Today I’d like to revisit a blog I wrote years ago during my sales-coaching days. It includes two positive stories. Both are about success and perseverance, and one of them is close to home for me.
A past issue of Selling Power magazine featured Alfred Fuller, the founder of the Fuller Brush Company. His story is a great one, so I’ll share it:
Despite being fired from his first three jobs, Alfred Fuller had no doubt he would one day be successful. He had received only a meager rural education in his home in Nova Scotia, Canada, but he was determined to make it in the sales world. At age 21, after a year of selling brushes for a company in Somerville, MA, he quit that job. Then he set up shop on a bench between the furnace and the coal bin in his sister’s basement in Boston and invested $375 of his savings in his own brush company. The year was 1906, and the Fuller Brush Company was born.
From the start, Fuller stuck to three basic rules: Make it work. Make it last. Guarantee it no matter what. Within three years, he had 260 salespeople across the United States. He refused to compromise on quality, winning over customers with durable, long-lasting products. Within a decade, his company’s revenue had ballooned to $15 million — a vast fortune in 1916. (That would be over $374 million in today’s dollars.) By believing in himself and insisting on the best, Fuller created not only a company that still thrives today, but also an American icon — the Fuller Brush Man. To learn more about their history, go to: https://www.fuller.com/fuller-brush-history
Now let me get to the personal part of this. Growing up in Macon, GA, we had a physically disabled Fuller Brush salesperson who knocked on our door twice a year. This man was physically disabled, but he did his job well. Looking back, I realize he taught me a lot about sales. And more importantly, he also taught me a life lesson.
- Discipline and repetition are key. This guy called on us twice a year. As steady as the changing seasons, we knew he’d be back. And while we had other salespeople call on us at home, he is the only salesperson I remember from my childhood.
- You gotta ask for the order. He always asked mama to buy something — and she usually did. Maybe that is why he so reliably kept coming back. But remember: He was the one who always initiated the sale.
- Believe in yourself. This guy put himself on the line each time he rang a doorbell. He walked poorly and mumbled his words, but he didn’t let his shortcomings keep him from success. And that is a powerful lesson for us all!
To be successful in sales, you don’t have to be the best looking or fastest talking or smartest person in the room. (You do have to know what you are talking about; if you are new to sales, you should have a sincere desire to learn your craft.) Success in sales isn’t complicated — in fact, it can be quite simple. But don’t confuse simplicity with ease. Successful selling requires being in the game every day. It’s about having the discipline to follow up with people over and over — even when they don’t give you encouragement to continue to follow up.
One of my favorite sayings is, “If you keep asking, eventually you’ll get a yes.” That applies to business and selling as well as fundraising and dating and just about everything else in life.
I once had a mentor who told me: “People will buy from you if you believe in yourself.” That formula worked for a physically disabled Fuller Brush salesperson who knocked on our door twice a year, and it still works today.
If you’d like to learn how to sell and be an advisor to your clients at the same time, download our Authentic Selling: A Better Way to Do What You Do eBook at https://www.corsini.com/books/.
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