You're watching the Video Revolution Podcast from Fremont Productions.
I believe I do more training of salespeople than anyone in the United States.
When you get to be my age, you can't brag about anything.
Anything you got, you ain't gonna have it long.
But you know, I will be with trainees and what I'm gonna say,
but Mr. Robert, you don't understand, I'm new in the business.
When I've been in as long as old Joe Blow, I too will be able to do this.
Would you start out with me by taking this one idea and eat it, digest it, assimilate it,
make it a part of you, write it in the album in your mind, engrave it in your memory,
burn it in your back, go and etch it in every fiber of your being.
It is the act of the ultimate of selling. Are you ready for it?
People don't care how much you know about your product or service
till they face no how much you care about helping them with their problem.
Oh, my friend, from the day we are born to the day we die,
it's just a crusade searching for people who consider their problem important to us
or our problem important to them.
Oh, please, please, my friend, we live in a world of problems.
Thank goodness. Thank goodness.
You know, your problem in mind when it gets to problem solving,
you and I often are so enthused over what we are offering,
the protection we are getting, or the product we are handing out,
that we try to sell a product or service before we pinpoint
and find out exactly what a person's problem is.
What is a problem? It's nothing more than the difference between what you got and what you want.
Our job is to bring the two together, and there is only one way to do it.
Ask questions, ask questions, ask questions.
Who have asked questions controls the situation.
My wife, bless her heart, she's, I've never won an argument with her.
She never argues. She just asks questions.
I came home the other night, here was a bill for a new dress. I hit the ceiling.
I said, sweetheart, now listen, you know I'm not chinching,
but not another dress this month. Did she argue? Oh, no, she's a pro.
The other week she says, honey, don't you know we were out the other night,
and you said how beautiful Anne was? Now you want me to look as nice as Anne, don't you?
Now, if I say no, I've bought a whole new set of problems,
and yet if I say yes, I bought shoes, a bag, a hat to match.
Please remember, would you try for one month, whenever you go in to talk to anyone,
don't tell them about your company, don't tell them about yourself,
don't tell them about your service or product, ask questions.
Let them know you entered in their problem.
I was speaking to the SME in Louisville, Kentucky not long ago.
I put a three-hour seminar on nothing but problem solving.
When I got through, a friend of mine who owned a horse in the Kentucky Debbie came up to me,
and I said, Kavett, you're so right. We not only try so often,
we try so often to solve a problem before we know what it is, but we do something worse than that.
I said, Bill, what could be worse than that?
He said, we often criticize the other guy before we know what his problem is.
He said, you know, my horse lost in the Kentucky Debbie.
I said, you bet I know it. You told me to bet on it.
He said, I just ate out my little jockey's heart before I took the time to find out what his problem was.
I said, Jesus, you threw that race. I know you did.
I was on top of the pavilion looking down. My horse came around that last curve just as we planned it.
You know my horse was the best finisher.
And then all of a sudden, as though the Lord answered a prayer,
two horses opened up and left a perfect hole for you to go through.
Jesus, why didn't you go through that hole?
He said, I forgot to ask him what his problem was.
In broken English, he said, sir, did you ever try to ride a horse through a hole that was moving faster than your horse?
I forgot to ask him what his problem was. What his problem was.
I said, I'm not going to get a finisher and try to impress you.
Look, you know, thank God for the problem. Oh, please remember, every problem is just an opportunity.
I got news for you. The higher up you get in your company, the more problems you're going to have.
Not only that, did it ever occur to you that the cycle of life is one problem after another?
Every problem today was born from the solution of another problem.
Did it ever occur to you why we have polluted air?
Oh, look, no one ever traveled faster than a horse could run until 1900.
Hey, we solved that problem. Oh, but when we did, we created polluted air.
Now, we'll solve that. I guarantee we will.
But in so doing, we will create another problem.
I don't know about you, but I'd rather breathe a little polluted air than to walk waist-deep in horse manure.
