The World’s Greatest Sales Lesson
by
Darren Kelly
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2010 Darren Kelly
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Darren Kelly is available as a Keynote Speaker and Master Trainer for Sales, Customer Service, Leadership, and Peak Performance. See more at www.kellcomm.co.uk. Kellcomm is a communication consultancy and training organisation that specialises in Sales, Customer Service, Media Relations, Presentations, Public Speaking and Peak Performance.
With the exclusion of short quotations for review, reproduction or deployment is prohibited, unless advance written permission has been received from the author. The use of this material in seminars, workshops and other training programmes is also prohibited, unless advance written permission has been received from the author.
This material is for educational purposes only, and the publisher and author do not guarantee that it will be suitable for your circumstances. They also cannot be liable to you or anybody else for any exclusion or error or for any damages that result. The publisher and author will not be liable for any damages that result from any inability to use or the complete use of the information, under any circumstances. This also applies to any claim or cause in any area of law.
The World’s Greatest Sales Lesson was authored independently by Darren Kelly. It has not been approbated by the subjects mentioned herein. The trademark names used in the book are to benefit those mentioned and not to infract them.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1. Steve Jobs
Chapter 2. Bill Gates
Chapter 3. Ray Kroc
Chapter 4. Phil Knight
Chapter 5. Donald Trump
Chapter 6. Sam Walton
Chapter 7. Akio Morita
Chapter 8. Estée Lauder
Chapter 9. The World’s Greatest Sales Lesson, League Table (TM)
Chapter 10. Don’t Quit
Chapter 11. Hidden Bonus
Acknowledgements
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“There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.”
Samuel Johnson
Your wise words have filled the world with hope and joy.
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“History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heart-breaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by defeat.”
B.C. Forbes (Forbes)
You wrote about successful business people, but your own success and words inspired them too.
Yes You Can
This book, while steeped in business and personal development, owes its original inspiration to a speech made in the USA on 8 January 2008. Barack Obama had just conceded defeat to Senator Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire Primary. His emotive words sounded like they belonged in a victory speech, and on closer examination, I discovered the ingredients of thought that helped rejuvenate himself and his followers. Obama’s noble obsession or passion for change was evident as he spoke about being stirred and prepared for the challenges to come. If this was how he reacted to defeat, I wondered with excitement how he could empower his followers in victory. He praised the unbreakable self-belief of his followers who voted in record numbers because they had faith in change. Obama’s campaign plan was revealed when he called on everybody to take the journey to somewhere new. His plan to garner Democratic support was also flexible enough to encourage some Republicans to share a vision of a better and a more united America.
Strong personal values are what separate those who achieve success and fulfillment, and those who just achieve success. It was evident that Obama’s race for the White House was bolstered by a deep morality to ignite a spark in everybody to be better in social and business environments. Health care, every child’s future and the genius of people in business and education received his support in his vision for change.
Obama’s tempo and tenor showed us that hi-energy has the ability to transform our lives and the lives of those around us. The basketball loving Senator had power in body and spirit as he varied his delivery from the embracement of legitimate fears to encouragement with hi-energy hope. He maintained his rapport with his followers through an invitation for them to join his challenge for change. This was new to his followers, and he knew that, so he played the role of mentor. The obstacles of negativity and fear were dissolved by his words of encouragement and guidance, and his constant use of the team word,we.
Finally, he took us into the minds of the slaves who consistently searched for freedom and the immigrants who embraced new challenges to begin a better life. This was Obama’s way of telling us that the journey is not easy, but it is definitely achievable if you consistently do what’s required.
Obama’s speech asked us to pause and ponder the possibilities despite the harsh climate of recession and despair. It encouraged me to write about the eight golden traits necessary for outstanding success in Sales? After all, Obama was selling a vision with integrity when he embraced his followers. I thought about the people in business who have displayed each trait, and I set out on a voyage to provide you with their wisdom and experience.
