Dear Difference Maker,
It's Monday and I wanted to share a story from Norman Vincent Peale's Positive Imaging about a Joe Girard, listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's greatest automobile salesman.
There was a time in Joe's life when he looked like the world's greatest failure. Everything he touched went wrong. He was up to his ears in debt. The bank was trying to repossess his house, his car, everything.
One cold night in January he came home, climbing the back fence and sneaking in the back door to avoid bill collectors. When he walked into the kitchen, his wife told him that there was no food in the house. She had nothing to give the children. At that moment the doorbell rang. Another bill collector.
Joe Girard didn't open the front door. Instead, he stooped down in the darkened hallway and prayed a prayer of desperation. He was convinced that he was a total failure as a husband, as a provider, as a human being. He asked God to help him, to give him another image of himself, to turn his life around.
The next day he went to an automobile-sales agency where he knew the manager, and begged him for a selling job. The man felt sorry for him and agreed to give him a chance on a commission basis. All that day he dialed people he knew, trying to sell a car over the phone, but nothing happened. The timing was unfortunate, just after the Christmas season. It seemed nobody was buying cars.
Finally, just before closing time, a man wandered in. "Just looking," he said. He had no intention of buying anything. By now, Joe Girard should have been totally discouraged. But somehow, looking at the man, he visualized a warm, friendly encounter that would result in a sale. He held the image of himself receiving the commission money, then bringing home bags of groceries to his family. He saw the food steaming on the table, the hungry children enjoying it.
He fixed the whole scene in his mind; then he began to talk in a friendly and outgoing spirit to the man, whom he now saw as a promising prospect. In the end, impressed by Joe's sincerity, the man agreed to buy a car. The owner of the agency gave Joe an advance on his commission that enabled him to go out and buy those groceries. He took them home. The whole dream came true.
After that, there was no stopping Joe as a salesman. He never let his customers forget who he was or what he did for a living. He kept records and sent each customer a card on his or her birthday. If they were Irish, he sent them a card on Saint Patrick's Day. If they were Jewish, he sent them one on Jewish holidays. With each sale, his image of himself as the most effective car salesman in the world grew stronger. And he continues to put that image into the thinking of prospective customers to this day.
The combination of strong imaging backed by strong faith is irresistible.
Make it a great week: IMAGINE the BEST case scenario
...
Mary Robinson Reynolds
makeadifference.com/Moviecards
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