Business Marketing Advertising

People who stood out as selling giants last year are barely getting by this year, while in the same organization people who were considered tail-enders last year are heading the list, and selling circles around the others.
A good illustration of this situation is found in the experience of the Curtis Corporation, importers and packers of table delicacies. Not so far back a salesman by the name of Ely, working out of the Omaha office, made the Curtis sales force look to their laurels.

Yet it was only a few short years ago that this same chap was considered just an ordinary salesman. He had done his work well ? but he was still obscure.

One day Ely sold a certain Omaha jobber a trial order of pimentos in glass along with a good-sized bill. His next call was made with the division manager, and much to their surprise the jobber became very enthusiastic about the pimentos in glass. He talked for half an hour about what a good seller it was, how his salesmen warmed up to the article and why he was going to give them a much bigger order this time.

The next call was on another jobber who was doubtful about pimentos in glass. The arguments which the first jobber had given the salesman just a few hours before would have put the sale over in a hurry, but Ely was like most all of us. He had a headful of prime selling arguments but it never occurred to him to put them to work. And he did not realize that the reasons why one customer buys are the best reasons to present to another.

After he left the jobber, his division manager took him to task for having permitted what the first jobber told him to go over his head. He pointed out that if he had used the arguments which the first jobber had given him on the second jobber it would have been a walk-away. Ely saw his mistake. From that time on he kept pounding away with the arguments in question, and his rise to the top of the sales organization was steady and rapid.