CHAPTER
Selling: The Proud Profession
Zig
Many salespeople are proud of the product they sell. They’re proud of the company they represent. They’re proud of the income they’re enjoying, and they are excited about their future, but amazingly enough, many of them are embarrassed to say, “I sell for a living.”
Now you might think, “What’s the big deal about that?” Let me simply say that how you feel about the sales profession plays a major role in your career. We’re going to get involved now in selling you on your profession. You might say, “That sounds kind of strange, Ziglar. I’ve been selling twenty, thirty, forty years. You’re going to sell me on being a salesperson?”
Yes, because you have an obligation that goes beyond meeting your own needs and the needs of your family. You have an obligation to the profession itself, which has been so good to you. There are lots of misconceptions about it, so let’s explore it and really see what is the sales profession.
Number one, the sales profession: the very word sell is much better and more accurately described by the Norwegian word selje, which literally means to serve. To sell is to serve, and as you know, we’ve emphasized over and over that you can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.
For example, I’m a prospect. You call on me selling me a product. I have a need. If you sell me something that will solve my problem, you have helped me get what I want, and obviously you got what you wanted, because you got the sale and the income along with the satisfaction that goes with it. Yes, the word sell really is important.
I’m convinced beyond any doubt that America is great, and one reason we’re so great is the salespeople who have made it great. You can’t say we’re the greatest land on the face of this earth because of our size. Canada is bigger than we are. Russia is bigger than we are.
We’re not the greatest because we’ve got the most people. India and Russia and China all have more people than we do. It’s not even our natural resources, though you have to admit, we’ve really been tremendously blessed with natural resources. Russia has a lot of nice natural resources, as does Canada, for that matter. South America, India, China all have wonderful natural resources. That’s not the reason for our greatness.
Not our technological superiority, though I’ll be the first to admit that when it comes to the really great stuff that nobody is ahead of our great land. But in some areas, the Japanese are our technological masters. In others, the Germans are technological masters, the Swiss, the Swedish. We have other nations who are technologically very advanced. No, that’s not the reason that we’re the greatest.
I’m convinced it’s because we’re a land of salespeople. Let’s explore that. To begin with, we were discovered by a salesman. Not by any stretch of imagination could you accuse Christopher Columbus of being a navigator. That dude was looking for India. He missed it by 12,000 miles and still went back home and told them he had found it. That is not navigation.
You might say, “OK, he wasn’t a navigator, but was he a salesman?” Well, let’s look at the facts. He was an Italian in Spain. That’s way out of his territory. He only has one prospect, and if he doesn’t make the sale, he has to swim home. Now you tell me. Was he a salesman or not?
You remember the sales call. He called on Isabella and gave her the story in a very convincing way. She listened to everything that he said, and when he had finished his sales talk, she said, “Chris, man, $12,000 for five little old ships? That price is too high.” To this day a lot of people don’t realize that there were five ships involved, but two of them did go over the side.
Yes, he told the story, and she heard what he said, but she didn’t really hear what he was saying. So he had to really get heavy on the benefits. You see, when a salesperson sells initially, in the mind of the prospect, here’s the price, and here are the benefits. That’s what Isabella saw it as. Here is the price, and here are the benefits.
Chris knew he needed to sell the benefits, so he sold the fight. “We’ll beat England and France and Portugal, the other powers. We’ll be the first to do this. Think of the financial rewards that come our way, and if we get there first, we can spread the Word.” Isabella and Ferdinand were strong Christians. “We’ll be able to spread the Gospel.”
He really sold the benefits, and finally the benefits had exceeded the price. Now he has a prospect. Until the benefits get higher than the price in the mind of the prospect, you don’t really have a prospect. You just have a suspect.
Now he has a prospect, but the prospect has an objection. “Chris, I know it sounds like a good deal, but I don’t have any money.”
He took a look at her, and he said, “Look, Izzy.” Now I wasn’t there, so I’m not real certain this is verbatim, but he said, “You have a string of beads hanging around your neck. Let’s take them down to the pawn shop and hock them. We’ll finance this deal.”