Like Obama’s speech, the words of this book will never change, but I hope that every time you read it, you will have changed in many positive ways. Please use it to inspire you and carry you when times are tough. Use it to stimulate fresh thought and encourage reminders of your abilities. Use it to spread optimism and enthusiasm. Use it to help you serve others better and help them serve you better. Use it to bring the financial, emotional and spiritual happiness you deserve.
When you have finished reading, I hope you will look in the mirror and say “Yes I Will” because you and I know “You Really Can.”
About Darren
Darren Kelly was born in Dublin in 1971. He worked as a salesperson for one of Dublin’s most famous shoe stores, Boylan’s Shoes before he landed a prestigious role as an Executive Officer at Dublin Port (Ireland’s largest shipping port) in 1990. He received a Diploma in Law (Honours) from the Dublin Institute of Technology in 1993. He was approached by Dublin’s biggest radio station, 98FM, to host his own show in 1999, and he decided to leave shipping and pursue the challenge. Within months, he was spotted by a West Yorkshire radio station called The Pulse, and he became a firm favourite with a new audience in England. In 2003, he was asked to sign for the biggest radio station outside London, Heart FM in Birmingham. He interviewed Grammy, Oscar and Brits winners, including Cher, Lionel Richie and George Michael, and TV stars, including Eamonn Holmes and Dara O’ Briain. In 2007, he created The Kellcomm Method of Communication for Sales, Media Relations, Presentations and Personal Development. He hosted his last breakfast radio programme on Smooth Radio in 2009, before embarking on a full-time passion to help people in business increase productivity and sales through effective communication. The common thread of the last 20 plus years is his dedication to studying and teaching the art of communication to enrich people’s lives, personally and in business.
Books by Darren
Love Your Customer Grow Your Business is an iTunes Number 2, Business Bestseller.
The World’s Greatest Sales Lesson is an iTunes Number 1, Business Bestseller.
A Note from Darren
Before we embark on an exciting journey into the minds of some of the world’s greatest ever salespeople, I’d like to share a few thoughts with you. I’m thrilled you are here because I know that you have the power to control your own destiny, just like the people you will read about. For over 20 years, I have studied some of the greatest salespeople in many different industries. These people sold visions, products and experiences that changed the world. On their journey to the top, they experienced many of the challenges you are faced with every day. The World’s Greatest Sales Lesson is a book about personal possibilities and limitless thinking, and its goal is to take you into the top five per cent of salespeople in your field. It is so unique because for the first time ever, you have access to eight of the most brilliant business minds, and you will discover how you can think, act and sell like them too. Their success was no accident, and was built on their understanding that Sales is the world’s greatest profession. When I say that Sales is the world’s greatest profession, do I mean it is a profession more valuable than a doctor, a teacher, a scientist, or a lawyer? Well, ask yourself these questions. How did the doctor get her surgical equipment? How did the teacher get her school? How did the scientist get his laboratory? How did the lawyer get her library?
Isn’t it true that somebody did some selling to help these professionals receive the essentials for their jobs? Isn’t it also true that the best people in each of these wonderful professions are great salespeople too? After all, making a sale is simply a transfer of value with logic and emotion, and don’t these industries require people who can persuade, inform and negotiate every day? Wouldn’t you agree that nothing happens in the world until a sale of some sort is made? The most successful people in any profession know they must develop their selling skills.
Some people pour scorn over the tough and sophisticated profession of selling, and I can partly understand why. They may have suffered a salesperson who didn’t listen effectively, who didn’t follow up on a promise, or who didn’t offer worthwhile solutions for their issues. They may have suffered a salesperson who didn’t try to understand them and their business, or one who made exaggerated claims. I can’t deny that like every other profession, there are lazy, deceitful and shoddy salespeople, who operate out of line with the ethics of most. This book, however, separates the greatest salespeople from their less stellar counterparts, and puts the pride into the skill and level of care necessary for success in selling.
