Salesmanship begins with belief that you can be profitable with a new idea. A good salesman is a true entrepreneur. He is a person who takes a risk every day and sees an opportunity when it presents itself.
Seize The Opportunity! Its Snowing Money!
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Wayne_J_Miller]Wayne J Miller
Another lesson from a lifetime of “making it happen”
Salesmanship begins with belief that you can be profitable with a new idea. A good salesman is a true entrepreneur. He is a person who takes a risk every day and sees an opportunity when it presents itself.
I used this little story, which is quite true, as part of my negotiations in buying my first business. I was bargaining with the seller to hold 90% of the purchase price in notes, and felt I needed to convince him that I was a born marketing genius.
It worked.
When I was about 14 or so, I realized that it was much easier to be a happy kid if I had some extra money in my pockets. Don’t get me wrong, I grew up in a fairly comfortable family, but both my parents were children of the great depression and they valued a buck as much as anyone. I certainly never lacked for anything, but I certainly wasn’t spoiled either. My Dad, especially, had a way of handling the inevitable requests for extra money: “What did you do to earn it?” He was a firm believer in service for reward and I learned a lot from him.
So I had these two buddies who had gotten the job at sextons at the local church. John was about 17 and his brother was about 16. John had just gotten his driver’s license and had managed to save enough money to get a car, so he really had better things to do on a Saturday night than prepare the church for Sunday School. I, on the other hand, could walk to the church, had little going on on Saturdays, and as I said, could always use the money.
I approached the two and asked if maybe I could help them out. And after several such discussions, they agreed to take me on. Our duties included polishing the floors, setting up the chairs, emptying the waste cans, cutting the grass and shoveling the snow (among others).
Now I lived in the Northeast, so we got some occasional big snows. The first time I saw heavy snow out the window I almost dreaded getting dressed, because the church had a really long walkway and two driveways. I thought I’d never be able to get my own house done, clear the church and still have time to make some extra money clearing the neighbors’ houses. I got out, cleared the front steps and sidewalk and headed over to the church.
The walkway was clear as could be and a low growl was coming from the driveways. I turned the corner and saw my buddy John with a gas-powered snow blower!
Remember, this is 1964 or thereabouts and these devices were not nearly as common as they are today. I ran up to John and said, “Where did this come from?”
He smiled a sly smile and said, “The church decided to buy it last spring after all that snow we had. Sure does make this job easy!”.
He grabbed a bar on the handle and snow started flying everywhere. And I watched as he finished the driveways in about 5 minutes. When he was done, he killed the power and took off his gloves.
I couldn’t wait to ask, “Do you think we could use it for a while?” “What for?” John wanted to know.
I laid out my plan in no time. John grinned like a Cheshire cat and then led me to the Rectory. “We gotta get permission first.”
The Pastor was very generous and allowed us to use the snowblower on one condition: we had to supply all our own gas and oil and return it full and ready to go for the next snowstorm.
John and I headed up the block. I told him to wait on the corner as I went up the stairs to ring the bell. At the first house, I presented myself in the best Horatio Alger style.
“Ma’am, would you like your walkway and driveway cleared?” I never said shoveled because that would be misleading. As a matter of full disclosure, I really never said cleared with a snowblower, either.
We would negotiate an agreed amount and usually in less than 15 minutes, we would be on to the next house. In 1964, we would average $75 to $100 and hour. Not bad for two high school kids.
The point of this story is to illustrate that seeing a need, finding a way to fill that need, using materials and equipment at hand, and doing some effective and attractive marketing are the components of a successful business transaction. Always were… always will be.
To this day, every time it snows and a young man rings my bell, I look up the block to see if he has a buddy waiting with a snowblower.
It hasn’t happened yet.
By Wayne Miller, author of Selling Smart: Lessons and Learnings from a Lifetime of Making It Happen
Visit Wayne Miller’s blog at [http://sellingsmart.org]http://sellingsmart.org.
Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Seize-The-Opportunity!-Its-Snowing-Money!&id=6849140] Seize The Opportunity! Its Snowing Money!
