By Neil Phillips.

In direct sales, we tend to speak of the “emotional why” as that glorious motivation that you can barely articulate and seldom bring to words without a lump in our throat or tears in your eyes.  We all have those reasons.  Often, however, you can support your consultants by focusing on more practical aspects of the same thing or some of the equally important motivations in their lives.

You do a disservice to those you lead if you think of the emotional why as a one-dimensional construction.  As a human being, you have multiple reasons for your actions and when called to justify your behaviors, often can provide two or three reasons. Your team members can as well.

You do carry deep and fundamental motivations, and you also have the quiet reasons that lead you to contented smiles.  Your team members may mention the quiet ones when they say things like:

  • I am a head charge nurse in an emergency room.  I’m in direct sales for fun!
  • I’m with my twins all day.  I’m in direct sales so my husband can have some parenting time with them.  He loves it, and I get to talk to adults! (Note the multiple reasons.)
  • I wanted to take French lessons and couldn’t afford them.  We’re going to Paris for our 25th next year, and I want to appreciate the trip.

When you are having a conversation with your team member about their motivation, you can ask more questions to dig out their “why” reasons.  Here are some questions that might help you get to other whys that go beyond the first thing they mention.  Remember: your goal is to find out more reasons for their motivation.  You can always dig deeper later.

  • Ask “Is there anything else?” rather than “what’s behind this?”  Support your consultant in thinking laterally (wider) rather than vertically (deeper).
  • Ask “What’s got you excited today?” with the emphasis on today.  Find the small, short-term successes and drivers.  When you start to add them up, you’ll be surprised at how much you know.
  • Support your consultant in making plans and SMART goals around these quiet whys.  It’s tough to make “My family is most important” into SMART goals.  On the other hand, “I want to take my family on vacation” can be worked into goals, strategies, and outcomes.

Please take a moment and share your thoughts in the Team Connections Facebook group.  Have you tried any strategy like this?  What do you think might happen if you experimented?

Who Helps You Understand Your Why’s?

One of the unique offerings from Team Connections Pro is monthly coaching. All of our members have two calls a month to help them laser focus on key topics. Coaching, along with all of the training resource in audio, video, and print are yours. And new things are being added all the time.

At Team Connections Pro, we’re here to support you. Try it for a month, and if it’s not what you want, you can end your membership with no waiting period.