It wasn’t quite like that, but the history book will clearly show that they did have to do some creative financing in order for them to make the trip. Then, when the trip started, you’re talking about a sales job. Old Chris really had to do some selling.
You see, Columbus did not go by the charts of the day. Everybody else had been sailing due westward, and when they sailed due westward, they ran directly into those winds hitting them head-on. As a matter of fact, King John II of Portugal had just sent out another expedition trying to do the same thing, and those winds drove them backwards, but that’s the way everybody went.
What Columbus did was he sailed south and then started westward, so the prevailing winds would be behind his back. Well, old, superstitious, fearful sailors did not know what Columbus was doing. All they knew is they were going south when everybody else had always gone west, and they were concerned about it. As a matter of fact, they threatened a mutiny. They were going to throw old Columbus overboard, and Columbus had to sell. As a matter of fact, in the other two ships, which had the Pinzon brothers as their captains, one was the Niña, and one was the Pinta, the ships were ready to mutiny.
They got together for a sales meeting after a certain point, and they said, “Chris, we’re fixing to get thrown overboard. Even my officers I cannot depend on. We have to put a stop to this.” Columbus sold as he had never sold before in his life. He said, “Give us three more days,” and just four hours before the three days expired, the call came forth.
“Tierra. Tierra. Land ho!” They were saved by four hours. Otherwise it’d have been back to the other side. Yes, he really had to do an awful lot of selling. He had to be very convincing. His conviction talk to them was extremely strong. Yes, Columbus discovered America because he was a supersalesperson.
Then, once that land ho! came forth, Columbus made the biggest mistake of his sales career. He did not service the account. We did not become the United States of Columbus. We became the United States of America, because another salesman entered the picture. Amerigo Vespucci came in, serviced the account, and made the sale. So we were named after a salesman, but we were also discovered by a salesman.
We were populated by a salesman. Sir Walter Raleigh toured the coffee houses of London educating and selling those ignorant, fearful, superstitious people on the idea that they should leave the security of their native land and go into the wild frontier, which was America. We were freed by salesmen.
Now let me tell you about a salesman. George Washington has to rate as one of the all-time professionals in the world of selling. Let me tell you about old George. George had to sell the merchants and the seaman and the farmers and the backwoodsmen. He had to sell all these people on going to war against the most powerful nation in the world, a nation with the largest army and the largest navy.
He had to say to them, “If we win this war, I’m awfully sorry, but I’m not going to be able to pay you. If we lose the war, they’re going to hang you to the tallest tree in town.”
If you’re a recruiter with your company, can you imagine having to tell a prospective salesperson, “I’m going to give you a chance, but if you make the sale, there’s not going to be any money to pay you, and if you miss the sale, we’re going to take you out and shoot you at sunrise.” That would require some persuading.
You bet you Washington was a salesman. When we won our war, Alexander Hamilton, the Secretary of the Treasury, came to Mr. Washington and he said, “Let’s persuade the Congress to appropriate some money so we can study the methods the British have used to establish their factories and agents around the world.”
They appropriated the money, and they made the study. Here’s what happened. The first 168 years, from 1608 to 1776, we only made it to the Appalachian Mountains, but in the next twenty-eight years, because of salespeople who set up those trading posts to supply the ever-westward trek with guns and blankets and supplies, we made it all the way to the Pacific Ocean in just twenty-eight more years.
A salesman doubled the size of our country. You think of Thomas Jefferson as a brilliant statesman. You think of him, and you think of writing the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. You think of him as the president of the United States, but he was first of all, a salesman. He sold the idea of us buying Louisiana, and that was a bunch of money involved, and a lot of people thought it was crazy, but we doubled our size with that one purchase, brought about because of a salesman.
Selling is the most secure profession we have in our country today. If my son were to come to me and say, “Dad, what would you suggest that I get into? I don’t feel as secure as you do, and I want to get into something that is secure.”
I would look my own son right in the eye, and I’d say, “Son, get in the profession of selling. That’s where security is.”
He might say, “But, Dad, doesn’t everyone generally work on a commission in selling?”
I’d say, “Yes, son. Everybody in life works on a commission.”
