What You Need To Know About..... Girard's Law of 250

In our last issue, we introduced you to Joe Girard. Joe is the man given the distinction of being the "Worlds Greatest Salesman" by the Guiness Book of World Records.

If you missed it, you can read that article here: http://choosetoprosper.com/ezine_archives.html

In that article we saw the motivation that gave Joe the drive that made him sell more cars and trucks than anyone. Today we are going to look into some of the exact methods and tactics that Joe used and relied upon to build his business.

Actually Joe's selling career began when he was 8 years old. It was in the middle of the Great Depression which meant work and money were really scarce. Joe had to shine shoes and deliver papers to help his family eat.

The local paper Joe was delivering for ran a contest to obtain new subscribers. For every person who signed up, the paper boys would win a case of Pepsi-Cola. That was a really big deal for a young man, and gave Joe the motivation and incentive to go out and sell papers.

He knocked on every door in the neighborhood, explaining what was going on and telling the people the benefits they would receive from having this newspaper. Then, if they said no, Joe would keep on talking, never giving up and never becoming so disappointed that he didn't keep on pushing doorbells.

Joe was persistent! He soon learned that the more people he talked to, the more sales he made.

Later when Joe began selling cars, things didn't just happen overnight. He had a problem, and that problem was he stuttered badly. It got to the point where either he overcome it or his family didn't eat. Joe learned to overcome that adversity by teaching himself to concentrate on what he was trying to say and say it slowly and carefully.

Joe says, "Learning to overcome stuttering was one of the most important things that happened to me when I started selling. It made me think about what I was trying to say and what I should say and what people wanted to hear. I not only cured myself, I also learned some of the fundamentals of communication because I learned to listen and to plan every word I said carefully."

As Joe grew in his trade, he developed a system of staying in contact with his customers and potential clients. Every phone call or personal contact he made, Joe would write down on a file card any relevant info.

He sent everybody a unique card or letter, and sent them every single month! These weren't high pressure sales letters, just friendly reminders. His thinking was that when someone wanted to buy a car, the first name that came to their mind was Joe Girard.

He did things that were unusual, and people don't forget things like that. He says, "Personalized mail is the best thing that anybody can receive from a salesperson. Wherever there are people, there are prospects, and if you let them know you are there and what you do, you are building your business."

Besides his file system and sending out cards, Joe passed out over 500 business cards.....every single week! "If you do a lot of things to build business, you'll build business. You don't have to do them perfectly, but you have to do them - a lot!"

But, early in his career, Joe learned the Most Important lesson in selling ==> You have to build relationships before you can sell a person a car, a boat, a suit, or anything.

Joe honestly believed this..... every single person he ever talked to was important.

He treated everybody with respect and courtesy. Joe took a genuine interest in that person and their family, constantly trying to develop a trust in and with that person.

Girard's Law of 250 says that every person on the average knows at least 250 other people.

His thoughts were that if you just make 1 person mad or upset, they will go out and tell 250 other people what a klotz Joe Girard is, and then each of those, will go tell 250 of their friends the same thing.

But, if you treat everyone with respect and honesty, they will praise Joe Girard to 250 of their friends. "It doesn't take a mathematical genius to know that Girard's Law of 250 is the most important thing you can learn."

Joe says, "Can you afford to jeopardize just one of these people? I can't. I know how much of my sales come from people telling other people about me. When you turn away one, just one, with anger, you are running the risk of getting a bad name among at least 250 other people with money in their pocket who just might want to give it to you."

"This is a business like attitude that you had better develop and keep in your head every working hour of every day, if you don't want to be wiped out. Every time you turn off just 1 prospect, you turn off 250 more."

Joe Girard became the best automobile salesperson in the world because he consistently practiced building relationships!

Joe dedicated himself and worked tremendously hard at getting his customers to believe, really believe that Joe liked and cared about them as a person.....not as a dollar bill.

Dave

“You really need to spend 90% of your time talking to qualified leads about your program.”

~ Frank Garon, Webmaster InternetCashPlanet ~

Gloom, Despair, & Agony On Me

Just glancing briefly through today's Investors Business Daily, I found: Polaroid is now bankrupt, Regal Cinemas files for Chapt. 11 (Regal is the largest cinema operator in the world), Loews Cineplex and several other cinema operators have gone under.

Coca-Cola is cutting jobs, Ford Motor Company will be cutting a minumum of 10% of it's work force, 12,000 workers from Boeing are getting layed off before Christmas, Lechters is closing it's 315 hardware stores, Comdisco is bankrupt (tech services), Viant is cutting jobs on it's 3rd round of layoffs, and Federal Mogul has gone bankrupt (the bearing giant).

Last week saw the highest initial job claims to be opened in nearly 10 years with 468,000 applicants in one week alone. Retail sales fell in September, the biggest drop in 9 years.

All of that in today's paper. And the worst part is, it's news headlines like this every day. Big established companies like Federal Mogul and Poloroid are dropping like flies.

