Have you ever heard of someone being called “A Salesman Salesman”? This title is usually reserved for a sales rep who always brings their “A” game with them. I want to tell you about someone I know that goes even a step beyond being a Salesman Salesman.
His name is Sam, he is my Brother-In-Laws father and may be the best salesman I have ever had the pleasure to know. Sam is 94 years old and I have never seen him not in the sales mode.
Sam started his sales career before most of us were born in NYC selling of all things diamonds. (This is one of many connections he and I have, I also sold diamonds early in my sales career) Over a long and very successful period Sam became very well known in the NY Diamond district and was sought after by many of the largest most successful diamond houses in NY.
Sam has long since retired from the diamond business and now lives here in the south close to his son and grandchildren. All of his adult life Sam has been an artist working in pencil, water colors, and charcoal. He has sketched everything from flowers to baseball players, politicians to Rabbis, and just about anything else he sees.
Over the past 6 or 8 years Sam has been carrying his work in the trunk of his car and never misses the opportunity to “pop” the trunk, show his work, and break into a sales pitch to anyone in ear shot.
Let’s fast forward to today, Sam’s wife of over 60 years is in the hospital having some tests done. While Sam is waiting he got a little bored so being the salesman salesman he is Sam started looking for people to talk to about his favorite thing to talk about, his pictures. A doctor comes into the room to see his wife, while he is examining her Sam starts his discovery probing. First he asks the doctor if he is married, when the doctor said yes he asked if the doctor had any children, again the doctor said yes. You could almost see the gleam in Sam’s eye as he asked do you have any hand drawn art work of your “beautiful” children. The doctor looked away from Sam’s wife and smiled at Sam and answered no I don’t. Sam started telling the doctor about that a hand drawn professional drawing is the most beautiful way to show off any family. He continued with all the differences between a custom drawing and a photograph, and finally added that professionally drawn pictures are also a great investment.
The doctor kept working and glanced at Sam ever now and then to show he was still listening and that he was interested. Sam then did something that I couldn’t believe, he said to the doctor, this is a quote, “I am not sure if you can afford me, but I would love to be the artist that draws your family”.
The doctor looked at him sitting in the chair in the hospital room and said, “Let’s talk about this further when I am done, I have never thought about it but I think I want to have it done”.
Now please think back, do you remember how old I told you Sam is? Don’t peek, try and remember… OK if you guessed 94 you are right. At 94 he still has all his sales skills honed to a fine edge. After selling for more years that most of us have been alive he still LOVES selling and the challenge of walking a prospect through the sales process. At 94 Sam SELLS!
I do a sales meeting reading the Dr Seuss book, Green Eggs and Ham, and at the end of the meeting I tell the reps my hope for each of them is to be a lot like Sam in the book. I know the real Sam now, and my hope hasn’t changed. I hope that we can all be more like SAM and after a half century or more of selling we can still love the challenges that sales puts in front of us, love the excitement of matching wits with a prospect, love the feeling of creating interest where there was none, and enjoy feeling that making the sale gives us.
Lorin
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