Grandpa's 91st Birthday

Grandpa on his route Summer '79

May 19, 2008 was Grandpa’s 91^st birthday, I wanted to wish him a Happy Birthday. Since the post that I did for his 90th birthday was late, I didn’t want to let that happen again, so this post is more on time. I went to write something the other day and I was faced with writer’s block. This was contributed to by many factors, the biggest of which was all the things related to our backyard shed burning down. In honor of Grandpa’s 90^th birthday, I wrote a post that I was pretty proud of and now I was trying to think of what to write about.

Grandpa in one of those Lazyboys that he loved so much

This morning I was still kind of chewing on a conversation that I had with a colleague yesterday and it struck me that this colleague was an excellent salesman and that was something at Grandpa’s very core. Grandpa knew how to sell air conditioning. While air conditioning might have been what seemed to be “the product” that he was selling, when you look closer at any really good salesman, they’re selling themselves. The expression that he could sell air conditioning to an Eskimo is often used to describe the salesmanship ability of people used both in good and bad manners.

A young Grandma and Grandpa

I remember watching Grandpa on his route during the Summer of 79. I was amazed at how much his customers loved and respected him. Sure it looked like he was just meeting up to talk with friends and but his customers were all glad to see him and I know that his sales over the years reflected this. I know that this had to be built up over time, but I was watching an excellent salesman at work in his element. It is something special to see a true professional doing what they do best and seeing them at the top of their game.

Salesmanship seems to be somewhat of a lost art now a day. I know that a lot of us think about the slimy, dishonest, used car salesman or other people that have tried to push things off on us that we neither want nor need and it seems that so many people in sales just plain turn you off. Grandpa did not come off like this. The man I watched came off as genuine, who did not want to offer things to his customers that they didn’t want or need, he was a friend that they could trust. It is really too bad that he never wrote a book about selling. I’m sure it would have been a good one, which is sorely needed today.

Happy Birthday, Grandpa