Creating a story aligned with your purpose is important for several reasons. It helps define your GTM (go-to-market) better by prioritizing the right offers. Having a clear purpose also gives the entire team something to rally around. Finally, clients can feel and appreciate the focus you are bringing because it clearly reflects onto their own strategic objectives.
But what is “purpose”? And how to create a story that is aligned to it?
In this post, I will try to simplify this topic and make it actionable. I’ll also mention some common sources of confusion, outlining some actions to address those.
First, Let’s Define “Purpose”
Put simply, the “purpose” is what your company was founded to do (or reorganized to do). So it’s best to stick to that. For example, Digital Asset is focused on connecting the world’s many networks into one global economic network. Evalinator‘s purpose is to turn every client touchpoint into a personalized conversation. Adobe is about changing the world through digital experiences.
It’s important that everyone team member can clearly identify with and get behind this corporate purpose. I’ll discuss this more in the next sections.
What about Social Causes that We Care About?
These are absolutely important. But they are distinct from the purpose unless your company itself has been founded for a social cause. Given how connected we are today, this is an important way to provide employees a way to channel their passions and enthusiasms. Since the past several decades, Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives (CSRs) have been organized. They are a way to give back to the communities they engage in and create a brand that people want to do business with. Today, business is global, and the focus has shifted to becoming significant to communities by engaging employees much better. Let’s discuss the individual purpose in more detail in that context.
Individual purposes are of 2 broad kinds:
1) Personal interest and passion in achieving the outcomes driven by the company’s products and services. This largely stems from the manner in which they identify with the products and client segments and then goes deeper. Some people love engineering complex things, some people love finance, some people love marketing, while some love to hope from client to client solving a variety of challenges. These interests should be explored for alignment through personal discovery & job role definition. For example, sticking a marketing consultant into a finance role may not unleash their full potential.
2) Beliefs & interest in causes. This purpose is often overlooked. It’s no wonder that when people are asked later in their career about their overall satisfaction with life, an overwhelming percentage of them are dissatisfied. Two of the biggest regrets are not doing more meaningful work and not doing more for others. Both of these go beyond one’s own self. This kind of purpose is best aligned through providing avenues for their fulfillment rather than trying to mix it with your core GTM.
A Common Source of Confusion
While creating a company’s core GTM story, confusion often sets in if we try to complicate the purpose. The latest trend is to give it a social twist. In my opinion, that’s more suitable for consumer brands that struggle to differentiate based on product purpose alone, or very large, conglomerates that used to affect their communities in a big way. For the rest of us, sticking to the business purpose is perfect. The intent is to channel your organization’s energy into a direction that streamlines customer experience, galvanized employees, and creates customer value.
A 3 Step Methodology to Purpose
- Look inward and ask why another company is needed, why you or your founders created the company, what is it that you set out to do differently. Believe me, this is easy to do. You just have to ask the right questions.
- Look outside-in to see where your clients are wanting to go and how their market is changing. Even if you serve a specific buyer profile, look broader at the buyer’s organization, and see how your buyer is intertwined with the rest of the company and its partners. The principle of completion works well here in reverse.
- Finally, it’s time to gather the various products and services that you go to market with. Align them towards the purpose and the outside-in view so that a singular picture is formed. The principle of presenting is a good one to review here.
I hope this was useful. Ultimately our overall purpose is to be happy so best to keep it simple! This blog gives a simple analysis of how to define your purpose and align your story to it. If you have any questions, just get in touch.