Start with WHY

There is a speaker, a consultant, who gave a TED Talk in 2009 that really impressed me.  Apparently, others were interested too, because I just checked, and it has in excess of 62 MILLION views.  It is one of the top ten or twenty TED talks of all time.  Take a few minutes to look at the link here: Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action | TED Talk.  Sinek, the speaker, wrote a book titled “Start with Why,” which I haven’t read, but the TED Talk encapsulates the issues that resonate with me. 

All progress, all success, I think comes down to the “why” no matter what it is that we do with our lives and professions. Hang with me a minute, and let me explain.  Within each of us, is a search for true meaning.  The questions in life may be centered around: How do I make a living?  How do I pay my bills?  How do I find the right partner?…and so on, and are certainly valid.  But these other questions are not the prime one:

WHY

For businesses to succeed, Sinek says “why” is more important than “how” or “what” or anything else.  I hear Sinek saying that Apple started with “why,” and for that reason, they are a company who has been embraced and had such a loyal following. 

For us as people, once we address the “why” of a chosen career, regardless of the time it might take to achieve anything else, if it is satisfying, then that is where a deep feeling of success is achieved. 

In the case of us fleet/commercial consultants, us FordPros[1] , the ones that I have had the great pleasure to follow, to admire, seem to really have found satisfaction in helping clients, by:

• Patiently helping clients find best solutions
• Developing trust that they are being heard and understood
• Searching for ways to help their business reach goals
• Providing vehicles that give the owner/manager more control of the outcome
• Knowing the product benefits of our chassis, but also the vocational finishes that make them complete and effective

The fleet/commercial specialist that is in a hurry to “close a sale: any sale” is going to find success at a very shallow level, and the long-term, deep-root-based relationships will simply not follow.  There are just too many who care deeply about the client, and it will become too apparent that the shallow roots of the quick sale will simply not evolve into a long-term relationship. 

Slow down, be intentional, sink the deep roots in the profession, and it will bear fruit. 

Or, find your WHY in some other pursuit and let another person have a crack at success in this.

Good Selling,

Joe