“Wait a minute. I know the president of the company and your secretary are both on salary.”
“Yes, everybody down there is on salary, but they’re really on commission, simply because anybody who does not produce, regardless of whether they’re on salary or commission, is going to be dismissed eventually. So really all of us are on commission. You can even get to be the president of the United States, and if you don’t do good, they’ll get you, and you’ll lose your job. Everybody in the final analysis is on a commission.”
Why do I say it’s so secure? Way back yonder in 1985 and 1986, there was a recession on. We know there was a recession on, because we read it in the newspapers. At our company, we decided not to join it, and I know that most of you also decided not to join it. I joined a lot of clubs, but not the recession club.
During 1985 and 1986, a lot of people lost their jobs—good people. They were honest and sincere and conscientious and hardworking and productive. It could have been the stewardess; it could have been the captain of the aircraft. It could have been the postman, or it could have been the postmaster. It could have been the schoolteacher, or it could have been the principal. It doesn’t make any difference.
There were a lot of people who lost their jobs, but no honest, sincere, dedicated, hardworking salesperson lost their job. If they did, if their company went out of business, they just went down the street and got another sales job.
I will remember several years ago after another recession was on down in Atlanta. I was handling a speaking engagement, a training session. It was sales training, and just before I spoke, two fine-looking young men, they appeared to be about thirty years old, walked up to me, very well-dressed. They wanted to get their money back on their tickets.
I didn’t sell the tickets. I was simply paid to speak there. I explained that to them. I said, “But why in the world would you want to miss the session?”
They said, “Well, we’re salesman. We just lost our jobs.”
“Both of you?”
“Yes, the boss is one of those guys. We just had a personality conflict.”
“Let me ask you. Do you fellows like to sell?”
“Yes, we love to sell, and we were making good money, too.”
“Would you like to have another job selling starting tomorrow?”
“Why, sure.”
I said, “I can’t promise you a job tomorrow, but I’ll tell you what I can do. I can guarantee you twenty-five interviews during the next two weeks with people who want good salespeople, so you stick around.”
They said, “OK.”
I reached this point in the presentation, and I asked the audience, “How many of you are in the business of recruiting people? You give other salespeople opportunities. Could I see the hands of people in this audience who do things like that? OK. Then how many of you would like to interview two fine-looking, enthusiastic, well-trained, motivated salespeople who just had just a personality conflict, and as a result are now in the market for a sales opportunity?”
They left with over thirty business cards for interviews. You see, there’s always a market for somebody who can sell, who’s honest, and who’s hardworking. Business handle recessions one way; us salespeople handle them in an entirely different way.
In business, a lot of times when there’s a recession on, they’ll call a very serious, somber, sincere meeting. “You know what the problem is. It is tough, but we’re going to make it. We’ll just simply turn off a few lights. We’ll discharge a few people here. We’ll cut all the corners. We’ll suck it up and tough it out, but we’re going to make it. We’re going to fight this thing.”
Salespeople call a meeting. The manager stands up and says, “Now, you’ve heard all this stuff about this recession, but we have a plan. All we have to do is just reduce our sales.” Of course, it brings forth that laugh. What the sales manager does is say, “You’ve been hearing all that baloney about the recession. Let me tell you my response to that. We’re going to put on training sessions like you’ve never seen before. We’re going to have motivational sessions like you’ve never seen before. We’re going to put on a contest to end all contests, and as far as the recession is going to happen, we at our company, are going to sell more and more and more.”
Again, your business is not good or bad out there. It’s good or bad right here, between your own two ears.
You know why I’m excited about selling? It’s a democracy. I spent some time talking with a lot of salespeople. What do I like about selling? You can start real young, and you can keep at it until you’re ninety-six or 106 for that matter. A man named Victor Christen, he’s ninety-four years old, sells automobiles in Pasadena, California. He’s excited about it. His new book is coming out on selling this year.
What I love about it, though, is the freedom. Every morning, you can get up and look in that mirror, and you can say to yourself, “You know, you’re such a nice guy, or you’re such a nice girl, you deserve a raise, and the board just met.”
