“How One Idea Multiplied My Income“, the first chapter of Frank Bettger’s “How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling”, is dedicated to enthusiasm. Dale Carnegie closed with, “I urge you to reread many times this chapter and to make a high and holy resolve that you will double the amount of enthusiasm that you have been putting into your work and life.”

High-energy, optimistic excitement powers enthusiasm. The fulcrum, the object you leverage against, is your impassioned conviction expressing a deliverable promise of improvement to the quality of your customers’ business and personal lives that overshadows the cost. Your attitude is what makes this believable, because if you don’t convey your belief in what you are selling, why will anyone else?

For twenty years, I sold CNC machine tools; large green, blue, and gray obscure, seemingly mundane metal working machines, used for manufacturing aircraft, medical equipment, and a myriad of metal products. To me, they are sexy and gorgeous Ferraris and Lamborghinis that transform factories into Formula 1™ raceways.

My customers didn’t call their equipment sexy and gorgeous, but it was how they felt and thought. My enthusiastic, colorful descriptions infected them, and the superlatives caught on. My love, affection, and excitement, bridged our relationship. My passion told them I understood that bringing in the right equipment did more than increase production. That it transforms the image of the workplace and inspires pride and respect in their employees and customers.

In 1974, One of my print ad clients developed a hot line of umbrellas with vogue women imprinted on panels, which he asked me to test sell. Printing pictures on fabric was cutting edge technology back then, and the coming rage that is still a staple of fashion. I walked into a NY boutique with one dozen in a golf bag and made an appointment with the manager to present at closing time. My enthusiastic pitch colored with the newest technology, impassable quality, uniqueness, and exclusivity was the lever that sold them.  The visual impact of my patient unveiling of each umbrella that completely covered the floor of the shop with, gorgeous accessories was the fulcrum that leveraged the close.

The late Billy Mays was an over the top pitchman. But that is what made believable that Oxi Clean, “powered by the air you breathe and activated by the water you and I drink, had the power of bleach, yet was safer without weakening the fibers.” Loved radio announcer, the late Paul Harvey could never have sold Oxi Clean. I’m not saying you should emulate Billy Mays, but he is an iconic example of the power of ‘superlative enthusiasm’.

Enthusiasm became my natural state. One president to whom I reported, accused me of having more enthusiasm than any ten people he knew. Throughout my career I was asked, how I did do it and where did it come from. Every day begins with my thanks for another day of life, the conviction that this is going to be the best day of my life, and that my glass isn’t half-full, because it’s overflowing. Every sales opportunity is approached with the same thanks and optimistic enthusiastic attitude.

Enthusiasm is impassioned conviction with superlative description and visual demonstration that instills excitement about your offering’s life-changing solutions to your customers’ secret desires.  Enthusiasm is one idea that will do more than multiply your income. Enthusiasm will improve your entire life and infect everyone around you in a way that improves their lives too.

Back in the dark ages of the 1960’s, before computers and PowerPoint presentations, there were 35mm slide shows. Each fall, before the pennant race and World Series kicked in, our middle school principal, Mr. Nussbaum, would run his ‘how-I-spent-my-summer-vacation-traveling” presentations.

We gathered in the auditorium for assembly in blue pants or skirts, white shirts, and red ties, pledged allegiance to the flag and sang the National Anthem. The lights dimmed and the projector flashed slides of the Parthenon or perhaps the Manneken Pis in Brussels. He let his hair down and made fun of his limited skills in Spanish or his New York version of a French accent. Each slide was a joke-filled story from his personal experience that lured you into his trip and transported you to a crossing of the Tower Bridge or a walk together through the Louvre Museum.

Manneken Pis "Little Man Piss" in Brussels

Growing up in the projects of Brooklyn painted a bleak, existential dead-end picture; Alfred Nussbaum dedicated his life proving it was not. He drew on his own inspiration to design presentations that would inspire us to break through the brick walls of our social circumstances.   He sold us an image of the life we could have by sharing himself, his personal stories, and experiences – that’s selling!

People don’t buy your presentations; they buy you. Bullet points don’t sell; “your story” sells. Charts, graphs, stats, and facts are not the story; they support the story. Inspired selling comes from you, from your heart and soul, and from your personal experience. If you want your audience and customers to open up to you, trust you, and place their confidence in you, then open yourself up to them. Vulnerability is intimidating, but that is the nature of transparency. Your prospects, customers, and audience are buying you. Sell your story and you have sold yourself.

“This weekend, Alfred Nussbaum, passed away at the age of 100. He was married to one woman for 59-years, fathered three children, and had a 42-year career as teacher, principal, and chairman with New York City Board of Education. He loved history, literature, travel, photography, and telling good jokes”

We had, shall I say, a personal relationship, as I spent a fair amount of time in his office. He might have been a successful business and sales leader; instead, he chose to sell street kids solutions to fulfill our dreams.

My first interview was with the president of a management recruiting company for a position as a salesperson in his organization. Without a résumé and armed only with boyish charm, big smile, and infinite confidence and optimism, “I can and I will” echoed in my mind as I awaited my first conquest.

A debonair gent greeted me in their plush reception area, escorted me to his office, and invited me to sit in a tufted leather wingback chair. After 10 or 15 minutes of Q&A he asked, “Can you close a deal?” “Yes”, I replied with obvious overconfidence. He gently proposed that I sell him the stapler on his desk, which he handed to me as he stood up and politely warned, “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

My value based presentation covered everything from the slick chrome finish to the felt protective bottom and anti jamming mechanism. But he didn’t bight, and whatever my close was, it wasn’t memorable.  He politely asked me for the stapler, rattled off an old boiler-room “Box Pitch”, and then explained the mechanism. He graciously donated more of his valuable time and advice with courtesy and enjoyment of my greenness. I left his office knowing that there was more to selling than a silver tongue and most of my seventeen year old ego intact.

That eye-opening meeting led to my first sales position on my next interview and set me on the path to an incredible, prosperous career in sales. In that brief encounter, I decided to excel, learn, and teach, successful sales skills.

My hope is that SalesDuJour.com is as inviting and comfortable as that tufted leather winged back chair, and as enlightening, entertaining, and enjoyable as he and many other great mentors have been to me.