Selling Simplified 2 - Text

Judge Not

My first publication started as a tabloid that was supported by mom and pop businesses and eventually was transformed into a standard magazine format that featured Fortune Five Hundred advertisers.  I could probably make a case that it was harder to sell mom and pop those ten dollar ads because the money came right out of their pockets.  Whereas, with the Fortune Five Hundred Company, one always deals with an account executive at an ad agency - it's not their money.

This transformation from mom and pop to Fortune Five Hundred advertisers didn't happen over night.  In fact, I had been publishing What's New Magazine for about seven years and still was unable to get Interstate, the major newsstand distributor in the Boston market, to put us on the newsstands.  What's New was a general interest magazine targeted toward the eighteen to thirty five age demographic.  If you know anything about magazine and periodical distribution then you know that if the key newsstand distributor says no, you don't get up to bat.  You're not on the newsstands.

In most every market in the U. S. there is one key distributor.  It's the only game in town.  From the very first year I had tried almost annually to gain access to newsstand sales.  I desperately wanted newsstand distribution because it would give me the credibility I needed to attract what every publisher wants: Fortune Five Hundred advertisers.  But, the man in charge at interstate distributors kept telling me there was no market for what I was publishing.  Letters and feedback from my readers were telling me he was wrong.

Then one day I read in the Boston Globe that a Richard Shapiro had taken the helm at Interstate..  I immediately picked up the phone and set an appointment with Mr. Shapiro.  I'll never forget what he told me at that appointment when I asked him what he thought about the potential for newsstand sales for my magazine.  He said:  "John, I have no idea whether or not it will sell, all I do is put them out there, if they sell I put out more, if they don't I take them off.  When do you want to give it a try?"

A few weeks later I got a letter from Mr. Shapiro congratulating us on the unprecedented success of our newsstand sales.  He went on to say that he could not remember an introductory issue selling off as well in a long time.  He concluded by suggesting we send twice as many for the next issue.

The humble approach Mr. Shapiro took forever set me to question the conventional myth that all New York City slicker types are thoughtless know it alls.  His willingness to give the public a chance to decide if they wanted the magazine opened the door to all the distributors throughout New England.  New England wide newsstand distribution gave us a window to those Fortune Five Hundred advertisers we were after.

A year later found me taking the shuttle once a week from Boston to New York to meet with three or four ad agencies per trip.  One morning, after I had washed down the packaged coffee cake with the orange juice, as we approached JFK, I got this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that I had left my wallet behind.  I pressed my hand against my jacket pocket.  No wallet.  I stuck my hand in the breast pocket.  Nothing!  I frantically searched my other pockets.

It was true, I was about to arrive at the air port with no money, no credit cards, nothing to pay my cab fair to get down town Manhattan in time for my first appointment.  I was absolutely flummoxed.  What was I going to do?  I had a round trip ticket, so I wasn't going to be stranded in New York.  But, I had put a lot of time and effort into getting those appointments and now my absentmindedness had done me in.

This wasn't the first time my forgetfulness put me in a tight spot.  In fact, absentmindedness seemed to dog me ever since I played the lead role in my youth group's presentation of the Absent Minded Professor.  In the second act the Professor falls asleep on the sofa while some action takes place around him.  The two performers exit stage left as the Professor wakes up from his nap.

Now, at the time, I did not wear glasses, but the Professor did.  So the director had fitted me with a pair of horned rims without the glass.  As I woke up I stretched and yawned and unthinkingly rubbed my eyes right through the glassless glasses.  That brought the house down.  In fact it was the biggest laugh of the night, so the next night the director told me to do it again.

As I wandered around JFK, I thought: dam that role; have I been cursed by the Absent Minded Professor forever?  I was so mad I didn't know whether to spit or wind my watch.  I felt like kicking myself.  I walked into what looked like a bank or finance office and tried to see if there was some way they could give me an advance on my Amex Card.  But, without the card, gold or not, there was nothing they would do to help.  Sorry!

Then something incredible happened.  I remembered what my Grandmother said to me as a small boy:  "Johnny, it is not so much what you get into but it is how you get out of what you get into, that counts.  When things go wrong, as they sometimes do, the most important thing you can do is keep your wits about you."

I immediately walked out to the curb and got into the line of passengers who were cueing up for the share a cab.  An attractive, middle aged woman was efficiently taking the fee and giving a ticket that the passenger would then give to the cab driver.  When I got up to her I told her of my predicament.  She paused, looked me over, she didn't kick me out of the line, she didn't growl: that's your problem, like I thought New Yorker’s were supposed to.  She handed me a ticket, and said: "Go ahead Honey this one's on me” I hurriedly stuck my card in her hand and said: “Please give me your address and I’ll send you the money, I promise”.

As I got into the cab I looked at the back of my card, it read: Olga Augustine, Bronx, NY.  I thought there is a God after all and Olga must be one of his angles.  I've loved New York ever since.  Of course getting downtown only solved half of my problem.  The appointments were spaced far enough apart and were located geographically close enough so I could probably walk to them.  But how was I going to get back to JFK in time to catch my flight home?

Another New Yorker to the rescue.  My first appointment not only gave me a twenty-dollar bill for cab fair back to JFK, but insisted I take another twenty for lunch.  He said:  "We can't have you wandering around New York, half starved to death, it will give us New Yorkers a bad name".  From that day on I determined never again to prejudge a person or to listen to negative things people say about whole groups of people”.

I had almost turned my absentmindedness into a major catastrophe because I initially prejudged New Yorkers to be unwilling to help a stranger.  I have seen countless, otherwise intelligent sales people, deep six their own efforts by making the same mistake about potential customers who they prejudged to be unwilling to buy from them.  The point is this: be an equal opportunity sales professional.  Don't prejudge people.  Give everyone a chance to buy from you.