Don’t expect clients to give you credit for doing the right thing
There’s one mistake most clients I work with make at some point: They think customers will care.
Your company’s trying to do things right. You’re going to heal the world or fix your industry or give employees a better life.
And that’s worth bragging about, right?
…right?
YOUR MISSION MAY NOT BE YOUR MESSAGE
The landscaper sharing video from the employee retreat and the solar-panel company preaching climate change both make the same error: They put one stakeholder in another’s seat.
Employees aren’t clients. Customers aren’t the climate.
For a company seeking justice, this is a particular challenge. You’re not only in this for your buyers or yourself; you’ve figured out that how you treat your team or use the earth’s resources or impact society matters.
Your org’s heart sets you apart. So doesn’t it make sense to market with it?
Sometimes yes.
But in a lot of cases, doing so confuses clients, makes the message weaker and makes selling harder than it could be.
In the next few minutes, I want to show you why your higher purpose may not be the winning advantage we all wish it was. And why sometimes it is. And how to know which camp you fall into.
And what to do about it.
First, we have to throw cold water on your favorite TED talk.
DON’T START WITH WHY
Even if you haven’t seen Simon Sinek’s 2010 talk, you’ve come across his “golden circle” with the word “why” scrawled across the center.
Or some nerd like me has quoted it to you.
“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it,” Sinek says in that talk. It’s a sound-bite so fantastic that us would-be sages have repeated it roughly once per second for the 16 years since Sinek said it.
It’s so elegant. So simple.
That’s the problem. Critics have a lot of questions about Sinek’s argument; most of them boil down to: Where’s the data?
Sinek doesn’t use any.
And of course, his talk’s about how to inspire – it’s NOT explicitly about your company’s marketing plan.
Guess what happens when you turn “start with why” into a campaign and track it?
THE HIGH ROAD’S NOT A CHEAT CODE
I won’t get too into the weeds here, but the actual research data into whether you should base your marketing on your company’s purpose is… complex.
Peter Field found marketing campaigns that did NOT focus on purpose outperformed the ones that did by almost 50%.
But – the same study found that the best purpose-focused campaigns did the best of all.
A report by Kantar showed the same complexity: Brands seen as having “high positive impact” grew 175% over 12 years, compared to only 70% growth for brands seen as “low impact.”
The trick: Only one in ten companies studied had a “meaningful activation plan” to go along with their purpose.
Still with me? Here’s the bottom line, I think:
➡️ A business chasing more than money does have an advantage. But to realize that advantage, you can’t just talk about your company’s purpose.
You actually have to live it.
If you say it but don’t live it – you’d be better off not saying it at all.
PRACTICE MAKES PURPOSE
Here’s how philosophers have thought about you since, at least, the days of Aristotle:
You have beliefs, the ideas you hold about how you ought to live.
You have practices, the things you routinely do and say.
You have character, the sort of person you are and are known to be.
Your neighbors trust your character. Not your beliefs.
In business it’s more complicated, but not different. Turn a purpose statement into marketing without letting it touch operations, sales or customer success — and you’re not purpose-driven. You just say you are.
But practice what you preach, and marketing won’t even need to preach it.
Should it, though?
SHOULD MISSION BE THE MESSAGE?
If you’ve seen the four-part strategy framework I use with clients, you’ll notice it lines up with the ideas above: Your company’s vision and position are beliefs. Its strengths and systems are its practices.
Those are the elements you control. You – as a group, together – choose your own strategic DNA. You name beliefs and create practices.
Your company’s character comes from that.
Want a more just world? Then that pursuit should be reflected in your company’s character. Buyers should both see it and experience it; it should win their trust and keep it, too.
If your company lives its purpose, that should give you an advantage in your market.
But it’s probably NOT your message.
I’ve seen purpose work as primary messaging perhaps one time in 10. If you sell to early adopters or to a small niche who have the same values and cultural insights you do — then yes, talking purpose might be what moves them to act.
That’s the bet I’ve made in this very newsletter, and if you’re still reading then it must be working.
Usually, though, it doesn’t. Clients need clarity most of all – they need to know what you do and how they should buy. They need a “why” that works for them, not you.
They need to know you’ll fix their yard or lower their electric bill.
Changing the world can wait.
Your own “why” might be part of what a buyer’s looking for. But for most people, most of the time, it’s not where the conversation starts.
WHAT WORKED FOR YOU?
In the coming weeks, I’ll share some stories about how just businesses have used or not used mission in their messaging.
Did an experience of your own come to mind while you read this?
Reach out – I’d love to hear it.
If you’d like some help aligning your own company’s beliefs and practice in a way that helps you win more clients, I’d love to tell you how I do that. Here’s my calendar.