But my friends, don't you ever think we're going to be without a problem.
We're not going to be without a problem.
I think I can best explain to you what I want to talk about by telling you a little story.
I recently spoke to an American steel industry in Pitchbade, Pennsylvania.
And right after I got through, the executive vice president of U.S. Steel got up to make a talk.
I said, oh boy, how lucky can I be?
Here's the grand boree, high cock-a-lone, Bo Dasher's Moe Gull,
the man who has more sales going across his desk than anybody alive.
You see, they sell hundreds of millions of dollars of steel to General Motors, Ford Motor Company.
I expected some great big good-looking guy by like John here to come stalking in with a lot of tack and finesse.
I looked down the aisle, hey, came a little baggy-pants fellow with some buckets.
I thought it was a janitor. I thought, what a dickens of a time to mop the floor while I'm speaking.
No, it was Charlie LaCroix.
And he came up and he put those buckets up on the stage.
And then he started walking out and he got way back towards the end.
Then he turned around. He said, folks, whatever happened to the old Okan bucket?
He said, I'm going to tell you. It's in the Smithsonian Institute.
But he said, I'm concerned with what happened to the bucket company. They went bankrupt.
Why? He said, I'll tell you why.
Too long they thought they were in the bucket business. Oh, no.
They were in the people business, solving people's problems.
He said, why are the railroads prostrate today?
Those corporations, what the largest in the world, are on their financial knees today.
For what reason alone?
Too long they thought they were in railroads. Oh, no.
They were in the business of solving people's transportation problems, getting from here to there.
He said, I don't care what is your line of endeavor, insurance, real estate, banking, pots and pans, battleships, computers.
If we don't remember that first and foremost we're in the people business, we too will go the way of the buggy whip sale and the story with the fringe on top.
My friends, just think with me a few minutes along these lines.
You and I are so wealthy in technical product knowledge.
Let's not forget people knowledge.
Technology is a poor substitute for the human equation.
I sometimes think in these days of sputniks, mudniks and intercontinental missiles. In these days of radar, tailstarr, and computers.
We've got drugs that can cure diseases that haven't yet happened.
We've got machines that can talk with nothing to say. We have computers that can solve problems.
We haven't been smart enough to realize.
All about as useless as a sundial in the shade if we can't relate them to people problems.
You prepare a person knowledge-wise today.
And if you don't condition them people-wise, you send them back out with a buggy whip.
You come back and say, I've got two orders.
What are they? Get out and stay out.
Look, I knew my lines. They didn't know that.
I was part of a team of 16 people employed many, many years ago by the Stanford Research Institute.
And we went out and did some research.
And we came back with these figures that I know were correct.
We came back with these figures that in any line of selling, anywhere you deal with the public,
only 12.5% of your success is due to your technical and product knowledge.
And 87.5% is due to your ability to deal with people.
Now, wait a minute. I'm not throwing off on product and technical knowledge.
You're not even in the ballpark.
You're nothing more than a commercial visitor going around screwing up people's problems.
If you do not understand the technical aspect,
and I don't mean you should know only 12.5% of the product knowledge.
No, you should know it all if you can.
But imparted as it is, it's the plus factor that makes the difference.
When you get to the bottom line, those who succeed will find about 87.5% of their success
is due to their ability to deal with people.
And if you doubt these, maybe you saw Carnegie Foundation's great report some time ago
after they spent a million dollars, five years of research, they came up with exact figures.
Only 15% of your success is due to your technical knowledge.
85% is due to your ability to deal with people.
Webster describes engineering as the study, the planning, and the control of any line of endeavor.
Now, if you're interested in people, their hot buttons, their responsive notes,
then you are a human engineer.
Or as Merlin Cundiff who wrote this great book called Body Communication, Kinesics of Power, Silent Command,
she coined nationally the word human-ering.
We've co-authored a few books on that subject.
And I am going this morning to take the six magic principles of human engineering,
and we're going to make a little film on each one.
And I hope you'll go along with me in.