Should you read this book?

I first started reading this book when I got into the automotive industry. I read it on my 2 hour ride to the dealership. I didn’t finished it because I found Grant Cardone's material that targeted automotive consultants and didn’t wanted to confuse my new brain learning from two different sources. I was let go from the dealership last year because I didn’t developed my skills fast enough, but I take responsibility for that. So here I am with a new company, which I am the top producer at the moment but I think I can always do better so I decided to re-read from the beginning and all the way to the end. Anyway, this article is about the book.

My Expectations

What attracted me most to this book was not exactly the title, although that’s a part of it but because it looked easy to read, it only has 179 pages and the font size weren’t too small!! I used to hate reading, so the big books, at the moment intimidate me (as childish this might sound) but I know with experience, I will overcome that challenge. Joe Girard's style of writing is so easy to read, it’s almost as if I was reading spoken text exactly the way he would talk. So I read it pretty fast as expected, and he delivered it in such a concise manner.

Theee Most Favorite Quotes or Ideas

1. “Get your name in front of your prospects whenever you can - and get into their homes.”

This quote just restrengthens what I learned from Grant Cardone, which he says the one most single problem in most businesses today is obscurity. If nobody knows you they won’t be able to buy from you, in fact never.

​ Joe Girard invested his money on making sure that when his prospect, a family member, or a friend was in the market for a car, he would make sure that they would think of him first. He talked a lot about his direct-mail strategy and the different ways he did it so that the prospect read it and not just throw it away. By getting his name read at least twelve times in one year (he sent at least 12 direct mails a year to each costumer), he was able to bring so much traffic to his business.

He also taught about Girard’s Law of 250. What that law means is that in every person, he or she would know about 250 people on average to attend his wedding or funeral. He was very careful of his reputation and took advantage of his costumer’s network. Yes! I’m sure he milked every single one of his satisfied costumer’s family and friends to the last drop. Which would bring to the second point.

2. “Put everybody you can think of on your Ferris Wheel”

Joe Girard, other than investing in effective direct mail campaign, he would literally turn every person into his prospect. He made sure that all the people he came in contact with knows the product or services he offer. He sold to everyone! By giving away tons and tons of business cards, he would try his best (in the most human possible way) to get his name in front of everyone, which would allow him to put on his Ferris Wheel.

The Ferris Wheel is basically his way of describing his sales funnel, sales pipeline, or list of prospects. To his eyes, everyone is a prospect. We all can’t get on a Ferris Wheel at the same time. So when a rider (buyer) finishes the cycle (sales), he made sure that there’s always another person (prospect) to fill up the next ride - he always had one lined up to sell to right after another.

​He also relied on acquiring bird dogs. Which the people he recruited, those who would scout and send new costumers to him for a small monetary exchange, it's like a referral fee. In addition to giving his sold costumers a good deal, he also gave them an incentive to help him. I can only imagine that by constantly meeting and telling new people about his products and services, he was able to grow his business exponentially to a point he couldn’t handle them by themselves.

3. “Get all the help you can - it builds gross and net.”

Since everybody knew who he was, by word of mouth from his clients, he had more costumers coming in. Momentum grew like a snowball rolling from the top of a mountain, and just kept on multiplying. He planted so many seeds at the same time and most of the time it was by compounded interest from the traffic his bird dogs and referrals would send. When the trees bore fruit, he couldn’t catch all of them and when he was able to, he became extremely tired. He even lost of some his costumers to his competition because of the overload he was getting. His tax accountant then gave him advice that took his sales operation to the next level.

He mentioned that he got so much income from his sales but got so exhausted doing it all by himself. On top of that, the government took a big chunk of his money as income tax that made his tax accountant suggested he “hire” people to work for him. It would be tax deductible as business expenses.

So Joe started training people to work for him, he even got his brother to team up with him. He had a designated person for finding prospects which were his bird dogs, and referrals he had someone to greet costumers, he also had someone to ask questions in order to find the buyer’s needs and wants, and he also had also had someone to demonstrate features and benefits of the car including the test drives.

​When the time to help the costumer ease the fear on parting themselves with their money and put the “O.K.” on the written agreement, Joe Girard did his favorite thing to do in the world - closing the sale. He had somebody working and churning every sales process from greeting to post-sale follow ups. The result? He had more time to put on one of the most important and productive of the sale process which was the close.

My Conclusion

The content in this book can be a great addition if you already read, Grant Cardone's New Times Best Seller "If You're Not First, You're Last: Sales Strategies to Dominate Your Market and Beat Your Competition" It compliments the ideas in here, and more creative ways to get in front of your prospects.

In addition to what I reviewed on this article, Joe Girard also shared his sales tactics and techniques to increase his income. Of course I won’t spoil it for anybody else. You actually have to read it yourself, because I didn’t cover everything that he was teaching.

Another thing that resonated with me now, but not before, was his willingness to get a lesser commission on one sale rather than lose the many opportunities gained from his costumer’s network. He was not afraid to get a lesser paycheck to a potentially much bigger profits, because he knows that it will work and no other salesman would do the same.

He also was not afraid to invest in his direct-mail strategies (he was sending about 1600 plus mails a month!!), because he knows that it will work and no one does it like him. I also like how he talked about his excellent level of service and doing whatever it takes to gain a winning a costumer over to his side, because he knows that a dissatisfied costumer could create 250 negative business, and vice-versa to 250 positive business from a satisfied costumer.

Overall I like this book a lot. Would I recommend this book to other salespersons? Yes! Would I re-read it again in the future? Yes! In the beginning, since he was a car salesman, I thought his techniques would not apply to the industry I work in.

Quick Summary

This work is a self-help, how-to kind of book in the field of sales. Joe Girard briefly talks about his childhood, his upbringing from his father, and his challenges growing up and raising a family. We learn how he always had that entrepreneurial spirit in him and how he got into the automotive industry when he lost most, if not all of his investment into his once-successful housing construction business when a real estate agent led him with broken promises.

He got his first sale in the first day of work at his car dealership. He got hated on, and even got fired because he got so good at it, and the reason why is because he had a purpose and that was the desire for his family to survive. He also talks about how sales people should approach every potential buyer, which we should treat them like human beings not a “mooch.”

​The Girard’s Law of 250, which explains the average number of people that would come to the buyer’s wedding or funeral, and how knowing that could make more business or ruin the salesman’s reputation. He also talks about getting all the help he can, by “investing” in people and in ways that would bring him more time so that he could what he loves best - which is selling and closing. In addition to that he gives out selling techniques and ways to increase his business by increasing that amount he sells to.

So to answer the question again, ABSOLUTELY! You should read this book more than once!

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