Life lessons from the World's Greatest Salesman

While scanning through titles in a bookstore, I saw a yellow book.  The top of the cover says - “From the World’s Greatest Salesman... Joe Girard’s 13 Essential Rules of Selling”.  I wondered what he sold and what made him the world's greatest salesman.

I quickly scanned the book and found out that he holds the Guinness Book of World Records for having sold the most number of new retail vehicles in a 15-year career.  How many? 13,001 vehicles! You know the highest no. of vehicles he sold in a year? 1,425 vehicles!  In a month, it was 174.  In a day, his highest was 18 vehicles but on an average day, he sold 6 vehicles. Wow!

So I ended getting a copy to know more about the world's greatest salesman.

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Joe Girard was born on November 1, 1928 in Detroit, Michigan (which makes him 86 years old today).  At the age of 9, he started working as a shoeshine boy. At age 11, he worked as a newspaper delivery boy. When he was in his teens, he became a school dropout, then worked in a factory to assemble stoves. At age 18, he joined the army but had an accident which injured his back so he got discharged. Then he became a contractor but got duped - he lost his business and all his savings, and was left with a USD60,000 debt from the business.

Having a hard time looking for a job and with nothing to feed his family at age 35, he pleaded with a sales manager of a Chevrolet dealership to hire him as a salesman. The manager was hesitant because Joe didn’t have any car sales experience and it was a slow month for cars that time. But guess what?  On that same day, he was able to sell 1 car!   On his second month, he sold 18 cars and trucks. Unfortunately, he got fired because the other salesmen complained about him - for being too aggressive. (What a loss for that dealer!)  Anyway, he applied in another car dealership and the rest was history.

Joe Girard's 13 Essential Rules of Selling don’t just actually apply to Sales but to life in general. Here you go:

1. Make a healthy choice

2. Have a positive attitude

3. Organize your life

4. Work when you work

5. Observe Girard's No-No’s (Examples of these are – Don’t smoke, don’t chew a gum, don’t use heavy cologne, don’t use profanity, don’t tell dirty jokes, don’t be late, etc.)

6. Dress the part

7. Listen

8. Smile

9. Stay in touch

10. Tell the truth

11. Lock up every opportunity

12. Stand in front of everything you do for others (character and reputation)

13. Reward yourself

It was refreshing to read a business book whose author’s top rule is health-related. This particular excerpt struck me:

To get into the right frame of mind mentally and emotionally to take on life, start by taking care of yourself physically. For most of us the problem is not a condition, a disease or illness - it's neglect.

<Guilt> No more procrastinating with our health goals. “I was too busy to be healthy” is the last thing we would want to tell the doctor.

The book is peppered with Joe’s in-your-face life advice. Here are my favorites:

Nobody can guarantee where you'll wind up in this life, not even General Motors <or insert your employer here no matter how big and stable it is>. Your best shot is you.

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If you're waiting for someone to make the world just right for you so you can succeed, you're on the road to nowhere.

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Edmund Hillary who climbed Mt Everest 60 yrs ago (1953) didn't say:  This mountain is too high. It's too cold up here. These rocks are too uncooperative. There's no trail to follow. My equipment doesn't feel right. It's all the manufacturer's fault. Mount Everest can't be conquered.

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You will question decisions you made that you believed were carefully thought through. You will have doubts. You can't control that. It's being human. You can, however, control how you respond to those kinds of situations. The key is attitude. That's where the difference lies between winning and losing.

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…..if you look like a bum, you are a bum. Why? Because the vast majority of people won’t take the time to find out that you’re really an intelligent, nice, hard-working person after all...

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You can't let one (bad or unfortunate) incident rule your life. Once you stop trusting and believing in people who make a difference in your life, you might as well put your best outfit on and climb into a coffin because the end can't be far away.

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Nobody ever said life was fair, so quit blaming the world for your shortcomings.  Just be smart about making sure important commitments are in writing. Learn from your mistakes and move on. Many people can't do this. They prefer to spend their time plotting ways to get even with someone who cheated them or lied to them. When that happens, you know you've reached the bottom.

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I also like how Joe pointed out how priceless time is –

I guard my time like it is gold. In fact, it's even worth more than gold because you can't buy a sack of time with a sack of gold.

And why we should strive to live a healthy balanced life -

Life is not about one thing. Your life is more than just your job. To live a balanced life, you must pay attention to everything's important to you.

How did he do it?  He divided his life into 4 areas and when he’s doing any of the four, he doesn’t let anything get in the way. What are these 4?
1. When he works, he works.
2.  When he sleeps, he sleeps.
3. When he eats, he eats.
4. When he plays, he plays.
And how about us? When we do something, we also do 2 or 3 other things!  Tsk-tsk....

Lastly, I admire the way how Joe consciously made sure he stayed grounded despite all the achievements.   Here are 2 of my favorite excerpts:

Remember your success is never all about you. If you're in sales, you represent a product or service backed by lots of other people without whom you'd fail.

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People who enjoy success too quickly can often be doomed to failure if they forget what got them there and where they came from. That's why I always keep that picture of me shining shoes as a 9-year old kid on the wall in my office. I never want to forget where I came from. It kept me in line and prevented me from thinking I was a hotshot.

And just in case you’re wondering about the photo Joe is talking about, here it is –

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The 9-year old shoeshine boy who became the world’s greatest salesman. :)