The power of why.
The story of the mysteriously lacking W of The Five Ws.
A little known fact is that in university, I majored in Journalism. I was possibly a bit crazy considering I was dyslexic, and I have to admit this was before spell checkers worked and amazing apps like Grammarly could rock my world. But after stumbling around trying my hand at a few things, as many of us do, I found the power of words.
I ultimately gave up on fighting upstream on my inability to see the difference between was and saw choosing instead to step into marketing (which, of course, led me back to writing, but that's a whole other blog!). However, no matter my journey, one class has served me well throughout my career choices or directions.
A one-semester course on writing for newspapers has been the most invaluable course of my entire schooling history.
From day one, our mantra was "who, what, where, when, how and why." Aka: The Five Ws, Five Ws and one H, or the Six Ws depending on who you talk to.
For anyone new to journalism or the concept, these questions are considered the formula for getting the complete story. I believe they use them in investigations as well.
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
An article was never considered whole unless we could certify that each of the W's and that H was addressed upfront and in the beginning. The continuous practice of ensuring we covered all of that information in the opening sentence (two if we were pushed) in a way that was informative, captivating, and correct has never left me.
I still now find myself repeating that pattern to check for accuracy in briefs, project management to make sure all bases are covered, event management plans and most recently when I'm trying to understand and build a unique value proposition.
Working on these and always coming back to my 5+1W's as a checkpoint, there is something that is pretty consistent. One "W" is often lacking in chutzpah.
I have discovered that no matter where I am, what industry I'm working in or who the team is, or even how senior or experienced they are, when we dive into the detail to build out the value proposition, the sticking point most often is "why."
(Hay professor, did you see what I did there by the way! But I digress)
What tends to happen is that you often see the "how" squeezed to fit the why. I hate to break it to all of those people building amazing new technology or have a fabulous solution, but just because it does something cool or technically outstanding does not answer why a customer should, will or want to buy your product, service or solution.
If you don't understand why your audience should care, why they want what you're selling, you're going to struggle no matter how wonderful or unique your offering.
The most powerful branding and marketing operate from the outside in, meaning from the customers’ perspective.
The closest we can get to articulating a powerful, authentic and human "why," the closer you are to connecting your customers’ needs, wishes and desires and what naturally flows is more success with all of your sales and marketing. Your purpose being align with their needs, wants or desires.
Just like my professor, don’t let yourself off the hook and find your powerful why. Need a hint? Start with the problem.
There is an amazing TED talk from Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership -- starting with a golden circle and the question: "Why?"