That’s exciting to me. You’re the chairman of the board, you’re the president, you’re the secretary of treasury, and yes, you also are the janitor. You’re the one who decides whether to give yourself a raise or even to lay yourself off, whether to move yourself up or bring yourself down by your decisions and your actions, not subjected to whims of others.
As salespeople, we’re in business for ourselves, but not by ourselves. Minimal capital investments involved. There’s no discrimination in the world of selling. It is probably the closest thing to a pure democracy that I have ever seen. We don’t care what your race or your sex or your creed or your color might be. Your opportunity is the same, and it is unlimited.
Three of the most successful salespeople I know finished the third grade (in two cases) or the eighth grade, but by hard work and diligence, they’ve applied themselves and their skills, learned the procedures and techniques, and they’ve been enormously successful.
Did you know that 37 percent of the country’s fastest-growing companies have chief executive officers who came up from the sales world? Selling is fun, and it’s challenging, and it’s rewarding, and as Red Motley said so eloquently, “Nothing happens until somebody sells something.”
Have you ever thought this one through? What happens when you make a sale? A lot of salespeople don’t know what does happen when you make a sale. Let’s trace it.
First of all, you understand you write that sale on an order pad. Did you ever stop to realize that order pad didn’t start out as an order pad? It started out as a tree. You’re the person who paid those people who went out in the woods and cut that tree down when you got out there and made that sale. A bunch of people had to take that tree and haul it to the paper mill, and you’re the person who paid those people to haul that tree from the forest down to the paper mill. In the paper mill, hundreds of people are involved in manufacturing that tree into paper. You’re the person who paid those people to manufacture that tree into paper when you got out there and made the sale.
It goes a lot further than that. You take part of your profits. When you make a sale, you do make a profit. Your manager makes a profit, and if you’re lucky, your company makes a profit. If the company doesn’t make a profit, you’re soon not going to have a job with that company. They’re going to be out of business.
But you take part of your profit. You go down to the grocery store and buy a can of beans. When you buy that can of beans, the grocer says, “If you’re going to buy my beans, I have to get some more.” So he goes to the wholesaler and says, “I need more beans.” The wholesaler says, “If you’re going to buy my beans, I have to get some more.” He goes to the cannery and says, “Need more beans.”
The cannery says, “If you’re going to buy my beans, I need to get some more.” He goes to the farmer and says, “Need more beans.” The farmer says, “If you’re going to buy my beans, I have to raise some more. To do that, I need to get a new tractor, because the one I have is worn out.”
The farmer goes down to the dealer and says, “Hey, I have to have a new tractor.” The dealer says, “If you’re going to buy my new tractor, I have to get another one, because this is the last one we have in inventory.” He goes to the factory and says, “Hey, I need a new tractor.” The factory says, “If you’re going to buy my tractors, I have to manufacture some more, and to do that, we have to bring in iron, copper, plastic, steel, aluminum, lead, zinc, spark plugs. We’re going to set up factories all over the world to manufacture those things.”
And all of that happened because one day you got out there and made a sale.
That’s what you ought to tell folks. Regardless of what that other person does, regardless of their status and their rank in life, that person is enjoying the standard of living they are because you and others like you are out there in the world selling.
Then why is it that in the sales profession, we do not enjoy the reputation that we should? Why do some people look down on us?
I think one basic problem is that we’ve sold our goods, we’ve sold our services, we’ve sold our companies, but we’ve not sold our profession. You know the American Medical Association spends tons of money and have their own publicity agents selling what they do. The same is true for the bankers’ association, the dental association, and so many others. We need an American Sales Association, where we sell the profession of selling.
Why, even the dictionary is all fouled up. Did you know that the dictionary says the word sell means to deliver up, to make a bribe for, to betray, to fool a person, a deception, a hoax? When those dirty dogs write stuff like that, that gets my dander up, because there’s not a word of truth in it. We ought to get after them to take it out of there and identify it for what it is.
One problem too is we still have that old Yankee peddler concept. A lot of people think that selling is making people want something they don’t need or which they have no real use for or which simply has no value. Or they think selling is making people buy something they don’t even want.
