The Collection

My parents took my daughter to Disneyland in California many years ago. My daughter Melissa was about nine at the time. After a full day of fun and rides my parents and daughter walked down Main Street into a gift store. My daughter said to my Father, “Grandpa, look here I really need these for my collection.” Sitting on a shelf was a set of a dozen ceramic Disney characters, all shinny and smiling.

My Father said, “OK, pick one out and I’ll buy it for you.” How could a grandpa refuse? My daughter responds, “But Grandpa, I need them all to finish my collection.” My Father said, “Well, I’ll buy you a few now, and then, buy you some more later if you’re a good girl the next time we come here.” “But Grandpa I really need all these now.”

So what does my Father do? Of course he gathers all the characters up and buys them for his granddaughter. An hour later they are back at our house. They walk in the door and my daughter says, “Daddy, look what Grandpa bought me,” as she unfolds the paper around the figurines. One by one she unravels the paper and shows us her new friends. My Father says to my Daughter, “OK Melissa, where’s your other figurines so we can add them to your collection?”

I said to my Father, “What collection”? He said Melissa wanted these figurines because they would finish her collection of Disney characters? I started to laugh out loud. “Dad, I hate to tell you this, but you just bought her, the collection. She doesn’t have a collection of these figurines. We all laughed because my Daughter had just done the best selling job on her grandfather, who in my opinion is the best salesman in the world.

My daughter had persisted in her desire to get what she wanted. You could look at this story in a few ways, yet I choose to look at it from the perspective of a good salesperson. My Daughter told her Grandfather what she wanted. She had a burning desire to pursue her Grandfather to buy theses items for her. She persisted when he said, “OK, pick one out and I’ll buy it for you.” My daughter came back with, “But Grandpa I really need these now.”

Too often as salespeople we don’t know what we want or how to ask for it. We don’t do the four “P’s” - Prepare, Practice, Pursue, or Persist. This is a clear example of persistence on my Daughter’s part. It’s amazing how you can learn salesmanship for children. I can hear my own Granddaughter’s say, “Hey Grand Brad, I need…