107 Joe Girard on Beating the Recession

How the Top Sales Guru's are Beating the Recession

Joe Girard - No 3 on the list of top 30 sales gurus in the world.

Background

Joe Girard is a motivational speaker and sales trainer but when he was younger he sold cars… lots of cars. In fact he is still in the Guinness Book of Records as having sold more individual cars and trucks than any body else in History.

Joe - “After the third year of my automotive retail sales career I was already doing very well. In fact, I became the number one new retail car and truck salesperson in the world; a title I never relinquished until I retired.”

What we are really interested in for this series of articles is how Joe Girard responds to the recession.

In 1974, during a major recession, unemployment at 9% in the US (today it is hovering around 8%,) oil was in short supply, petrol being rationed, not sold, the consensus was you could not sell cars. Joe only sold 1,376 that year, or roughly 27 cars a week! This is not the total cars sold in the dealership, these were sold by Joe Girard himself.

How did Joe sell so many cars?

As you might have guessed, primarily by referrals. Long before email and the personal computer Joe sent a handwritten card to every single person on his list, every month, just to let people know he was still out there selling cars and thinking about them. No promotions, no advertisements, just hand written cards.

Joe’s referral system was so successful he personally hired two assistants to help him pre-screen his customers, manage his appointment-only sales schedule, and assist him in writing 500+ cards every day.

Richard – Don’t you just love this simple approach. I often get sales people writing to me about the recession and asking what they should do to get out of it. They are looking for brand new ideas and earth shattering sales skills that will break the hold that the recession seems to have on their business.

For every one of these people the answer is the same, “Get More Referrals”. Every one of your existing customers knows someone else you could be doing business with. Find out the name of that “someone else” and you will double the number of people you get face to face with overnight. Don’t you think that would be cool? Can you think of anything easier?

In good times and bad Joe Girard sent hand written cards to his customer base every month. Not cards advertising his cars or the service he provides. Just a simple, personal message of friendship. Today we all have the means at our fingertips (literally) to do this with very little effort and yet how many of us follow in Joe Girard’s footsteps?

You have the solution to the recession in your hands right now. You know how to fix the problem all you have to do is just get out there and do it!

Read Joe's 13 rules to success. It is simple stuff but if we could do this all the time we would all be as successful as Joe Girard

Visit Joe Girard's Website: www.joegirard.com

Joe Girard - No 3 on the list of top 30 sales gurus in the world.