The importance of WHY, before HOW and WHAT.

Simon Sinek, an adjunct staff member of the RAND Corporation, one of the most highly regarded think tanks in the world. He wrote a best seller, "Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action". Yes, his principles focus on leaders and the importance of communicating "why". I could write about this topic for pages, but I want to stay on point for the moment, so...

Sinek believes you should communicate to your customers: WHY your product/solution matters, than HOW it does it and finish with WHAT it does. We believe most companies do this in reverse. Starting with what features the product has, how it does it so well and finishing with why you should but it.

"Sell to people who believe what you believe." Says Sinek. "People don't buy what you do, they purchase why you do it."

He spoke at a TED talk back in September 2009, it has been viewed by over 4 million people on YouTube.

He does a nice job of explaining his point and connecting it with Geoffrey Moore's "Crossing The Chasm" principles that help you understand the importance of getting wide spread adoption of your product by the early and late majorities, which is where the "big" sales come from.

Here is his presentation at TED, enjoy!