You must start your career with specific and personal WHYs, then you’ll focus on them when tough times come around, and tough times will come around.
And they always will. I’m here with Chuck Farmer today. Chuck is a site partner of mentumm accelerator. I am the co-founder mentumm accelerator and also the author of now four books. The CAP Equation was my first book and we have a sequel to that coming out live on Amazon as we speak, Winning Sales Attitudes. Chuck Farmer is a co-author and contributor of that book. We’re gonna’ actually talk about one of the chapters in the book. And Chuck has a great background. He has a great background in corporate America, corporate training many years with Cracker Barrel, and for the last 17 some odd years he’s been with a fortune 500 company as a high level sales trainer, sales coach, manager and mentor. He speaks nationally. He’s got a lot of tools in his toolbox. Chuck Farmer, welcome to the mentumm accelerator platform.
Appreciate it, man. Good to be here.
Well, it’s good to have you. We’re going to talk about employing your WHY—leveraging your WHY—leveraging your purpose, leveraging your reason, we’re talking to salespeople. This is Chapter Two in Winning Sales Attitudes. And this why thing, this purpose we talked about a lot. There’s a lot of work done on this, you can go to YouTube and search Simon Sinek and many other folks, but first and foremost, why is the why so dang important to new salespeople.
It really gives people direction, not only during their normal day job, but especially during those rough times. When things kind of get rough and they’re not sure they want to do this anymore when maybe they look at other options in their life, their why shows them the direction back to give them the example of why they started doing this in the first place, why they need to continue doing it and push through those negative times.
And there’s always going to be negative times your opening quote, suggests that we’re all going to hit walls. It could be a newer salesperson truck, it could also be a veteran salesperson that hits a wall or goes into a slump or has a drought. So remembering why you do things, remembering that the work you’re doing has impact on people has an impact on not only your client, but also your family and your loved ones. They in many cases, they depend on you. So talk to me about just a couple things on this short session. First, talk to me about how you did the why out of them. I know you asked some very interesting questions during the interview process. You’re one of the best interviewers, salesperson interviewers I’ve ever had the chance to work with. Talk to me about some of the unique questions means that you position and ask them when you’re interviewing.
You know, it’s funny when I first bring somebody in Joe for their first interview, I tell them when we first sit down after a little bit of engagement, I tell them that I want to know a little bit about you. But then I tell them immediately also want to know a little bit about their Why, why are they here? What are they looking for? And I asked them, why do you want to do this type of work? Why are you even here this morning? Because the first thought is, where are they coming from? That they don’t want anymore? Or what is it that’s missing in their life they are looking for, because that can really help me help them craft their Why?
Then we move into things like what do you want to accomplish in your career? What is it again, that they’re focused on in their personal life that they see down the road that they don’t have now? So that allows me to see what it is in their vision that they want to accomplish down the road, that maybe they don’t feel like they can accomplish where they are What personal objectives do they have? You know, a lot of people come in and they go, they’ve had a rough time financially and maybe they really want to buy a house with their family. Or maybe they want to take the next step.
Maybe like you said, they’re a veteran in the sales gig. They want to do something different really take it to the next level, I feel like they’ve hit a level of consistency, but they haven’t been able to grow their business. And so I’m asking questions like that, that are very specific to them, not just professionally, but also personally because that is how you can help them to craft their why.
And also that helps with your connection as a sales leader, coach, mentor, whatever our titles are on our business card, it helps you connect with them because you get to know them on a personal basis, not just a professional basis. Is that correct?
Absolutely. Correct. Completely true.
So how do you submit let’s go a second place with this how do you continue because understanding their why their purpose, hiring them getting Then in the system so to speak, whatever system we’re operating under, that’s one part of it. How do you continue to keep the why in front of them and submit their purpose, their reason what are? What are methods that you use to do that?
Obviously, we all know that when we sit down for an interview, we’re really trying to be our best selves. And we’re trying to think of answers that might be impressive. And even if we as an interviewer, do a really good job of digging down and helping them to see their why, when they later on are actually members of the team and they get started on that original interview is kind of in the back window and they may not even hardly remember it themselves. So I think it’s very important that as leaders, we continue to drill down and remind them of what that why is and even help them to kind of finalize that way if that makes sense to kind of sand it off and make sure it’s completely focused on what they want.
And so when we do onboarding, we make sure that I always start off Joe with onboarding with what’s your WHY? And I share first my why. And I share with them some of the examples of things that can have an impact in your life with your why. And then I have them go around the room and I asked them to share what their why is because I really want to concrete it in their hearts. It’s funny when I sit down with them in the onboarding, I’ve got my interview sheets….I’ve changed it recently to where I’ll put on there, what is their why, and even if one of my leaders interviews that person first, I want my leader to write down their while in their interview sheet, and we continue to return back to that and focus on them during their training process.
Gotcha. So this is great stuff and I want to go one other place. We just have a couple of minutes left, but it’s interesting to note what some of the whys are when some of the purposes are and I know we outlined a few In the chapter that we wrote together, employing your why, that why being that lighthouse that brings them in safely to their goal. But first and foremost I think of long-term wealth, we can create a lot of wealth in this business. And is that a WHY is that a common why that surfaces after someone has been in the business for a little while?
Yeah, that’s a good point, Joe. I think that is absolutely one that’s on a lot of people’s mind. But I think for a lot of people, it’s one that does come a little bit later. Now there are some people obviously that see that right off the bat, maybe they’ve had somebody they’ve looked at as a mentor or a family member that is producing long term wealth in this business. And I definitely think that’s something that people get more vision later own as they join the team. I think some of the ones that people see more closely and immediately are control of their schedule. A lot of people are really tired of working for somebody that tells them exactly when to work and particularly those Joe that have to work nights and weekends and 14-hour days. When they get here and they hear about our systems they realize that they would have so much more control over their own calendar, be able to spend time with their family and helping people is another one that is his own virtually everybody that I hires for fraud is that they want to be able to help people and this opportunity here shows them many directions they can go in to be able to be a help and a resource to people
It’s interesting I’m thinking long term…I’m, as you are, a long term thinker, but you’re telling our listeners that and people watching this that helping people controlling your own calendar, those things are two of the most prevalent long term wealth that why evolves. I’m curious the intangible thing or some of the unique experiences, the trips and so forth and relationships, the intangibles. How important is that and when does that come into play?
Another great one those are definitely there. But again, I think these kind of come more as they get here and they add those to their Why? Because they really can’t get a feel for they’ve never seen that job. And when they hear about it from us maybe in the interview process it gets them excited to get some really adamant about this opportunity be exciting for them. And they may see that closely some others so much closely more than others but definitely that’s one of those that once they get here and start getting a feel for it, they get excited about it becomes part more part of their life.
The WHY is important. We want to teach people how to leverage understand their why we want to know what their Why is as their coach, better leader, we want to help them leverage it. We want to keep them keep them thinking about that. Why especially get that wine in front of them when tough times come because they always will.
Chuck farmer, thanks for being on. We will do more of this. We’ll see you next time.
Author: Chuck Farmer
Chuck Farmer began his leadership journey with Cracker Barrel. He became a leader in several departments, including corporate training, employee training, loss prevention and operations. After many years in corporate America, he decided to become a commission salesperson for a Fortune 500 company. Seventeen years later, he’s glad he took that leap. Chuck has become a decorated organizational leader who's called upon to deliver keynote presentations and workshops across the country. While he’s enjoyed the freedom, monetary rewards and rapid advancement, his favorite aspect of the business (and his passion) is helping people succeed.