I am very excited to offer you an insight into the minds and selling secrets of the founders of eight of the world’s most famous brands. When you hear the names Apple, Microsoft, McDonald’s, Nike, Trump, Wal-Mart, Sony and Estée Lauder, you immediately think success. I have discovered what made their founders sell so successfully on a consistent basis, and I will reveal how you can model their success.
The eight great salespeople I have carefully selected for this book, changed the world for the better. It’s true that you can pick faults with all of them, but anybody can do that. Have you ever seen a statue erected for a critic? These great salespeople have created jobs and satisfied their customers’ needs and wants, but what they have given the world most of all, is hope. They have provided future generations with a hope for what is possible. Their amazing traits allowed them to lead people to achieve more than they thought possible, and helped their customers enjoy a new level of excellence.
Who are the big names behind these big successes? The people in question are Steve Jobs of Apple, Bill Gates of Microsoft, Ray Kroc of McDonald’s, Phil Knight of Nike, Donald Trump, the original host of The Apprentice and owner of The Trump Organisation, Sam Walton of Wal-Mart, Akio Morita of Sony, and the beauty queen, Estée Lauder. These great salespeople sold to themselves, sold to their people, sold to their investors, sold to their partners, and then they sold to the rest of the world.
The traits that made them so successful are a noble obsession, unbreakable self-belief, a flexible plan, strong personal values, hi-energy, rapport, a desire for knowledge, and consistency. You are about to learn how the eighth success traits helped these people build companies that still thrive today. It is important to remember that these people were not born great salespeople. They were made, and you will soon discover how they learned these traits.
Sales is such an inspiring career, where you get to meet and learn from other people. You make new friends, and you get to make their lives easier, better or more exciting. This creates a powerful reason to get passionate about every day. The emotional high of selling success comes from knowing your reward is not just financial, but you are making a real difference in the world. If you adopt the skills, secrets, techniques, and technologies in this book consistently, you will have a more fulfilling and rewarding career in Sales. It will help you connect with your customers in an intellectual and an emotional way that no other book has ever offered before.
Whether you are a Sales Trainee, a star Sales Rep, a Sales Manager or non-Sales type who needs help selling yourself, your ideas, or your products and services, then this book is for you. It is certainly not a standard book on selling because it goes beneath the skin of success in Sales. You may find yourself unlearning old selling techniques and learning new ways to engage your customers. You will develop true sales dialogue with yourself and the people who buy from you. It’s not just your sales that will increase, but the strength and length of your customers’ friendships. It’s about simple, easy-to-use tools that build inner beliefs and instant trust and credibility that can help you sell better than before.
I have also included some secret bonuses to help you understand these people even more. You will discover seven secrets of an Apple product launch, Warren Buffet’s thoughts on Bill Gates’ sales skills, the true power of Ronald McDonald, and how Nike sold their first trainers. I will also reveal what gives Donald Trump a head start over his rivals, the ten secrets of building audience rapport like Sam Walton, the secret of how Sony sold their pocket radio, and Estee Lauder’s favourite cold calling skill. Please come with me now, as we look into the minds of eight of the world’s greatest ever salespeople, and discover how you can adopt their secrets for your success.
Chapter 1. Steve Jobs
A Noble Obsession
“Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.”
Georg Hegel
Steve Jobs was born on 24 February 1955 in Los Altos, California. His biological mother was a young college graduate who put him up for adoption, but she insisted that his new parents send Jobs to college one day. Paul and Clara Jobs promised to increase their working class savings to fulfil that promise, but Job’s lost interest in college, and he left before he could graduate. There were no degrees that catered for his computer dreams, so he decided to follow his heart and devote his life to work on his passion. His successes include co-founding Apple, the company that created the Mac, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. In 1977, Jobs and his friend Steve Wozniak achieved great success when they sold the Apple II series. It was the first personal computer that most people could afford. The company, which started in Jobs garage, grew into a $2 billion company with 4,000 employees after only ten years. Apple was named after Jobs’ favourite fruit, and the logo is a play on the computer word byte. Jobs lost a power struggle with the Apple board of directors in 1985, and he was fired soon after. Isn’t it amazing to think that a person can get fired from the company he co-founded? He recovered and set up a computer company called NeXT, and he co-founded Pixar Animation Studios, which gave us Toy Story and A Bugs Life. Apple’s subsequent buyout of NeXT in 1996 returned Jobs to the company he helped to establish, and he has served as its CEO since 1997. In 2011, Apple announced that it holds the details of more than 200 million credit card accounts. No other online business in the world has as many customers who are able to buy with such ease.
