Hans Geiszler, the founder of Japhy Surf Co., originally a board short company, was given the opportunity to present him and his company to an investor panel in New York on TV, similar to Shark Tank. Japhy Surf Co. has expanded to become a clothing brand with multiple products, but it all began with the pitch in New York that no investor will ever forget.
Geiszler showed up, as any wise entrepreneur would, with a suit and tie on a negative-five degree day in the Big Apple. Geiszler quickly realized that he wasn’t the only one capable of cleaning up well for the investor panel and everybody else was wearing suits and ties. With the intention to be remembered, Geiszler took his suit and tie off, threw on a pair of his swim trunks, ditched the shoes, and walked into the studio practically nude, where he was welcomed with rolling laughter. The producers and investors couldn’t believe that he walked onto set with only a bathing suit on during a snowy, negative-five degree day. In Geiszler’s words, “The investors were either completely sold, or just took pity on the clown standing in front of them, but they all decided to invest!”
For Geiszler, he recognized the importance of standing out and asking yourself: what makes YOU different? Maybe that doesn’t mean stripping down to the bare minimum for your investors, but asking yourself the question is certainly a key to success in sales.
For more funny sales stories like Geiszler’s check out: https://www.inc.com/john-brandon/8-funny-sales-stories-for-national-salesperson-day.html
testacr22
This is a cool story. I prefer the more casual salesman anyway. He knew just how to stand out.
Haha, this is hilarious! I love that he decided to step out of the box though and do something different. Many people are afraid to do this and take a chance, yet this guy puts it all out on the line to be remembered and hopefully sway the investors to invest — which they did.
Great example of being a good creative sales man and trying something new.
Have a wonderful week!
This is really cool example of how to take away some of the seriousness aspects of selling and provide his own spin on things. Very cool!
I like this story. I liked his thought especially on seeing the others dressed like him, and needing to distinguish himself from the rest. When we sell, we need to be thinking, how can we be different than the other competitors, from the other people offering products?
This is hilarious! I think there can be a very important lesson we can learn from this that you highlighted and that is to be yourself and not try to be someone your not. the buyer will be able to pick on it very quickly if you are trying too much to form yourself to someone you think they want. There’s a difference between mimicking the other person and just plainly acting like someone your not.