Why Your "Why" Matters More Than Your What
I was halfway through explaining what we do at Wit & Craft to a potential client when I realized something unsettling: I was boring myself. Here I was, rattling off our services—brand strategy workshops, positioning frameworks, messaging development—and watching their eyes glaze over in real time.
I was halfway through explaining what we do at Wit & Craft to a potential client when I realized something unsettling: I was boring myself. Here I was, rattling off our services—brand strategy workshops, positioning frameworks, messaging development—and watching their eyes glaze over in real time.
That's when it hit me. I wasn't telling them why we do this work. I was just listing the what.
Purpose Cuts Through the Noise
In Start with Why, Simon Sinek writes, "People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it." It's a simple statement that cuts to the heart of why so many businesses struggle to connect with their audience. When we lead with our what—our products, services, features—we're essentially asking people to make a rational decision. But decisions, especially the important ones, aren't made rationally. They're made emotionally, then justified with logic.
Your why is your emotional hook. It's the reason you get out of bed in the morning that goes deeper than paying the bills. For us, it's watching small businesses stop apologizing for their prices and start owning their value. It's seeing entrepreneurs finally articulate what makes them special instead of blending into the background noise of their industry.
When you lead with purpose, something magical happens: the right people lean in. They don't just want your service—they want to be part of your mission.
Trust Is Built on Belief, Not Features
I've watched countless businesses try to build trust by listing their credentials, showing their portfolio, or explaining their process. These things matter, but they don't create the kind of deep trust that turns prospects into advocates.
Trust is built when someone believes you share their values. When they sense that you're not just trying to sell them something, but that you genuinely care about the same things they do. Your why is the bridge that connects your values to theirs.
Sinek puts it perfectly: "When a company clearly communicates their WHY, what they believe, we're drawn to give them our time and money for the same reason we're drawn to people with similar beliefs and values."
This is why purpose-driven brands create such fierce loyalty. Their customers aren't just buying a product—they're joining a movement, supporting a belief system, becoming part of something bigger than a transaction.
The Long Game: Purpose Fuels Resilience
Here's what I've learned after two decades in this business: trends come and go, markets shift, competition emerges, but purpose endures. When you're clear on your why, every decision becomes easier. Should we take on this client? Does this opportunity align with our purpose? Are we staying true to what we believe?
Your why becomes your North Star, especially during the inevitable rough patches. When revenue dips or a competitor launches something that makes you question everything, your purpose reminds you what you're really building. It's not just a business—it's a mission.
I think about the small businesses we've worked with who've transformed not just their positioning, but their entire relationship with their work. They stopped chasing every opportunity and started attracting the right ones. They stopped competing on price and started competing on purpose. That's the power of getting clear on why you do what you do.
Finding Your Why Isn't Always Easy
I won't pretend this is simple. Your why might not be immediately obvious, especially if you've been buried in the day-to-day grind of running a business. It requires honest reflection, sometimes uncomfortable questions, and the willingness to dig deeper than the surface-level reasons.
But here's what I know: your why is already there. It's in the moment you decided to start your business. It's in the clients who light you up and the problems you can't help but solve. It's in the vision of the world you want to help create.
The question isn't whether you have a purpose—it's whether you're brave enough to own it and build your brand around it.
So here's my gentle challenge: Before you write another service description or update your LinkedIn bio, sit with this question: Why do you really do what you do? Not the practical reasons, but the deeper ones. The ones that make your work feel like more than just work.
Your future customers are waiting to hear it.
Your Next Move
The Real Reason Your Prospects Go Silent After Your Proposal.
Close more clients
If your leads are ghosting you after the proposal, it's not your pricing. It's your positioning.
The silent killer of B2B growth isn't what most founders think.
It's not bad leads.
It's not market saturation.
It's not even your competition undercutting you on price.
It's the gap between what you think you're communicating and what prospects actually hear.
