https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_vQFFCscds
After a sales pitch with a potential customer goes horribly wrong, Richard teaches Tommy a valuable lesson that helps him realize there is more to sales than just being “book smart.”
Richard says there are two types of smart: book smart and street smart. Obviously, Tommy isn’t book smart but Richard points out that Tommy is street smart as his father was too. He continues by encouraging Tommy by saying he knows how to read people and figuring out what they need/want to hear.
Of course being book smart is necessary in being knowledgeable of your product but being street smart is what gave Tommy’s dad the advantage over other sellers. He understood how to read people in meetings and casual conversations, which led to his success in selling brake pads.
Richard concludes by telling Tommy that having fun, relaxing, and being confident in yourself is essential when selling because people are really buying you, the salesman, before they buy the product. Through an energetic attempt to have the waitress cook Tommy some wings, he succeeded in ordering some because although it was fairly unusual, he relaxed, had fun, and was himself, leading to his success in getting chicken wings.
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