Sales Success. Mark Bowser

      I was going to start our time together with a little story I tell that will knock your hair out, but I notice several of you fellows have already heard it. So I certainly won't go into that at this particular moment. So, let me simply start by saying that years and years ago I was flying on a plane, which incidentally is the general way I fly, and I was seated next to an old boy who I couldn't help but notice had his wedding band on the index finger of his left hand. Well, I commented on it by saying, "Fellow, I can't help but notice you got your wedding band on the wrong finger." He looked over at me and said with a slight grin on his face, "Yeah, I married the wrong woman."

      Well, I don't know if he married the wrong woman, but I do know that most people have a lot of wrong ideas about what professional salespeople are, what they represent, what they do, and the contributions they make. So, let's start with some questions for each of us to think about. Do you believe that you sell a really good product or service? Do you know that your product or service solves a problem? Do you believe that when you sell a product or service that solves a problem you deserve a profit? Do you believe that if you sell for example two products that solve two problems that you deserve two profits?

      Let me ask you another question that may sound a bit odd to you. Have you been in the world of selling for as long as a year? Now, do you still have every dime that you’ve ever earned in the profession of selling? However, do you have customers that are still using and benefiting from what you sold them a year ago, two years ago, ten years ago, or even longer? So, here is the big question. Who’s the big winner, you or the customer? It is the customer, isn’t it? So, then is the profession of selling something you do to somebody or for somebody? So, why would you ever hesitate doing something nice to someone when you know he/she will benefit for a long, long time?

      One of the things that happens to me periodically is that somebody will be thinking they are paying me a compliment by saying, “I imagine you can sell anything to anyone.” When that happens, I always tell them that they have just described a con artist. A professional salesperson cannot and will not sell anything unless he or she knows without a shadow of a doubt that the customer is the big winner in the transaction. That’s what the professional salesperson does. The message is very clear: make certain the customer is the big winner if you are going to build a career in the world of selling. And, to do that, you must sell products, goods, or services, where you are absolutely clear that when you leave that customer, he/she is the big winner.

      Now, I want to tell you I’m very proud to be a salesperson, and a lot of people don’t realize this, but America was literally discovered by a salesperson. Not by any stretch of the imagination could you excuse Christopher Columbus of being a navigator. He was looking for India; he missed it by twelve thousand miles. Now, let me tell you, that is not navigation.

      Well, he was an Italian in Spain. Now, that is way out of his territory. He only had one prospect to call on, and if they said no, he would have had to swim back home. He really had to do some selling. On the trip, he literally had to keep selling in order to keep sailing. Not only that, but he had to make a sale before he even got aboard the ships because Isabelle and Ferdinand of Spain kept saying to him, “Chris, the price is too high. We can’t afford it.” Now, that is the same thing your prospects have been saying to you.

      Since I was not there, I am sure this isn’t verbatim, but I can imagine the conversation went something like this. Chris locked eyes with Isabelle and said, “Look, Izzy, you got a string of beads around your neck. Why don’t we take them down to the pawn shop and hawk them so that we can finance the deal that way?” Historically speaking, they literally had to make special arrangements in order to get the deal done. So, America was discovered by a salesperson. We were also populated by a salesperson. Sir Walter Rally toured the coffee houses of London persuading those people to leave the security of their homeland to go into a foreign land where you had no guarantee on anything at all, and because of his successful selling, people came in droves to America.

      America was freed by a sales professional. His name was George Washington. If you are a sales manager, I want you to consider this. Washington had to do a super sales job. He said to prospective recruits, “Look, we’re going to go to war against the most powerful nation on earth. They have a big army and a big navy. We are planning a rebellion and we are going to fight those people, and I have got to tell you, to be completely honest, if we win this war, I’m not going to be able to pay you; sorry about that. And if we lose it, they are going to hang you from the highest tree.” Now, if you think that you have trouble recruiting, just think about ole George. I mean he really had to do a sales job. We were freed by a salesperson.

      We expanded our territory by salespeople, Louis and Clark. The first 175 years after the American Revolution, we were still just on the verge of the Appalachian Mountains. Louis and Clark studied what the British had done so they set up trading posts, manned by salespeople, so that when people went westward they could get the supplies that were necessary. So, we were not only discovered by a salesperson, freed by a salesperson, populated by a salesperson, and expanded by salespeople, but today you as salespeople are completely responsible for goods and services you sell. Our whole economy depends on it.

      Let me ask you another question. Are you required to have a little piece of paper that you write the order on when you make a sale? Most salespeople at one point or another have to use paper, is that not true? Well, you see, that paper didn’t start out as paper. It started out as a tree. Now what had to happen was we had to go out into the woods, cut the tree down, and then haul it to the paper mill. Now, had you not made the sale, there’d be no need for that in the paper mill, and there are hundreds of people involved in manufacturing that tree into paper.

      What happens is that you take part of your profits you made on the sale and you go to the grocery store and you buy a can of beans and the grocer says if you are going to buy my beans then I got to get some more. So, he goes to the wholesaler and says, “Hey, need more beans.” The wholesaler says, if you’re going to buy my beans, then I got to get some more, so he goes to the canner and says, “Need more beans.” The canner says if you are going to buy my beans, then I got to get some more. The canner goes to the farmer and says, “Need more beans.” The farmer says if you are going to buy my beans, then I got to raise some more, and to do that, I got to get me a new tractor because the one I got is all worn out. So, he goes down to the dealer and says, “Got to have a new tractor,” and the dealer says to himself, “Man, if you are going to buy my tractor, then I got to go to the factory and get another one because this is the last one I got.” So, he goes to the factory and the factory says if you’re going to do that, I have to bring in iron, plastic, steel, aluminum, lead, zinc, rubber, and all of the things to manufacture that tractor, and every bit of that happened because one day you got out there and made a sale. And, let me tell you, friend, that’s what you ought to tell people.

      Our economy is dependent on that. Since the economy is dependent on it, understand that your character is a critically important part of all of this. I’m not talking about making a sale. I’m talking about making a sale so that you can make the next one, and the next one, and the next one, and the next one. That’s why character is so important.

      Years ago, I spent fifteen years selling heavy-duty waterless cookware. I was the number one salesperson in America working for the Salad Master Corporation out of Dallas, Texas. I never will