You've polished your website. Refined your pitch deck. Maybe even hired a copywriter to "fix your messaging." But prospects still vanish after seeing your proposal. They don't return calls. They choose competitors whose work isn't even close to yours.
Here's the brutal truth: Most founders confuse having clear messaging with having relevant positioning. They're not the same thing. And this confusion is costing you deals you should be winning.
The Messaging Mirage
Picture this: You can articulate exactly what you do. Your elevator pitch is crisp. Your website copy flows beautifully. Everything feels "clear."
But clarity without relevance equals invisibility.
Think of it like GPS navigation. You can give someone perfectly clear directions: "Turn left at Main Street, go 2.3 miles, turn right at the gas station." Crystal clear, right? But if they're trying to get to the airport and you're directing them to the mall, clarity doesn't matter. They're going to the wrong place.
Most B2B messaging suffers from this same problem. It clearly explains what you do—but fails to connect with what prospects actually need. It describes your services without revealing why those services matter to them, specifically.
This is why messaging without positioning falls flat. You're giving clear directions to a destination your prospects don't want to visit.
Three Pain Signals Your Positioning Is Missing
The Proposal Black Hole
You have great conversations. Prospects seem engaged. You submit a detailed proposal... and then silence. They don't say no—they just disappear. This isn't a pricing problem; it's a positioning problem. Without clear differentiation, your proposal looks identical to every other option. There's no compelling reason to choose you, so they choose nothing.
The Wrong-Fit Client Magnet
You keep attracting clients who want cheap, fast, and generic work. They negotiate hard on price and don't value your expertise. This happens when your positioning is too broad or too weak. You're not repelling the wrong prospects, so they flood your pipeline and drain your energy.
The Competitor Confusion
Prospects constantly ask how you're different from [insert competitor name]. Or worse—they lump you in with firms whose work you don't respect. When you can't quickly articulate what makes you unique, prospects default to comparing you on price. And price wars are races to the bottom.
The Fix: Building Your Positioning Foundation
Here's where most B2B founders get it wrong: They start with messaging before they've done the positioning work.
Think of positioning like an iceberg. Messaging is the tip—what people see. But positioning is the massive foundation below the surface. Without that foundation, your messaging has nothing to stand on.
The Brand Lab™ framework follows a simple but powerful sequence:
Discover → Define → Declare
Discover: Before you can position yourself effectively, you need to understand the landscape. Who are you really competing against? What are prospects' actual pain points? Where are the gaps in the market? This isn't guesswork—it's strategic research that reveals opportunities.
Define: Once you understand the market, you can identify what makes you genuinely different. Not just "better"—different. Different approaches, different expertise, different results. This is where you discover your unique competitive advantage.
Declare: Finally, you translate those differentiators into a clear market position. This becomes the foundation for every piece of messaging, every proposal, every conversation. It's your North Star.
The Transformation: From Price Competition to Premium Positioning
Take Dru Chapman Lewis from Studio Chapman. Before working with Brand Lab™, she felt trapped: "I had no idea, or confidence, how to differentiate myself and my company. I know, sort of instinctually, that I have a unique value proposition, but didn't feel I had the tools or the methodology to create that kind of brand awareness."
Sound familiar?
After going through the positioning process, everything changed.
"I scored a top client! It definitely gave me the confidence to stand my ground and get the fee based on my unique value perspective and positioning."
The difference? She stopped competing on price and started competing on value. She went from defending her worth to commanding premium rates.
That's the power of strong positioning. It transforms how prospects see you—and how you see yourself.
Your Next Move
If any of those pain signals resonated, here's what you need to do:
Stop trying to fix your messaging.
Start building your positioning foundation.
The good news? You don't need to figure this out alone. We've created a Brand Health Score Card that reveals exactly where your positioning might be falling short—and what to fix first.
Score your brand and get a clear diagnosis of your brand's positioning gaps.
Because here's the thing: Your expertise is probably extraordinary. Your results speak for themselves. But if prospects can't see what makes you different, they'll never choose you over the competition.
Time to change that conversation.
