MindValley Labs Internet Marketing Blog

I am at the Con­ven­tion Cen­ter in KL and the room is packed with over 2,500 peo­ple.  There is a stand­ing ova­tion even before Joe Girard has come on stage.  The energy in the room is elec­tri­fy­ing… while I might have been tired just 5 min­utes ago I am now wide awake wait­ing with eager antic­i­pa­tion for what is about to happen.

For over 12 years in a row, Joe Girard was the #1 retail sales­per­son in the world and he still holds the world record today.

On aver­age, he used to sell 6 cars per day!  Just think of that.

Ses­sion is now starting…

NOTE: I was typ­ing as fast as I can and every­thing here is com­ing directly from Joe Girard unless I start it with a NOTE.

I like you.

Those three words are at the core of what made Joe Girard successful.

Joe Girard did not get into sell­ing right away.  When­ever some­one came into Joe’s office he would hand peo­ple an “I like you pin.”  “Even if you don’t buy, I like you… but I know you will buy.”

He starts out pro­fusely thank­ing every­one sin­cerely for com­ing out here.

He is always asked: How did you become the world’s $1 sales­per­son in the tough­est busi­ness in the world?

Good thing, he is going to share his key insights with us.

Life is a game and you gotta know what you are play­ing.  What­ever you do and what­ever you are sell­ing you are not sell­ing.  You must never stop learn­ing more about this game… what makes peo­ple tick, what makes peo­ple buy, what makes peo­ple do what they do.

Con­stantly strive to improve your­self. “I am never sat­is­fied.”  If you are sat­is­fied… then you are dead.

I watch both the smart peo­ple and the dumb peo­ple so that I can see what makes good peo­ple good, and what makes bad peo­ple bad.

“Every morn­ing that I get up, I say that some­body is going to pay for get­ting me out of bed.  I love to sleep.”

“The night before tomor­row I plan my day.  You must have a plan to make sure they pay.”

“What­ever it is that you are sell­ing… I will proof to you that you are not really sell­ing those things.”

“What’s your secret?”

“If there is one word I detest is the word secret.  There is no secret.  If there was a secret nobody would be shar­ing it with you.  There are no secrets.”

“I have tried all the short­cuts to make the fast dol­lar but I could never do it.”

He was 1 of 42 sales man on the show­room floor.  Every­one sold on aver­age 5 cars a month, while Joe was sell­ing 6 or more per day!

First you must find the job you love.  Joe says “I never worked a day in my life, I played!”

Never leave because the grass is greener on the other side.  You stay and grow like a tree and the big­ger the tree gets, the more money you are going to make.  A lot of times I wanted to quit because of a problem.

But you want to know some­thing? A prob­lem is like a gift from God. It is your oppor­tu­nity to grow stronger.

Always hang around peo­ple that can help you, suc­cess­ful peo­ple, peo­ple that know about the power of pos­i­tive think­ing.  I never want to talk to some­body unless they have some­thing good to say.

You gotta be like a race horse.  Put on blind­ers your before leav­ing the house so that you don’t have any dis­trac­tions.  Every move you make needs to be pos­i­tive.  Stay focused on your life.

A few things that will kill you:

• Sell­ing a few things on the side
• Put all your focus and energy on ONE thing and you will rise and soar to the very top
• Sneak­ing out to play golf. Be com­mit­ted –when you eat you eat, when you work you work… do not min­gle and mix them up.  Sneak­ing out of work means you are a loser.

Joe went through the extremes… he used to have a brown bag lunch every­day.  He never had lunch with his employ­ees because he could not sell them any­thing.  He also would NEVER ever take a 2 1/2 hour lunch.  When you cheat on lunch, you cheat your­self out of success.

NOTE: What a shame, I just noticed that I could not clas­sify this post under “Sales” when sales is the sin­gle most impor­tant activ­ity that every entre­pre­neur and busi­ness owner needs to focus on.  I think it shows that even here we still have things to learn and to improve.

Joe says he once failed in busi­ness and it was because he did not focus. 

How did Joe end up sell­ing cars?  He got on the bus and did not know where to go!  He got off the bus and in front of him was a car deal­er­ship.  He walked in, and asked for a job.  The man­ager said he could not hire him because he had never sold a car before.  Joe said… “just give me a desk and a phone and within 2 months I will beat every­one you have on board.”

What hap­pened then? Joe just started han­dling the phone but when he walked down­stairs at the end of the day… he walked down­stairs and there was nobody there.  All the losers had left and now he was alone with the customers. 

He sold the first cus­tomer that day and the cus­tomer said “you know what Joe, I have never seen any­one beg like you.”  Joe was not afraid to get on his hands and knees and beg.

After this Joe said “I am going to climb this moun­tain with imag­i­nary blind­ers on to always stay focused.  I don’t care if any­one laughs at me… I will always keep climb­ing to the top.”

NOTE: The above was pretty dra­matic.  Joe had a big lad­der on stage –and he climbed up it to show his climb towards the top!

