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Selling The Old Fashioned Way
By Phil Nilsson, Green Industry Consultant
A True Story About A Self-Made Multimillionaire
A few passages from the article:
THE "HEAD MAN"
Dinner concluded with more chitchat, cigars and cordials. Money was right here in this room. The "head man," the father-in-law to be, was seated at the head of the table, a dominant, overpowering personality whom you pay attention to. Everybody was focused on him.I sat there in a daze, thinking to myself, "What was he all about? How did he get his money? He didn't look like a statesmen, politician or movie actor. He didn't look rich." When it came my turn to say something as we went around the table introducing ourselves, I leaned forward and said to the man, "How did you get so rich?" Everybody laughed, and the head man did, too.
He narrowed his eyebrows, looked me straight in the eye, and without saying a word, took a black book from his coat pocket and passed it down to my end of the table. I had the feeling he always had it with him.
"Open it," he said. "See what's in there. Open it up, and I'll answer your question." I did. It was an alphabetical index book filled to the brim with hundreds of names, addresses and other info. The black leather was curled on the edges from being carried for so many years.
A silence came over the room as I turned the pages. It was a who's who with addresses, ring sizes, birth dates, likes, dislikes and more all set there in meticulous detail - everybody he ever met, everybody he did business with, and every person, rich and poor, he met along the way. "Why," I asked myself and then him?
"People," he said. "Business is about people, not about things.
Ignore the people, pay them no mind, and as a businessman I'd soon be forgotten - history, son. Get it? To my people, friends, customers, I'm their main man. I'm their friend. Ya gotta listen to your people. Treat ‘em like your own sons and daughters. Make ‘em feel special. You do that son, then you're in business because they remember you, and they don't give a damn what yur sellin’."
That's what he understood to be the main reason for his success. I pressed him further on the issue. "People, I mean my friends and customers, want recognition - somebody to pay attention and listen to their problems. Customers don't buy yur stuff because of that stuff; they buy yur stuff because they take a liking to ya - because you made them feel good about themselves.
Hell man, it's just good psychology." He continued, "Every Tom, Dick and Harry, is sellin’ what your sellin’, so why buy from you? Ya, gotta give ‘em a reason, a good reason. Understand it now, do ya?"
All rights reserved copyright 2003 2004 by Nilsson Associates
