Lessons from the World’s Greatest Salesperson
Posted by Rebecca Blackwell on Jan 13, 2009
I’ve recently been newly inspired by a man by the name of Joe Girard. You’ve probably heard of him. He’s called the World’s Greatest Sales Person - and for good reason.
For more than a decade Joe sold cars. A lot of cars. In fact, in 1973 he was given the title of World’s Greatest Sales Person in the Guinness Book of World Records. Here’s a blurb from that entry: ” The all-time record for automobile salesmanship in individual units sold is 1,425 in 1973, by Joe Girard of Detroit, author of “How to Sell Anything to Anybody” and winner of the Number One Car Salesman title every year from 1966 to 1977.”
1,425 cars sold in ONE YEAR! In fact, during his fifteen year selling career, he sold 13,001 new cars and trucks, all at retail - no fleet, wholesale or used vehicles. After selling cars for just 3 years, Joe had so much business it was by appointment only. This is an amazing individual.
Read Joe’s bio when you have a chance. His entire life story is remarkable and inspiring and there is much to be learned from his story. However, I want to focus on just one of the things Joe did to build the amount of relationships necessary to sell thousands upon thousands of cars.
Joe truly understood the importance of relationship marketing if you want to consistently sell anything. (Or, in Joe’s case, completely dominate your market.) He did a couple of key things to build those relationships that all could revolutionize every business.
First of all, he hired people to deal with administrative work so that he could have more time to interact with his customers. Second, he kept in touch with people via mail month after month. At one point, Joe was sending 16,000 cards each month to customers and prospective customers. Imagine for a moment what it would be like to get a card in the mail each and every month from a car salesman. When you needed to purchase a car, wouldn’t it seem unthinkable to go to anyone else?
Dan Kennedy is quoted as saying that 68% of customers leave because they don’t feel loved or valued. You don’t really even know you’ve lost them. They just go away. Think about what would happen in your business if this wasn’t true. If, instead of loosing 68% of your business each year, you kept it. And imagine what would happen if that 68% felt so valued by you that they told their friends, family and coworkers. What would that do to the growth of your business? For Joe, it meant selling 13,000 cars.
This kind of customer retention and referral generation isn’t that hard to do, it just has to end up at the top of your priority list. You could send a hand written “Thank you for your time” every time you meet with a prospect. Send a hand written thank you card for each order. Send gifts of appreciation. Go beyond the flat customer retention programs that many companies mindlessly employ and do something for your customers to show your appreciation that is completely unexpected.
Here’s a great example: I heard about a handyman who built his business on the promise that his company would leave each client’s house cleaner than when they arrived. He trained his employees to not only clean up their own mess, but to noticeably leave the home cleaner in some way. What an amazingly simple way to not only create a wildly successful business, but to completely dominate a market.
What customer retention systems can you add to your marketing strategy this year to not only keep the customers you have, but to ensure that you are their only source for what you offer? How can you apply what Joe did to increase sales? What can you do that provokes those same loyal customers to tell everyone they know about you? Please share your ideas!