Joe sold cars for 15 years.  In the first 3 years he devel­oped a sys­tem that was dri­ving peo­ple to his door in droves.  Peo­ple out­side his office were scream­ing to in into his door and he used to say, “the longer you have to wait… the cheaper it will get for you.

In his last 12 years… if you did not have an appoint­ment you could not get into Joe’s office.  You could not even buy a car from Joe with­out an appointment!

What is the world’s great­est adver­tise­ment in the world?  It is word-of-mouth.  Why did peo­ple go to him… because Joe likes you.

“I like to look at people’s lips.  I learn more from people’s lips than from any other part of their body.”

“I am going to show you to sell some­thing to some­one so that they will never for­get your name until you are dead.”

How did he become so suc­cess­ful?  He had a burn­ing desire and he always remem­bered where he had come from and then he just focused.  Take it slow… go easy… plan your work and work the plan.

“I am so orga­nized it is sickening.” 

Joe Girard never had the chance to grad­u­ate from high school.  Instead, I grad­u­ated from the world’s best uni­ver­sity called “Street University.”

NOTE: This has been a great pre­sen­ta­tion so far but I really look for­ward to hav­ing him go into his sys­tem of how he started sell­ing to peo­ple so successfully.

Joe is now giv­ing a live demon­stra­tion of what he used to do in his office.

“Let me ask you a ques­tion… can you give me the name of the per­son that you bought your com­puter from?  No.”

NOTE: You should read “How to sell any­thing to any­body”, a famous book by Joe Girard.

When it comes to mail­ing peo­ple… don’t add your com­pany name to the enve­lope.  What did Joe do?  He just added “I Like You” to the card.  He used to send out 16,000 envelopes a month, each con­tain­ing two busi­ness cards.  Any­one that did or did not buy from him got into his mail­ing system.

Joe’s first card just said:

• I like you (on outside)
• and I wish you a happy new year. 
• Joe Girard

The enve­lope also con­tained two cards of Joe Girard.  That’s it!  He did not do any­thing else!

In Feb­ru­ary

• I like you
• and I want to wish you a happy valen­tines day

Every month he is com­ing into your house in the mailbox.

• In March — happy Saint Patty’s day
• In April — happy Easter
• In May — happy moth­ers day
• In June — happy fathers day
• In July — happy 4th of July
• In August — Send me a cus­tomer and I give you $50
  etc… etc…

NOTE: The beauty of his mail­ing sys­tem is that it is so sim­ple!  Every year he had an artist draw up 12 cards and then send them out.  That’s all he did.  Why has no one ever cre­ated an auto-responder with sim­ple greet­ing cards?  Could this be worth test­ing?  I sure think so!

Cus­tomers would move and he’d to get up to 50 envelopes come back.  Instead of ignor­ing these, he would update his records… nobody could escape him.

Joe Girard: “I will burn my name in your brain.”

Joe’s secret was to get cus­tomers to come in the door.  He did not sell cus­tomers from the floor.

In his sec­ond month, Joe was the #1 sales per­son in the com­pany.  You know what hap­pened?  His man­ager called him into his office and said that the other sales­peo­ple were com­plain­ing that he was steal­ing cus­tomers.  He said that he had to let Joe go.  So, Joe got fired!

NOTE: Can you believe that?  He got fired because the losers, peo­ple that could not per­form were com­plain­ing.  That’s just crazy!

Peo­ple ask Joe, how can you keep up and sell so many cars per month?

He started hir­ing peo­ple to assist him.  He ran his office like a doc­tors office.  He cre­ated a well tuned sys­tem that would keep him free so that he could do what he could do best.

How did you ser­vice so many? 

He made a deal with a nice Ital­ian restau­rant and treated all of the peo­ple in the ser­vice depart­ment.  The mechan­ics loved him and took good care of Joe’s cus­tomers.  He told his cus­tomers that if they every had any prob­lem with their car that he would take care of them right away!  Within 15–20 min­utes they could walk into Joe’s office and have 3 mechan­ics look at their car.

What do you think they would do after this treat­ment?  They would tell every­one at church, at school, at home that there was nobody else like Joe Girard.

Who can you wine and dine to get to the top?  The name of the game is ser­vice, ser­vice, ser­vice!  Don’t have lunch by your­self or with your co-workers. Who can you have lunch with that can help you get to the top?  Take care of your cus­tomers, and they will take care of you.

Peo­ple are sick and tired of being treated bad.

What is the most impor­tant thing a busi­ness per­son should do?  Mar­ket yourself! 

Give every­one who comes in your card.  You gotta be like a farmer –they throw seeds all over the field.  Even when he paid his bills, he always put two cards inside.

“They call me crazy… sure I am crazy… at least peo­ple talk about me.  You gotta be crazy so that peo­ple know who you are!” 

Every­one started writ­ing about Joe Girard because of his crazy sales strat­egy.  This stuff works.  Put your card everywhere.

