I’ve Got Some Advice For You
Every now and then, you’ll come across someone who is struggling while trying to solve a problem that you already know how to solve. The temptation is to offer this person advice and thus put an end to his or her struggle–after all, offering a helping hand seems like the right thing to do. Well, my experience has taught me time and again that such unsolicited advice is usually not welcome. The old adage about advice is true: Fools won’t heed it and wise people don’t need it–and both will resent you for giving it!
The fool will resent you because he or she already thinks they know everything. The wise person will resent it because your advice will deprive him or her of a first hand learning experience. So, the next time you’re tempted to dole out free advice, ask yourself the question, “Did this person ask for my help?” If the answer is no, do yourself and the other person a big favor and keep walking
References:
- Turning Your Customers into Long-Term Friends: The Secret Sauce that Guarantees Repeat and Referral Sales [Kindle & Paperback Editions]
Now Available from Amazon.com for $15.99
Available from Amazon.com 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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