After years of reading academic literature on program implementation I understood that people had to believe that there was a clear need for a program for it to be successful.

People don’t support what they don’t believe in. They don’t support what they feel they don’t need. It is an extra. An add-on. A waste of time in an already busy life.

I felt this made sense. Give people what they need. Simple enough. Or is it?

Do people really know what they need?

Henry Ford once said, “If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, ‘A faster horse!” People don’t know what they want until you show it to them.

Steve Jobs never relied on market research. He felt innovators need to read things that are not yet on the page.

When I try to imagine the future, I realize that I’m not Henry Ford or Steve Jobs. I need a more practical strategy.

Start with why

Simon Sinek’s 2009 book, Start with Why, got me thinking about meeting client needs.

He repeatedly states that people don’t buy what you do, but why you do it.

Thinking about the programs I’ve implemented myself, I started with the why or the need for it. People bought into the program because they saw it too.

Or maybe it was my passion and my belief in what I was doing that caused people to buy into ‘my why’ more than ‘my what’.

If I am honest, the effort and participation required of them far outweighed the immediate benefits they may have gained.

The hook may have attracted them, but they worked towards ‘the why’.

It shouldn’t surprise me that the people who were only interested in the hook dropped out of the program and the people who remained and later joined were those who were equally committed to the cause.

As we all know, you can get someone to buy a gym membership with a hook, but getting them to go several times a week is a different story. If they don’t believe in ‘the why’, they won’t go.

Simon Sinek is right. Start with why.

Create clarity of who you are and what you stand for. Only then will you find the right partners and attract the right customers. You’ll build loyalty.

It all starts with why. 

Best wishes, Lauren

P.s. If you would like help with program implementation, consider booking a free 30-minute consultation to see if we can help.