Then Broadway does its part. They have a play called The Music Man, and Harold Hill, the consummate con man in River City, Iowa, does a number on us, and we get an impression.
But the worst thing I ever saw in my life—I couldn’t believe the vulgarity and the obscenity of it. I don’t mean it was pornographic as far as the pictures and the words were concerned, but they way they describe and picture the salesman is absolutely vulgar, unseemly, pornographic, and untrue. Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman has no more relationship to what we as salespeople are like and what we do and the role we play than the man in the moon.
They showed that thing on Broadway forever. Then the rascals put it on television not once, not twice, but three times. It finally died like it ought to, I thought. Then would you believe that they revived it? They revived it, and they showed it another long time there on Broadway, and then they put it back on television.
How ridiculous can we get? What is the real truth? I’ll tell you the role we play and why it’s so important. The Secretary of Commerce of the United States, a man who ought to know, said this: “We need one million more professional salespeople.” Why? Because every time you make that sale, industry turns, and business comes there.
What can we do? We need to spread that word. We need to support confidence-building organizations like the sales and marketing clubs, the swap clubs, Salesman with a Purpose, or the National Speakers Association. They in reality are for speakers, but because so many of them are outstanding sales trainers, and everybody is a salesperson, we need to get involved in organizations like that.
Here’s something we really need to do a lot of thinking on. We need to let people know what the salesperson and the sales profession is all about.
Many years ago, this was written, and I share it with you.
I’m a salesman. I’m proud to be in sales because more than anyone else, I, and millions of others like me, built America.
The man who builds a better mousetrap or a better anything would starve to death if he waited for people to beat a pathway to his door. Regardless of how good or how needed the product or service might be, it has to be sold.
Eli Whitney was laughed at when he showed his cotton gin. Edison had to install his electric light free of charge in an office building before anyone would even look at it. The first sewing machine was smashed to pieces by a Boston mob. People scoffed at the idea of railroads. They thought that traveling even thirty miles an hour would stop the circulation of the blood. McCormick strived for fourteen years to get people to use his reaper. Westinghouse was considered a fool for stating that he could stop a train with wind. Morse had to plead before ten Congresses before they would even look at his telegraph.
The public didn’t go around demanding these things. They had to be sold!!
They needed thousands of salesman, trailblazers, pioneers, people who could persuade with the same effectiveness as the inventor could invent. Salesmen took these inventions, sold the public on what these products could do, taught customers how to use them, and then taught businessmen how to make a profit from them.
As a salesman, I’ve done more to make America what it is today than any other person you know. I was just as vital in your great-great-grandfather’s day as I am in yours, and I’ll be just as vital in your great-great-grandson’s day.
I have educated more people, created more jobs, taken more drudgery from the laborer’s work, given more people a fuller and richer life than anyone in history. I’ve dragged prices down, pushed quality up, and made it possible for you to enjoy the comforts and luxuries of automobiles, radios, electric refrigerators, televisions, and air-conditioned homes and buildings.
I’ve healed the sick, given security to the aged, and put thousands of young men and women through college. I’ve made it possible for inventors to invent, for factories to hum, and for ships to sale the seven seas. How much money you find in your pay envelope next week and whether in the future you will enjoy the luxuries of prefabricated homes, stratospheric flying airplanes, and a new world of jet propulsion, and atomic power depends on me.
The loaf of bread that you bought today was on a baker’s shelf because I made sure that a farmer’s wheat got to the mill, that the mill made the wheat into flour, and that the flour was delivered to your baker. Without me, the wheels of industry would come to a grinding halt, and with that jobs, marriages, politics, and freedom of thought would be a thing of the past. I AM A SALESMAN and I’m both proud and grateful that as such I serve my family, my fellow man, and my country.
Yes, I am a salesman. Be proud that you sell, and as my friend from down under, Mr. John Nevin, says, “If somebody says, ‘Here comes a salesman,’ don’t let him down.”
Buy these ideas, follow through on the procedures and the techniques and the skills we’ve been sharing with you. I’ll close by saying I’ll see you, and yes, I do mean you, at the top in the world of selling.