| |
Do You
Know Joe Girard?
The Guinness Book of World
Records has proclaimed Joe Girard, "The
World's Greatest Salesman."
During his days as an automobile salesman, Joe for
12 straight years, sold
more cars and trucks than any other
salesperson. In fact, as an individual, he
sold more cars than most dealers sell in total, and all
of them retail.
Coming from hard and humble beginnings, Joe had
been thrown out of high
school, fired from over 40 jobs, and had even failed at
being a petty thief!
But in 1949 things began to turn
around. He met a man who "took him under
his wings" teaching Joe how
to be a building contractor.
Joe became
pretty successful and in 1961 he contracted to build a
number of private homes.
Unfortunately he had accepted the word of a real estate
speculator that said
the area was to have a sewer system
installed. Poor Joe, he went on the man's
word instead of checking things
out and finally found out this just wasn't
true.
Individual septic tanks had to be installed which meant
the homes became
greatly de-valued.
As a result, Joe lost his business. It was
Christmas and Joe Girard had no
job, no savings, and found himself in debt to the tune
of $60,000.
Then the final blow came.....
On a cold day in January, June Girard
tearfully told her husband there
was no food in the house and the kids were begging for
something to eat.
On that day, Joe Girard found himself at the absolute
bottom of the barrel.
It was either see his kids starve or go out
and find something. After
pleading and begging the manager of a
car dealership to hire him; the manager
finally gave in and gave Joe a small desk at the back of
the showroom.
When Joe's first customer walked
in that day, just before closing time,
Joe thought to himself, "There's
no way this guy is getting out of here
without buying a car from me."
Joe Girard remembered his hungry kids at
home, then looked at his customer
and saw......a bag of groceries!
Within a month he became so successful
at selling cars that the manager
fired him! He was too aggressive and the other salesmen
were upset.
But Joe had found his calling
and it wasn't very long before he was
hired at another dealership where he worked until the
day he retired in 1978.
Recalling that first sale, and telling
what made him the Greatest
Salesman In The World, Joe says this:
"Want. My want. That was all I knew. And that want
was enough to drive me to
say and do enough of the right things to
sell that customer a car. I am not
saying that that's all there is to it, then or now, but
that is most of it."
"If you want, and know what you want, you
will have most of what you need
to be a successful salesman. I mean that. Nobody
can be a successful salesman
without wanting. Wanting something very much. And
the more you want, the more you
drive yourself to do what it takes to sell."
"Once I saw that first
customer as a bag of groceries to bring home
to my family, he was sold, whether he knew it or
not."
You and I might not ever become the world's
greatest in what we do, but we
can become the best we can
possibly be at it. It all starts, continues, and
ends with 1 simple word:
DESIRE
Dave Cole
Editor - Prosperity: The Choice Is Yours
Copyright © 2001 |
