How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling

Frank Bettger wrote one of the most inspiring and helpful books about success: How I Raised Myself From Failure To Success In Selling.  He tells how his boss uttered one sentence that had a profound and lasting effect on his whole life: “Gentlemen, after all, this business of selling narrows down to one thing – just one thing…seeing the people!  Show me any man of ordinary ability who will go out and earnestly tell his story to four or five people every day, and I will show you a man who just can’t help making good!”  Well, that lifted me right out of my chair.  I’d believe anything that Mr. Talbot said.  Here was a man who had started working for the company when he was 11 years old; worked his way through every department; had actually been out on the street selling for several years.  He knew what he was talking about.  It was just as though the sun had suddenly burst out from the clouds.  I made up my mind right then to take him at his word.  

I said to myself, “Look here, Frank Bettger, you’ve got two good legs.  You can go out and earnestly tell your story to four or five people every day; so you are going to make good – Mr. Talbot said so!”

Frank Bettger went from a miserable failure to the top sales leader in his company simply by making sure that he “talked” to five people each and every day.

Decide that you are going to tell your story to five people everyday!  

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Transcript

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Hi, I'm Dave Johnson, and I would like to share an idea with you. Perhaps you've heard of this idea before, but it's good to hear a good idea again and again. Spaced repetition is one of the most powerful ideas that there is, and my idea, I heard this a long time ago, is that where you will be in the future depends on the books you read, the people you associate with, and The things that you listen to. Essentially, we become what we think about and we can direct our lives by directing our thinking. But in practical terms, one of my very all time favorite books, still a classic, if you look two dollars, this was a long time ago and this is a book that changed my life, again, the title, how I raised myself from failure, to success. In selling, but Frank Becker, he used to tour with Dell Carnegie, which dates him, actually before 1950, if you can imagine that, but way back then when he was a miserable failure as a insurance salesman, he had finally just given up all hope. Of making it and he decided not even to announce that he was quitting. He just, thought I'm just going to go into the office, clean out my desk and walk away. And that'll be it, of just this miserable experience. But while he's cleaning out his desk, all of a sudden, the president of the company, Mr. Walter Lamar, Talib walks in. And all the salesmen, they're going to hold a sales meeting and he just felt this would be too embarrassing to leave while these people are talking. However, on the other hand, the more they talked about a sales meeting and success, he got more and more discouraged. Just like this dark cloud hung over him as they talked more and more. He realized he could never, he Ever do what they were doing. And my was he discouraged. However, there came a moment in that meeting where the president, Walter Talbot, who, you know, back in those days, a lot of people didn't finish school. Walter Talbot went to work for that insurance company when he was 11 years old and worked his way all the way through immensely successful. Here he was the president, And he was a great person, a good man, and it was just very respected. And he said something that changed his whole life. And I just want to read this verbatim because It's a great article right here. Okay, this sentence changed the whole course of direction of Frank Betker's life, and he just said this, he said, gentlemen, after all this business of selling narrows down to just one thing. It's seeing the people, see the people, wow, show me any man of ordinary ability who will go out and earnestly tell his story to four or five people each and every day and I will show you a man who just can't help but make good and that moment all of a sudden in one way it was like the sun came out from behind the clouds and he became so excited, but also he became disgusted because he says, Frank Batcure You haven't done this and you've got two good legs and you can go out and you can tell your story to each and every person and you can do this four or five times every day. And he started looking back and this was the 10th month into the year, miserable failure. He came to give up. But at that moment, he got reignited because he realized that he had never done that before. And so he made a point. I'm going to see at least four or five people each and every day. And he actually cataloged it. He had ledger wrote everything down to make sure that he did that. And as he did that, he realized, wow, that's, not so easy being able to do that. Wow. I mentioned that sales. It's the easiest low pay work. There is, and it's the hardest high pay work. There is and you can pick. Well, he chose and he started doing that. And, he actually wound up doing really well those last two months, sold a whole lot more than he did those first 10 months. And so my answer to you, if you want to be successful is, talk to people, what magic in that, there's just magic and power in large numbers, doing something again and again and what you do daily, it starts to compound. Also, you get better at it. As you talk to more people, you become more effective because you're talking to more people and getting better at it. And then the magic of the numbers. And if you've got something that people need in 1 and you're a good person, you tell the story. Well, tell it often, tell it to the right people. Success becomes inevitable. Show me any person that can talk to 4 or 5 people and I'll show you somebody that just can't help but make good. Walter Talbot said so, and I do too.