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March 15 , 2007
Rx for Success Last month’s letter about the importance of engaging our talents to achieving success brought a response from a good friend who is one of the most successful people I know by any measure one would want to use. His name is Ben Gay III, and if you are in sales, chances are good you know him, and if you are lucky, you have heard him speak, attended one of his seminars, learned from his video training series or read his books (“The Closers). His name is synonymous with professional selling, he is a well-known professional sales trainer and keynote speaker. Ben is also the founder of the National Association of Professional Salespeople. Ben, who has worked continuously as a commissioned salesperson since he was 14 years old, puts to rest the old adage that “those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.” He writes “You are so right about the importance of doing what you love. Most successful people I know are excited about, and love, what they do. Most, in fact, admit that they’d do it for free if they had to!” Knowing Ben as I do, I know he would. He is one of the most enthusiastic people I know, and that enthusiasm is driven by his passion for what he does. I pressed Ben for more about what he considers critical elements of success. His reply shows how lessons learned as a youth can make a difference. He says that he was fortunate to have been taught by his parents “how life really works.” Like many, his family was hit hard by the Great Depression, when life as they knew it ended. Then followed WWII. So their lives, and consequently his, were tempered by 16 challenging years, from which he remembers there being no sympathy for whining and negativity. “I must have heard ‘pull yourself up by your bootstraps and march on’ a million times. I was taught that my success was up to me. And that ‘What you hand out comes back - ten fold.’ Such admonitions were hammered so often...it was like living in a seminar! They made it very clear that my happiness and position in life would be up to me.” “That was a great foundation. I started selling when I was 14. As time went along I would test different ‘systems,’ and if they worked, I would do them over and over again. After 40 years or so, I got a lot of systems working for me!” Many of these he reveals in his highly energetic, uplifting, information-packed newsletter, “The Closers Update.” (For a copy, see below.) Then I asked Ben, other than doing what one has a passion for, what did he believe was utmost if one were to be successful in sales, or any business. He cited three.
I am going to add a number 4 to Ben’s list - one that is so much a part of him that it is understandable that he might overlook it. “Engage the people.” I know he will agree because I have seen how Ben engages people wherever he goes. I have sat and broken bread with him in a tiny restaurant in the small town in which and wife Gigi live, and he knows everyone, - waitress, cook, owner, patrons...and everyone knows him. And if they don’t, I can assure you they will, because he engages people. How powerful that is in sales or in most any business. Finally, I was curious about how he became a teacher and speaker. Ben replied, “One Saturday morning, the sales manager asked me to tell the others how I was making so many sales.” While he never stopped selling, at that point Ben discovered his true love, and it grew from there. Next month Ben has been engaged to speak in San Francisco to the National Association of Professional Salespeople (NAPS) on the “art and science of professional public speaking,” to a select group of successful sales and marketing men and women from across the U. S., Canada and Mexico. Ben Gay’s success is a direct result of tapping into his natural brilliance...brilliance we all have in one area or another if we will but listen to what it is that truly makes us happy. When you enjoy it so much you would do it pro bono, you know you have hit pay dirt! Then go for it! ***************************************************************************** “If you aren’t looking forward to the day when you leave home, you’re in the wrong business. Yagneb ***************************************************************************** *Special Offer from Ben Gay III to subscribers of Thoughts on the Business of Life! If you go to WWW. BFG3.COM and register, he will give you one year of “The Closers Update” newsletter, “The Closers Alert!” e-bulletin service and “The Closers Tele Training” seminars without cost or obligation (a $420 value!). **************************************************************************** An Opportunity for Happiness “Work should not be synonymous with irritation, labor, toil, drudgery, slavery, or something generally obnoxious. The wise choice of a vocation, a sincere desire to study thoroughly the job in hand and the one ahead, the ability to properly apply the knowledge gained, the willingness to observe others and to learn from them, the disposition to do more than is required - all these, tempered by the necessary ingredient of wholesome diversion, must bring the realization that work is an opportunity to find happiness and that it paves the way for a successful future” - Frank R. Curda **************************************************************************** Next newsletter There will not be an April 1st newsletter this year,
but I'll see you back here for a April 15th issue! To read the previous issue's articles
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