Companies like this have been around for a long, long time, and I just wonder.....how many of their employees went to work every day with a feeling of security, placing their dreams and hopes for retirement, a better future, and financial stability on the company they worked for.

If you're an employee of a company, do you honestly believe your job is safe and secure? I know too many people who have gone to work one morning, expecting to be there until retirement, only to be given a notice that tomorrow their job no longer existed.

Now, how many of you have wanted to start a home business for a long time, even if it's only to bring in a couple of extra hundred dollars a week or month?

If you go to your job tomorrow and they say "goodbye Charlie," just what are you going to do? I'll bet one thing; you will kick yourself in the head because you never got around to starting that home business you have always wanted, and that business could now be at least putting groceries on the table for you.

So just what in the world are you waiting for?

If you don't have any home businesses planned, or just need a little help in deciding what is right for you, then Write me and I'll give you the guidance you need to find the right opportunity for you.

“He who thinks by the inch and talks by the yard deserves to be kicked by the foot.”

~ Anonymous ~

Focus On What You Want

Did you know that Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Rod Carew, was told by his high school coach that he wasn't good enough to make the team?

But that certainly didn't stop Rod's determination. A short 3 years later, Rod Carew was named the American League's Rookie of The Year Award.

Rod says, "No person should allow anyone to tell them they can't do something or they're not capable of it. You've got to put your mind into it, burst into it, and give it a 100% try."

"We're all dreamers and dreams Do Come True!"

Carew learned that talent alone was not enough, but mastering small things paid big dividends. The 3 most important lessons Carew has for improving are to practice with concentration, purpose, and to be working on a weakness.

“Take Action....Goals are nothing without action. Don't be afraid to get started, Just Do It!”

~ Investor's Business Daily ~

What's New On The Net

ExciteAtHome has filed for Chapter 11 bankrupcty protection. ExciteAtHome has been the leading provider of Internet services via cable wiring, having 3.6 million customers.

If the deal is approved, AT&T Corp will buy ExciteAtHome's operations.

PayPal, formerly X.com, is a Web-Shop-A-Holic's best friend. It's payment system allows users to transfer money by e-mail, pager, or cell phone.

In the U.S., there are 22.6 million small businesses, each with less than $1 million in yearly sales. Only 3.1 million of these merchants accept credit cards. PayPal delivers an easy and economically feasable solution to online small businesses making it simple for the transfer of payments to happen.

PayPal is confident it can become the global standard for online payments. On Spetember 28, PayPal filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to have the company "go public." The Initial Public Offering (IPO) of it's stock is expected in December.

Some 8 million individuals and 2 million merchants have used PayPal to date. The number of client's are growing at around 18,000 a day. The average transaction is $50 with over 70% of PayPal's customers coming from eBay and other online auction sites.

AOL has quietly changed it's privacy policy to now allow the use of two controversial tracking devices called "cookies" and "Web bugs."

AOL spokesman Andrew Weinstein said the company is using these technoligies to personalize some of their services, such as the calender, and to anonymously track the effectiveness of it's online ads.

Cookies are small text files that some Web pages "deposit" on your hard drive and are used to record your activity on a site you may visit. Most folks know about cookies, but are unfamiliar with Web bugs.

Car 54 Where Are You?

Many of our readers may remember the 1963 NBC comedy police show by that name. Officers Toody and Muldoon just never seemed to be around when they were called, yet always came through in the nick of time.

Too bad the Internet wasn't around in 1963, or the show might have been different. Back then when a police officer wanted to check up on a suspect, they had to radio in, get the desk to manually run through files, then radio back the results.

Today, thanks to Pam Scanlon, police officers can search the databases of 38 different state and federal government agencies, and retrieve the info within seconds.

Pam developed an Internet based program which is called "Yahoo For Cops" which allows officers to find the info they need on suspects by using the laptop computers in their squad cars.

You can read about Car 54 & for those of us who loved the show, listen to the theme song here:

Where's The Beef?

Do you know what's in the food your precious pets are eating?

I did some serious research and found out. This Shocking and Revealing information is available to each of our readers, free by sending a blank email:

You will also learn exactly why our pets are becoming sick and full of disease, and learn how you can help prevent that from happening to your loyal friend and companion.

“Ninety percent of the battle is what you say, and 10% is what medium you say it in.”

~ Bill Bernbach ~

10047 & 10048

Before Sept. 11, the World Trade Center kept 9 U.S. Postal workers quite busy. Every day these 9 carriers sorted and delivered about 85,000 pieces of mail to the Twin Towers.

Because of the enormous volume of mail, each of the towers had been assigned their own zip codes, 10047 & 10048.

The mail slated for the Twin Towers is now being held in a vacated post office until it can be picked up.

This issue is being sent to 9,245 simply fantastic readers. We certainly do appreciate your taking the time to read this publication and value you and your relationship with us.

If you would like any assistance with your online business, please feel free to write me. I'm here to help. Or if you'd just like to drop me a line and say hi, that would be nice too.

As always, enjoy your life, enjoy your day, it's God's great gift to you,

Dave

“I will sing unto the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me.”

~ Psalms 13: 6 ~

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