The power of WHY

The Power of the “Why” by Shaun McDuffee

Have you ever wondered why some people thrive in this business and some fizzle or fail altogether? We all know the statistics¾fewer than 15 percent of the people who enter our career survive to see the end of the fourth year. Beyond that figure is an even more alarming statistic: Only 5 to 7 percent of those who do make it qualify for MDRT, and less than one-fourth of 1 percent reach Top of the Table status.
In the mid-1990s, I spent a tremendous amount of time analyzing why some of my producers were consistently reaching multiples of MDRT while some barely were hitting contract minimums. The commonality I found among the “super producers” was that they had an overwhelming sense of urgency due to a powerful connection to their “WHY.”
When I would conduct my annual goal-setting meetings with my producers, I found that the people who would reach their goals had a very powerful WHY behind them. They connected to the WHY, and they visualized what it would be like to make their goals¾and also what it would be like if they failed to make them. These WHYs had to be more specific than “I want to be successful” or “I don’t want to fail.” They had to be deeply personal and well-thought-through. Here are just a few examples of the most powerful WHYs I’ve seen:

· “I have to pay my sister’s tuition.”
· “I am the only family member to ever go to college… everyone is watching me.”
· “My wife is pregnant and will be leaving work soon.”
· “I want to buy my parents their first home.”
· “My mom has never had a new car.”
· “I told all of my peers I would hit this goal, and I can’t tell them I failed.”

Without exception, those people who connected to their WHY and made it personal found a way to reach their goals.
Once you know the WHAT (the goal) and connect the WHY to it, the HOW is actually very easy to back into. As we all know, this business is a numbers game. The question to our producers is this: How committed are you to your WHY to be able to overcome the pain associated with the HOW?
In coaching my producers, I would ask them to set both an objective and a goal.
The objective is the production number they HAVE to hit. If they fail to reach this number, they will consider the year to be a complete failure. I have had people tell me in their annual business-plan meetings that if they failed to hit their objectives, I was to fire them (thankfully, I haven’t had to do that yet).
The goal is that production number they are going to strive to hit. They connect that goal to their powerful and personal why, and they are going to use every ounce of energy to try to reach that goal. If they fall short of their goal, they at least know they reached their objective and can feel like the year was still a success.
I sit down with each of my producers at the beginning of December to do their business plan for the next year. This is a good time of year because they can start making changes that will impact the next year. I ask them to give me their objective and goal production numbers. I then ask them to describe, in detail, WHY they want to reach that goal. I ask them to describe what it would be like to reach the goal and how it would make them feel. I also ask them to give me non-business-related goals that will be attainable if they reach their production goal.
I do my own annual goal setting for the next year every Thanksgiving holiday. My family and I take a trip every Thanksgiving, and they know that I will take one day to work on this. As my children get older, I am hoping to take one of those days for family goal setting as well.
Ask your producers WHY they are going to reach their goals. Helping them connect to the WHY will not only increase their chance of staying in the business and reaching higher levels of production¾it also will improve your personal relationship with them because they will know you genuinely care about their long-term success.
Shaun McDuffee, AEP CLU ChFC
Senior Vice President
North Star Resource Group/Securian Financial Network
Austin, TX