If Your Marketing Is Off, It Might Be a WHY Problem

 Most mission statements sound good—but they don’t mean much to the people who matter most: your employees and your customers.

Early in my career, I was chasing sales. I wasn’t focused on building relationships, just hitting numbers. It worked,  sometimes. But the sales cycle was a rollercoaster. The constant ups and downs drained me. I started to question everything. Maybe I needed to change careers. Maybe I wasn’t cut out for this.

But then something shifted. I realized I didn’t need to start over. I needed to get clear on *WHY* I was doing this work in the first place.

That’s when I uncovered my why: to **Inspire Success**. To help others become the best version of themselves,  and save them from wasting time chasing the wrong things like I did. That clarity changed everything. It gave my work purpose. It made me a better leader. And it brought World Innovators back to its roots: helping companies build meaningful relationships with the right audience.

How to Know If Your Company Has Lost Its WHY

You feel it when a company doesn’t know its why. Teams move in different directions. Departments set conflicting goals. The marketing feels generic because no one really knows what they stand for. Prospects get confused, and they move on.

I’ve seen it firsthand. At World Innovators, we once tried to do everything:  web design, blogs, social media, on top of our core business: list brokerage and audience targeting. We worked crazy hours on tasks that didn’t align with our expertise. It wasn’t until we paused, regrouped, and realigned around our core purpose that things changed. We got clear on who we are, who we help, and how we do it. That’s when the business started growing again. We concentrated on what we were best at which was a win, win for us and our customers. 

How to Uncover Your WHY

There’s no shortcut to discovering your why. It takes work. One exercise I highly recommend is Tony Robbins’ “7 Levels Deep” method. It’s simple, but uncomfortable. By level 4, I was annoyed. By level 7, I finally had my A HA moment . But I found my truth: **I want to inspire success to save people from wasting years chasing things that don’t matter.** 

If you haven’t tried it, give yourself 20 minutes of honest reflection. (And yes, we have a worksheet if you want it—just email me.)

Once you uncover your why, everything starts to fall into place:

- Your messaging becomes clearer
- Your team becomes more aligned
- Your marketing becomes more magnetic

Other resources on this topic:  FIND YOUR WHY, STARTING WITH WHY -  Both by Simon Sinek



Speak to Your Prospect’s WHY

Knowing your own why is only half the equation. To build trust, you also have to understand what drives your audience.

How? Start by listening:
- Talk to people at tradeshows
- Review the questions that come in through your website
- Stay current on industry challenges
- Use AI tools like ChatGPT to identify patterns in what your audience is searching for

Then,  be human. Speak to what they’re going through. Offer useful, relevant insights. Show that you understand and care. When you lead with value and empathy, the right people will come to you.

Final Thought

If you’re feeling like your team is scattered, your messaging is unclear, or your marketing is falling flat,  it may not be a strategy problem. It may be a *WHY* problem.

Watch my conversation with Alfred Leach for a grounded, real-world look at how companies can reconnect with their purpose—especially in times of change:

Click here to watch the full B2B Marketing Excellence & AI podcast episode.   


And if you’re ready to clarify your WHY and bring your team,  and your marketing  into alignment, I’d love to help. Please feel free to contact me directly so you do not waste the years I did unhappy and chasing after the wrong things.  Here is my email dpeterson@worldinnovators.com.