Search This Blog

Chitika

Chitika

Saturday, June 4, 2011

MOTIVATIONAL STORY-THE GREATEST SALESWOMAN

I recently came across an interesting motivational story and decided to share it:

The greatest saleswoman in the world
today doesn't mind if you call her a
girl. That's because Markita Andrews
has generated more than eighty
thousand dollars selling Girl Scout
cookies since she was seven years old.
Going door-to-door after school, the
painfully shy Markita transformed
herself into a cookie-selling dynamo
when she discovered, at age 13, the
secret of selling.
It starts with desire. Burning, white-
hot desire.
For Markita and her mother, who
worked as a waitress in New York after
her husband left them when Markita
was eight years old, their dream was
to travel the globe. "I'll work hard to
make enough money to send you to
college," her mother said one day.
"You'll go to college and when you
graduate, you'll make enough money
to take you and me around the world.
Okay?"
So at age 13 when Markita read in her
Girl Scout magazine that the Scout
who sold the most cookies would win
an all-expenses-paid trip for two
around the world, she decided to sell
all the Girl Scout cookies she could -
more Girl Scout cookies than anyone
in the world, ever.
But desire alone is not enough. To
make her dream come true, Markita
knew she needed a plan.
"Always wear your right outfit, your
professional garb," her aunt advised.
"When you are doing business, dress
like you are doing business. Wear
your Girl Scout uniform. When you go
up to people in their tenement
buildings at 4:30 or 6:30 and especially
on Friday night, ask for a big order.
Always smile, whether they buy or not,
always be nice. And don't ask them to
buy your cookies; ask them to invest."
Lots of other Scouts may have wanted
that trip around the world. Lots of
other Scouts may have had a plan.
But only Markita went off in her
uniform each day after school, ready
to ask - and keep asking - folks to
invest in her dream. "Hi, I have a
dream. I'm earning a trip around the
world for me and my mom by
merchandising Girl Scout cookies,"
she'd say at the door. "Would you like
to invest in one dozen or two dozen
boxes of cookies?"
Markita, the greatest saleswoman sold
3,526 boxes of Girl Scout cookies that
year and won her trip around the
world. Since then, she has sold more
than 42,000 boxes of Girl Scout
cookies, spoken at sales conventions
across the country, starred in a Disney
movie about her adventure and has
co-authored the best seller, How to
Sell More Cookies, Condos, Cadillacs,
Computers ... And Everything Else.
Markita is no smarter and no more
extroverted than thousands of other
people, young and old, with dreams
of their own. The difference is Markita,
the greatest saleswoman had
discovered the secret of selling: Ask,
Ask, Ask! Many people fail before they
even begin because they fail to ask for
what they want. The fear of rejection
leads many of us to reject ourselves
and our dreams long before anyone
else ever has the chance - no matter
what we're selling.
And everyone is selling something.
"You're selling yourself everyday - in
school, to your boss, to new people
you meet," said Markita at 14. "My
mother is a waitress: she sells the
daily special. Mayors and presidents
trying to get votes are selling... I see
selling everywhere I look. Selling is
part of the whole world."
It takes courage to ask for what you
want. Courage is not the absence of
fear. It's doing what it takes despite
one's fear. And, as Markita has
discovered, the more you ask, the
easier (and more fun) it gets.
Once, on live TV, the producer
decided to give Markita her toughest
selling challenge. Markita was asked to
sell Girl Scout cookies to another
guest on the show. "Would you like to
invest in one dozen or two dozen
boxes of Girl Scout cookies?" she
asked.
"Girl Scout cookies? I don't buy any
Girl Scout cookies!" he replied. "I'm a
Federal Penitentiary warden. I put
2,000 rapists, robbers, criminals,
muggers and child abusers to bed
every night."
Unruffled, Markita quickly countered,
"Mister, if you take some of these
cookies. maybe you won't be so mean
and angry and evil. And, Mister, I think
it would be a good idea for you to
take some of these cookies back for
every one of your 2,000 prisoners,
too."
Markita, the greatest saleswoman
asked. The Warden wrote a check.

Source:www.inspiring-quotes-and-stories.com/greatest-saleswoman.html

No comments:

Post a Comment

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...