As part of our bi-weekly Sandler training, we reviewed and discussed a video from Simon Sinek, leadership expert and author of several best-selling books, including Start with Why.
One of the key takeaways in our class was that when most businesses describe their mission, they describe ‘what’ they do and ‘how’ they do it, but they rarely touch on ‘why’ they do what they do. When we address our ‘why’ and our ‘how,’ we access the feeling part of our brain. As Simon Sinek described it, this is the limbic brain, the most ancient part of the brain – the part of the brain that controls our feelings, our behavior, and our decision-making. Speaking about ‘what’ we do does not address the most important part of the brain.
What does this mean for salespeople?
We know that prospects are motivated to purchase based on “pain.” The feeling part of the brain is moving them to take action (behavior) and ultimately, they will make a decision. When we share a mission that starts with our ‘why’ we’re already addressing the pain that our customers experience. We are, according to Sinek, “talking to the part of the brain that controls behavior.” Our ‘why’ becomes the hook that attracts a customer’s attention and brings them toward us.
Simon Sinek’s research led him to conclude that organizations that lead with their ‘why’ are best positioned for success in the marketplace because they speak to the portion of the brain that controls decision-making.
After our training, we looked closely at our mission statement and realized we also focused heavily on the ‘what,’ but not the ‘why.’ Our ‘what’ includes lead generation and sales training our ‘how’ is described as unique lead generation techniques with highly trained, highly motivated sales professionals. We decided to tweak our statement to incorporate a ‘why,’ and we believe this makes our mission statement stronger. Our revised mission statement is:
Our goal at One of a Kind Sales is to help businesses stop leaving money on the table. We do this by PROUDLY delivering unique lead generation by setting qualified appointments and providing top-of-the-line sales training for our clients and their employees.
If you’d like to explore opportunities to leverage our capabilities on behalf of your organization, we’d love to talk to you. Give us a call at 908-879-2911.
