Joe Girard - How to Sell Yourself

Copyright 1979, 2003 by Joe Girard

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Business Plus

Hachette Book Group

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New York, NY 10017

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First eBook Edition: June 2009

Business Plus is an imprint of Grand Central Publishing.

The Business Plus name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

ISBN: 978-0-446-55908-9

Ten steps to making yourself #1

How a woman can get ahead in a male-dominated workplacewithout playing games

A four-step enthusiasm exercise

What an IBM vice president can teach you about the most effective use of language

Thirteen things every young person should know about a successful job interview

Joe Girards memory secretsto give you instant access to all the facts you need to know

How to go the extra mile every dayand earn the respect and friendship of others and much more!

The consummate salesman.

Forbes magazine

Joe Girard is the Michelangelo and Tiger Woods of sales.His insights are critical to anyone who sellsand that means everyone.

Harry Beckwith, author of
Selling the Invisible and The Invisible Touch

Girard, who has been named the number-one retail car salesman in America for twelve years running, has a lot more going for him than just confidence.

Us magazine

Although hes not a company, our favorite illustration of closeness to the customer is Joe Girard. Like the top companies, Joe seems genuinely to care.

from In Search of Excellence, by Thomas J. Peters and
Robert H. Waterman, Jr.

Joe Girard is the number-one positive thinker and can help you. I know, for he helped me.

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, author of
The Power of Positive Thinking

Joe Girard is a #1 top performer and hell show you how to be #1 also.

Zig Ziglar

Girard captures the essence of rising to the top in any endeavor: Set ambitious goals and visualize success, work hard, persevere, and stick to your principles.

Mary Kay Ash, founder and chairman emeritus,
Mary Kay Cosmetics, Inc.

How to Sell Yourself

How to Sell Anything to Anybody

How to Close Every Sale

Mastering Your Way to the Top

June, my pal, my wife, may this book inspire others to reach for success, as you inspired me.

(19321979)

A well-written motivational book produced out of the experience of a successful person can be of inestimable help to any reader who really wants to do more with his life. Such a book has powerthe power to communicate innovative ideas, the power to change attitudes and the power to stimulate the will to personal achievement.

America has produced more successful men and women than any other nation in history, and one reason for this phenomenon is that Americans read more motivational books than any other people anywhere. And this book, How to Sell Yourself, by Joe Girard, is one of the best books in this field. In my opinion, it will become a classic in the success literature of our time.

I once asked one of our outstanding book distributors, What is the chief important factor in the value of a book? His quick answer was, The person who wrote it. Does he or she have something to say and the ability to say it well? But more important, is the author a living example of the ideas developed in the book? On the basis of that standard, this is an outstanding book, for the author, one of those rare dynamic, enthusiastic and highly competent men developed in the American free-enterprise system, is listed, not without cause, in the Guinness Book of World Records as the worlds greatest salesman. The spirit, the skills and the personality that made him top salesman come through on every page of this book. In the book he shares openly and gladly the experience and learning that lifted him from the bottomand a very low bottom, at thatto the supreme apex of the selling profession.

But it is more than skilled salesmanship that comes through to the reader. It is the presence of an alive and vital person who transmits dynamic energy. The joy of life itself springs from the pages of the book. And with it comes the impression that a friend is writing to you, a friend who believes that you can do what he has done. He tells you that you have within you a great potential for achievement. He believes in you because he learned out of great adversity to believe in himself.

Joe Girard is a sincere man. He writes only what he believes; indeed, only what he knows; for what he tells about has happened to him personally. He is convinced that similar great things can happen to you also. He is like a coach telling you what you can do and how to do it. Then he stands with you, helping you on the upward climb.

The central thrust of the book is that we must learn to sell ourselves. People will buy from a salesman because they are convinced that the salesman is a right person. The buyer likes him and trusts him. That being so, his product must likewise be right. Salesmanship actually is a process of persuasion in which an individual is induced to walk a road of agreement with the seller. And the chief element in the process of persuasion is a man or woman who is trustworthy, who wants to help, who desires to serve. This has made Joe Girard Number One Salesman of the World. It can help you too, in whatever your job may be, to move right up there to the top.

I like this book because I like Joe Girard. He is one of my most inspiring friends. When I am with him in person I get remotivated. And as I read the manuscript of this book, I felt the same motivation to get out there and do a better job.

But I like this book also because it is packed full of positive thinking. It contains all kinds of workable ideas for self-improvement. Its an interesting, different, innovative book. It will make you like yourself more than you do. It will sell you to yourself. And only the person who has a humble yet realistic belief in himself ever makes something great of himself. Joe Girard can help you. I know, for he has helped me.

DR. NORMAN VINCENT PEALE,
author of The Power of Positive Thinking

M y name is Joe Girard.

I grew up in the motor capital of the United States, Detroit, Michigan, the city that put the whole world on wheels.

I suppose it was natural that I, like so many others from this dynamic city, would become a part of the automobile business. Not making cars, but selling them. As a matter of record I am the Worlds Number-One New Car Salesman.

In case you think I hung that tag on myself, let me set you straight. The title was given to me by the Guinness Book of World Records. I still hold it, and Im still in the book. As of this writing, no one has successfully challenged meno one has beaten my record of 1,425 new cars sold in one year alone. They were not fleet sales; all were individual units sold at retail, belly to belly. I was audited by the accounting firm Deloitte & Touche.

What the Guinness Book of World Records