm telling you is my opinion. It's all grounded in the tenets of biology, not psychology, biology. If you look at a cross-section of the human brain looking from the top down, what you see is the human brain is actually broken into three major components that correlate perfectly with the golden circle. Our newest brain, our homo sapien brain, our neocortex, corresponds with the what level. The neocortex is responsible for all of our rational and analytical thought and language. The middle two sections make up our limbic brains, and our limbic brains are responsible for all of our feelings, like trust and loyalty. It's also responsible for all human behavior, all decision-making, and it has no capacity for language. In other words, when we communicate from the outside in, yes, people can understand vast amounts of complicated information like features and benefits and facts and figures. It just doesn't drive behavior. When we communicate from the inside out, we're talking directly to the part of the brain that controls behavior, and then we allow people to rationalize it with the tangible things we say and do. This is where gut decisions come from. You know, sometimes you can give somebody all the facts and your figures, and they say, I know what all the facts and details say, but it just doesn't feel right. Why would we use that verb? It doesn't feel right, because the part of the brain that controls decision-making doesn't control language, and the best we can muster up is, I don't know, it just doesn't feel right. Or sometimes you say you're leading with your heart, or you're leading with your soul. Well, I hate to break it to you. Those aren't other body parts controlling your behavior. It's all happening here in your limbic brain, the part of the brain that controls decision-making and not language. But if you don't know why you do what you do, and people respond to why you do what you do, then how will anybody ever get people to vote for you or buy something from you, or more importantly, be loyal and want to be a part of what it is that you do? Again, the goal is not just to sell people who need what you have, the goal is to sell to people who believe what you believe.