the reason you are here, is that I want to start your training by you hearing from the master. Zig is the best. So, you may as well start with the best.”
“What did he mean, ‘your training?’” thought a confused Jack.
“Well, Zig, just wanted you to meet Jack. We’ll get out of your hair so that you can finish prepping for your presentation.”
“You’re never in my hair, Digger. Incidentally, I still have more hair than you do too,” Zig said with a small smile forming on the corners of his mouth.
“Ah, you old coot,” bellowed Digger with a similar smile forming on the corners of his mouth.
As Digger and Jack walked back through the double doors into the lobby area, Jack hesitated, but forced the question out of his lips, “Digger what did you mean when you told Mr. Ziglar that you wanted me to learn from him to start my training? What training?”
“You are having trouble with your sales, right? Like I said yesterday, I was sent to you.”
Not much more was said about it. In a way, Jack was relieved that he now had guidance and help. He still didn’t understand this Digger Jones, but he was beginning to trust him…and he liked him.
Digger and Jack walked into the auditorium. It was large. It could seat probably 2,000 people. It was packed. At the front of the auditorium was a large stage. It was brilliantly lit. They walked down and took their seats on the third row right smack dab in front of the middle of the stage. These were great seats. Jack would have expected no less from Digger.
As soon as they were seated, a sharp-dressed woman probably in her mid- forties walked onto the stage. She was beaming with enthusiasm. She walked up to the lectern, which was right in front of Digger and Jack’s seats. She began to speak.
“Good morning. Welcome to the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber’s exciting event, Breakfast with Zig Ziglar. As you know, Zig doesn’t accept many speaking engagements anymore. We are thrilled and honored to have him here with us today. Without further ado, please welcome the one, the only, Mr. Zig Ziglar.”
The crowd erupted into a standing ovation that sounded more like a freight train had just entered the auditorium. Zig walked out onto the stage. What poise. What enthusiasm. It was hard to believe he was in his eighties. He and Digger are a lot alike.
Zig shook the hand of the woman who introduced him, and he looked over the excited crowd. Zig began to speak.
Chapter One
Selling — The Proud Profession
By Zig Ziglar
As Zig was about to start his presentation, Digger leaned over and nudged his young friend sitting beside him. "You are going to love this Jack. Zig is the best. The absolute best."
With that, Zig started to speak.
I was going to start our time together with a little story I tell that will knock your hair out, but I notice several of you fellows have already heard it. So I certainly won't go into that at this particular moment. So, let me simply start by saying that years and years ago I was flying on a plane, which incidentally is the general way I fly, and I was seated next to an old boy who I couldn't help but notice had his wedding band on the index finger of his left hand. Well, I commented on it by saying, "Fellow, I can't help but notice you got your wedding band on the wrong finger." He looked over at me and said with a slight grin on his face, "Yeah, I married the wrong woman."
Well, I don't know if he married the wrong woman, but I do know that most people have a lot of wrong ideas about what professional salespeople are, what they represent, what they do, and the contributions they make. So, let's start with some questions for each of us to think about. Do you believe that you sell a really good product or service? Do you know that your product or service solves a problem? Do you believe that when you sell a product or service that solves a problem you deserve a profit? Do you believe that if you sell for example two products that solve two problems that you deserve two profits?
Let me ask you another question that may sound a bit odd to you. Have you been in the world of selling for as long as a year? Now, do you still have every dime that you’ve ever earned in the profession of selling? However, do you have customers that are still using and benefiting from what you sold them a year ago, two years ago, ten years ago, or even longer? So, here is the big question. Who’s the big winner, you or the customer? It is the customer, isn’t it? So, then is the profession of selling something you do to somebody or for somebody? So, why would you ever hesitate doing something nice to someone when you know he/she will benefit for a long, long time?
One of the things that happens to me periodically is that somebody will be thinking they are paying me a compliment by saying, “I imagine you can sell anything to anyone.” When that happens, I always tell them that they have just described a con artist. A professional salesperson cannot and will not sell anything unless he or she knows without a shadow of a doubt that the customer is the big winner in the transaction. That’s what the professional salesperson does. The message is very clear: make certain the customer is the big winner if you are going to build a career in the world of selling. And, to do that, you must sell products, goods, or services, where you are absolutely clear that when you leave that customer, he/she is the big winner.
Now, I want to tell you I’m very proud to be a salesperson, and a lot of people don’t realize this, but America was literally discovered by a salesperson. Not by any stretch of the imagination could you excuse Christopher Columbus of being a navigator. He was looking for India; he missed it by twelve thousand miles. Now, let me tell you, that is not navigation.
Well, he was an Italian in Spain. Now, that is way out of his territory. He only had one prospect to call on, and if they said no, he would have had to swim back home. He really had to do some selling. On the trip, he literally had to keep selling in order to keep sailing. Not only that, but he had to make a sale before he even got aboard the ships because Isabelle and Ferdinand of Spain kept saying to him, “Chris, the price is too high. We can’t afford it.” Now, that is the same thing your prospects have been saying to you.
Since I was not there, I am sure this isn’t verbatim, but I can imagine the conversation went something like this. Chris locked eyes with Isabelle and said, “Look, Izzy, you got a string of beads around your neck. Why don’t we take them down to the pawn shop and hawk them so that we can finance the deal that way?” Historically speaking, they literally had to make special arrangements in order to get the deal done. So, America was discovered by a salesperson. We were also populated by a salesperson. Sir Walter Rally toured the coffee houses of London persuading those people to leave the security of their homeland to go into a foreign land where you had no guarantee on anything at all, and because of his successful selling, people came in droves to America.
America was freed by a sales professional. His name was George Washington. If you are a sales manager, I want you to consider this. Washington had to do a super sales job. He said to prospective recruits, “Look, we’re going to go to war against the most powerful nation on earth. They have a big army and a big navy. We are planning a rebellion and we are going to fight those people, and I have got to tell you, to be completely honest, if we win this war, I’m not going to be able to pay you; sorry about that. And if we lose it, they are going to hang you from the highest tree.” Now,