Jobs is one of the world’s greatest salespeople, and this story supports this view. He once persuaded a U.S. billionaire called Ross Perot to invest over $20 million in NeXT when Jobs’ own reputation was in tatters after the Apple sacking. To persuade a person like Ross Perot to invest money, your sales skills must be extraordinary. Perot is a man who directed a successful rescue mission led by a retired Green Beret in Iran to rescue the employees of his former company, EDS. The bestselling novel, On Wings of Eagles, was written about the rescue. Perot was presented with The Winston Churchill Award by Prince Charles in 1986 (the third person and the first businessman to receive the award) for displaying bravery similar to that of the former British Prime Minister. In 1992, Perot entered the U.S. Presidential race and polled 18.9% against George Bush’s, 37.4% and Bill Clinton’s, 43%. To appreciate Perot’s business and political train of thought, and why he may have liked Jobs, it is worth examining a Perot statement from the Presidential TV debates in 1992. He said, “Keep in mind our Constitution predates the Industrial Revolution. Our founders did not know about electricity, the train, telephones, radio, television, automobiles, airplanes, rockets, nuclear weapons, satellites, or space exploration. There’s a lot they didn’t know about. It would be interesting to see what kind of document they’d draft today. Just keeping it frozen in time won’t hack it.” Jobs had a passion for change when he requested money for NeXT, and perhaps Perot saw a kindred spirit.
Perot once recalled a party in San Francisco in the mid 1980’s where he spoke to the King of Spain. He said he suggested to the King that he should have a chat with a bright 30-year old called Steve Jobs. Perot watched the conversation from a distance and described the interaction between the King and Jobs as “electric.” The King took a pen from his pocket, scribbled a note and gave it to Jobs. When Perot asked Jobs about what happened, Jobs replied with a smile, “I sold him a computer.”
Jobs’ greatest trait is that he has a passion that is more like a noble obsession, and this fires him up to achieve. His investment in his work is spiritual as well as financial. He has created mass appeal for Apple through his understanding of the need to combine communication, entertainment, function and elegance. Jobs is curious and creative, and he is willing to commit to doing something different. He is very much a solutions person, who asks more probing questions, and he makes sure he sees things in a positive and profitable light. The iPod, for example, was a solution to the problem of storing a music collection, and it allowed instant access to all of it. The iTunes Store offered a solution for people’s dislike of waiting for long periods to receive old and new songs and audio books from high street retailers.
Have you ever thought about what solutions you offer your customers, and do you think about how you package them? Do you have a process for discovering problems your customers may have? Do you possess in-depth knowledge of your customers? What sets you apart from your competition? What are your customers’ true buying motives? These are the thought patterns that Jobs has used to create Apple. While most salespeople say they think and offer a solution, in reality, they present a product or service. They tend to talk more than they listen, and they create a monologue, rather than a meaningful dialogue. Most companies have some good salespeople, but they are short on salespeople who possess a noble obsession to provide the growth necessary for extraordinary success. A great salesperson, like Jobs, goes to work for their company and their customers, while an average salesperson goes to work for an hourly wage. A great salesperson, like Jobs, has a passion that shines brightly through the positive language they use, and the clarity of all their communications. When average salespeople say, “I can’t,” they say, “I can.” When average salespeople say “that’s just the way I am,” they say, “I can learn, and I can change.”