I sat next to an account manager for Coca Cola on a plane ride to Phoenix who shared an interesting story with me. She had been trying for many years to get the soft drink syrup account for one of the larger convenience store chains in Phoenix. The problem, however, was that the competition had a “lock” on the business. Rather than give up, this woman continued to call on the convenience store chain. But every year, the competition continued to be awarded the business.
One day her window of opportunity opened. On the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, the competition’s dispensing machine broke down in one of the chain’s larger stores. One of the managers of this chain phoned her competition and asked them to come out and fix their machine. The competition’s response was, “We’ll have someone out there on Tuesday” which was the next business day. This store stood to lose a lot of sales if this machine wasn’t fixed. And since both Coca Cola and its competition used the same machine, this manager decided to call this woman at her home and ask if she would come in and fix her competition’s dispensing machine.
Seizing the opportunity, this woman was on the scene in very quick order to fix the competition’s machine. When finished, she told everyone in the store to have a nice day. Several months later, when the current contract expired, she was awarded the business and was not the lowest price. The reason she got the business was that the local management of the convenience store chain knew they could count on her.
So, when a particular situation looks hopeless, don’t give up. Be patient and wait for your window of opportunity to open–knowing full well that sooner or later it will. And, when it does, don’t hesitate; go for it!
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There’s only one way to become an outstanding success as a salesperson. It’s called repeat and referral sales. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling cars, real estate, insurance, pharmaceuticals, financial services or farm equipment. If you don’t focus your efforts on generating repeat and referral sales, you’re going nowhere as a salesperson. Furthermore, there’s only one way in which you can get your customers to provide you with continuing repeat and referral sales and that’s by turning them into long-term friends. Let me give you an example: Joe Girard was a car salesperson for Merolis Chevrolet in Detroit. For 12 straight years Joe was listed in The Guinness Book of World Records for being the world’s best new car salesperson. During his final year of selling cars, Joe sold 1,425 new Chevrolet cars and trucks! That’s 1,425 new Chevrolet cars and trucks sold by a single salesperson during one calendar year! How did Joe do it? The answer is simple. 65% of his sales were to repeat customers and the other 35% were to customers who were referred to him by his repeat customers. So, the year that Joe Girard got into The Guinness Book of World Records for selling 1,425 cars, how many cars did he actually sell? The answer is NONE! His customers sold them for him. Why? Because Joe took the time to turn each of his customers into a long-term friend. As Joe put it, “I stand in front of my product as well as behind it.” In other words, before you could buy a car from Joe, you first had to buy Joe. He wouldn’t let you buy a car from him until he turned you into a friend. Then, after you bought a car from Joe and you experienced a problem either with the car or someone at the dealership, Joe went to bat for you and personally saw to it that the problem was resolved to your satisfaction. Joe also made it a point to stay in touch with his customers after they bought a car from him; he didn’t forget about them and he made sure they they knew it. Yes, Joe truly loved his customers and they loved him back by providing him with enough repeat and referral sales to make it possible for him to sell more than 13,000 cars in 12 years. As Joe said in his book, How to Sell Anything to Anybody, “All of my customers these days are people who ask for me by name. All of them.” You too can enjoy the same level of success as Joe Girard once you stop focusing on making sales and start focusing on turning your customers into long-term friends.
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