NOTE: For dra­matic effect, Joe started throw­ing cards all over the stage and into the crowd.  He is quite the showman!

Joe’s sec­ond book is “How to sell your­self.”

“Peo­ple buy peo­ple.  That’s what peo­ple buy.”

Sell your­self and sell your­self the right way.  That’s the game we play.  I want you to be #1.

“I have never sold a car in my life.  I sold Joe Girard.”

The moment we get out of bed we are all sales­peo­ple.  We sell peo­ple to love us, to trust us, and to buy from us.  And once you have sold some­one you have to ser­vice your cus­tomer.  You know what hap­pens when you sell your­self to your hus­band and wife and stop sell­ing and ser­vic­ing?  You end up in divorce.

“Peo­ple quit sell­ing after they get what they want. So what I am try­ing to tell you is that the sale begins after the sale.  Any­one can sell some­thing to some­one one time.  The key is to get peo­ple to come back to you.”

After sell­ing a cus­tomer Joe used to say “I am not excited about sell­ing you.  You know what will excite me is if you come back from me a sec­ond time.”

Always com­pli­ment peo­ple on buy­ing from you and com­pli­ment them for mak­ing a really good choice.

He also always said that you bought two things.  You bought a car and you bough Joe Girard.  Some say you can­not make money in ser­vice and I tell them that is crap.  Joe always showed them that he cared and that he loved them.

As soon as he got the sale Joe con­tin­ued sell­ing.  He would instantly put together another piece of mail that said:

• I like you
• Thank you
• and two busi­ness cards

Dear Mr. Cus­tomer,
My fam­ily and I thank you for buy­ing a car from me.  Remem­ber what I said, if you get a lemon I will turn it into a Peach.

Sec­ond strat­egy.  After I sold you I hired you!  He would send cus­tomers a coupon and say, I will pay you $50 if you refer me.  You MUST give them some­thing and show them appreciation.

You know what he used to say? “Where ever you go… I go.”  Joe used to put his busi­ness cards into the glove box so that cus­tomers could always hand out his cards when they asked where and who they bought the car from.

Three days after a sale, Joe would always get on the phone and talk to cus­tomers and ask them how the car was work­ing out for them.  He always reminded them that if they bought a lemon, that he would turn it into a peach. He would also ask for refer­rals and remind them that he would pay peo­ple $50. 

He would get 3 leads from mak­ing this call!  Every cus­tomer that comes in the door with the customer’s name on his card, Joe would pay $50.

NOTE: What if we started call­ing and thank­ing every sin­gle cus­tomer after they bought and asked them how it is work­ing out for them?

“If you don’t pro­mote your­self, nobody else is going to pro­mote you.”

It was his cus­tomers that made Joe the #1 sales person.

NOTE: What Joe is say­ing makes per­fect sense.  The crazy thing is that there are VERY few peo­ple that truly ser­vice their cus­tomers.  This is a huge oppor­tu­nity to truly set your­self apart.  While oth­ers are sell­ing, if you start ser­vic­ing your cus­tomers you can pull ahead very quickly.  I have to admit that here at Mind­Val­ley this has been a gap and I am com­mit­ted to clos­ing it.

What­ever hap­pens in your life, you can beat it, you can get back up and climb to the moun­tain top!  Nobody is going to do noth­ing for you.  I can guar­an­tee you that.  We are all alone in this world.  And I will proof to you that no one is bet­ter than you.

Before I did a sale, I would always dis­arm people’s fears.  Because every­one is afraid that peo­ple want to take money away from them.  Talk to your prospects how you would talk to your mother.  Be sin­cere… and start a con­ver­sa­tion and LISTEN to your cus­tomer.  Keep your big mouth shut!

“We have one mouth and two ears… God is try­ing to tell us something.”

“It is tough to walk away from a good listener.”

And my sec­ond power… my face is your mir­ror and I smile and that gets the prospect smil­ing.  That’s my sec­ond power.

It takes 9 mus­cles to frown and none to smile.

Every­body has feel­ings.  You treat peo­ple good and they will buy from you and they will love you.  Show them that you cared!  Peo­ple want to be loved.

The name of the game is treat­ing peo­ple good.

Every­day I leave the house I start by look­ing into the mir­ror and start off by saying:

• “I feel good”
• “I feel great”
• “I am Num­ber 1″

NOTE: I had no idea Joe Girard is such a char­ac­ter and per­son­al­ity while pre­sent­ing.  He put on quite the show but some of his points are very impor­tant and there was lots of good food for thought that I will need to digest.

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About the Author

Prior to MindValley Media, Mike was the Head of New Ventures Strategy at eBay where he conceived of the strategies that led to the investment in Craigslist, the launch of Kijiji.com and the acquisition of Skype. Mike has an MBA from Stanford and previously worked for the Boston Consulting Group. He is also a certified Google AdWords Professional.

Check out other posts by Mike Reining

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