فصل 17

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

THE BIGGEST SALE OF MY LIFE

The first moment I saw Elena, I knew I’d found the girl I was going to marry. I was absolutely and completely sold from the first moment I saw her. It also became almost immediately apparent that she, like many customers I have had, wasn’t going to make this sale very easy for me. I was taken aback by her beauty even to the point of being insecure about my qualifications to have her and my ability to get her attention. I pushed through my fears and introduced myself to her as my heart skipped and my pulse raced. She responded to me with complete disinterest, as though she couldn’t even see me. You would have thought I was a ghost or that I was the invisible man. I was devastated, certain by her response that this sale would be almost impossible. The whole encounter lasted maybe a minute before she continued on with what she was doing and left me to be by myself.

I went to one of the people on the set—a friend (working my power base)—and found out everything he knew about her and got him to give me her phone number. He was reluctant to do so, but he could see I was never going to leave without getting a way to contact her (hard sell). I called her the following day with enthusiasm and my great attitude, convincing myself that I could get her interested in me (attitude is senior to product). Again, it didn’t go the way I was hoping: She still seemed completely uninterested in my product (me) and was a bit annoyed that I’d called her. I knew I was missing the mark, but I was totally convinced that she was the one (completely sold on the product).

I was unable to really get in communication with her because I didn’t know what she liked or had an interest in. I was getting nowhere fast, but I refused to give up. Looking for some positive support and reassurance, I called my mom and announced that I’d met the girl I was going to marry. My mom was excited and asked if we’d been out yet. I told her that there was just one little problem: The girl had no interest in me. My mom, wanting to protect her son from being hurt, offered her advice on this situation, stating, “Grant, it takes two for a relationship. If she isn’t interested in you, then you can’t impose yourself on her.” (Protect yourself from negative information—Be careful where you get advice when you are going after your dreams and goals; even the people who love you the most can offer information that could possibly cause you to get off the path of your dreams.) The moment my mother said, “It takes two,” it hit me what I had to do. If the sale was meant to be, it was up to me! I’ve heard salespeople blame the customer for years for sales they didn’t make. I immediately became even more determined to make this relationship happen.

If someone was to be sold it was up to me, not to Elena. If I waited for her to make it happen, it never would, so I had to get creative. Buyers don’t buy until someone sells! And it doesn’t take two, it only takes one. I decided at that moment that I would be the one to take complete responsibility for selling myself to her and closing the deal. What to do first: Get sold on the product again (me). So I sat down and wrote all the things that I had to offer and all the quality points that I would bring to the relationship. I then came up with an action plan. I started calling anyone who might know her and put it out there that I was interested in her and wanted to make it known (massive action). Then I decided to call her every few weeks until I was able to finally break through to her and really get into communication, with her giving me the chance to get to know her and her to get to know me. I called her monthly for an entire year, leaving nice little positive messages. Not only did she not take any of my calls, but she never returned a single one of them. But that didn’t stop me, as no real salesperson will stop because of a little rejection. I just stayed interested and kept letting my interest be known. I was unreasonable and disregarded any logic. Since the phone calls were not getting any traction, I continued, when necessary, to remind myself that my product was good and my mission was great!

I went back to working my power base. I discovered, through persistence, that a friend of mine had a friend who was actually a girlfriend of Elena’s. I then started by getting to know the girlfriend, and I told her that I was interested in Elena and updated her on my efforts and my lack of success (power base). I asked her to put in a good word for me and to find out what the deal was with Elena and why she wasn’t responding to me. The girlfriend actually told me that Elena had mentioned my name before, saying there was this guy who kept calling and leaving funny messages, but that she didn’t have any interest.

The girlfriend said that she told Elena I was a really good guy and that she should go out with me. As the girlfriend told me this, I got so excited, thinking, I’m going to pull this off, at which point the girlfriend tried to let me down gently, saying that Elena had stated that I just wasn’t her type.

Is that a complaint or an objection? I wondered. What is the objection? I had to pull it out of the girlfriend, because I had to know what I was dealing with. I got Elena’s girlfriend to tell me because I had to know (be committed). She finally told me that Elena had said that I was too short, that she didn’t like businessmen, and that I just wasn’t her type.

But those aren’t real reasons not to go out with me—they’re just complaints, I thought (know the difference between complaints and objections).

While all common sense was telling me to give up, I was walking down the street and saw this ugly guy with this beautiful girl and I thought, How did he do that? I didn’t know the answer, but I knew it wasn’t because he quit. So I decided I wouldn’t quit until I at least got an appointment, sold the product (me), and went for the close!

I had to agree with her first, as that’s the number one rule in selling. So I called her and left another message on her recorder, probably my thirteenth by now. “Hey, Elena, this is Grant. As you probably know, I’ve been bugging Erica about you. Look, I don’t want you to think I’m a stalker or anything. I’m just a guy that’s really interested in you and I have no intention of giving up until you give me a chance. By the way, just as an update—I’m growing.” I always kept the messages positive and upbeat and never made her feel wrong.

One day I was asking a buddy of mine about Elena—he also had been trying to date her. He told me she wasn’t really interested in a relationship, but was more into shooting guns and her career as an actress. He was actually giving me reasons why she wasn’t much of a catch (sounds like a salesman that couldn’t close a deal). I then pursued this information regarding shooting and found out that Elena was one of the top ten women clay shooters in the state of California, and that shooting was her passion. I called the L.A. Gun Club, rented the shooting range, and hired the best coach in Los Angeles for the following Saturday. I then called her again and left another message on her recorder telling her that I had booked the club and the trainers and was asking her out for a day of shooting. (Find out what they are interested in, not what you are interested in.) Sixty seconds later, she called me back for the first time! We had our first real encounter that Saturday, and we were married less than a year later.

My wife was the toughest sale I’d ever made, and I can tell you it was worth it. I have been in deals as large as $80 million, but it didn’t even compare to getting this girl to first pay attention to me and then go out with me, and later being able to propose to her and know she would say yes.

My wife will tell you today that I saw us long before she did and that my conviction and complete knowingness of us as a couple were very difficult to resist. She will not say that I imposed or pressured or stalked her. She’ll tell you that I predicted the future and created it by knowing what I wanted, staying with it, and continuing to do whatever was necessary to get the deal done. My wife would not say that I sold her in some negative context but rather that I showed my love for her and put it all out there, regardless of her response to me (Give-Give-Give).

I will tell you that the most important sale of my life was this sale, and also that if it were not for my view of selling as a needed skill in life and an understanding of it technically, I would not have been able to get this worthy close.

SUMMARY

Your ability to persuade others determines by itself how well you will do in all areas of your life. Selling is an absolute necessity for really living life and making your dreams come true. While selling is a career for many, it’s a requirement for all. You need to sell, negotiate, and persuade others in life to get what you want. How well you can do that will determine what kind of life you will have and how many people you can influence.

Become a student of this thing called selling. Don’t treat it like something distasteful that you have to do or that you’ll hire others to do. Selling is the ultimate fuel of every economy in the world. Without people selling ideas, concepts, and products, the world would never improve. If you want to make a difference on this planet, learn how to sell. If you want to make sure your worthy ideas get known to the world, you’ll have to sell. If you want your way in life, if you want your company to do well, if you want your family to prosper, learn the information in this book, and I guarantee that you will prosper in ways other people considered impossible.