Why Do You Do What You Do?Our Swindon business advice column with Gail GibsonAs a
business owner are you someone who attends networking events to market yourself
and your business? Chances are you have heard this question many times over,
“What do you do?”.
For many people this is the typical way you choose to break the ice and get to know someone, and to find out about their product or services. But what does this
question actually tell you? It informs you about WHAT an individual or business
does such as an accountant offering payroll, end of year accounts and self
assessment. These WHAT criteria are the features of the business, the
activities you do. Somewhat like a shopping list, filled with items you need to
buy.
So how can you delve deeper into finding out more than WHAT someone does? You can always reframe the way you ask the question. When you reframe you give yourself an opportunity to see or think differently, you open up a new perspective. From this new perspective you can broaden your opportunity. Try this. Instead of asking, “What do you do?” reframe your thinking and ask, “Why do you do what you do?” Now, how has that challenged your thinking? Asking ‘why’ can lead an individual to consider more about the purpose behind his/her business. Your newly posed question encourages a deeper response, in effect so you can discover what makes the person and their business ‘tick’, or to find out their belief in why they do what they do. Knowing the purpose or ‘why’ of a person or business allows you to develop a better impression of how they may be able to help you or someone else you know. ‘Why’ offers you a chance to ‘buy into’ an idea. A great example of this is Apple. When Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created the Apple brand, their purpose or why was always to deliver the idea of lifestyle. When Apple released their first iPod, their marketing team sold the idea to give you “1000 songs in your pocket”. At the same time Dell released an MP3 player
stating, “Up to 5GB of storage for your music”. Think about it. Apple sold
their why, whereas Dell sold their what.
Next time you are at a networking event, change your tack and ask ‘Why’ instead of ‘What’. |
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