The person who is unfamiliar with the skills and character required to be a professional salesperson is inclined to describe a successful salesperson as someone who "could sell anybody anything." The unfamiliar person thinks he's paying that salesperson the supreme compliment. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The genuine professional could not "sell anybody anything" — the con artist could. The professional salesperson won't.

The sales professional will only sell a product he is convinced will make the customer the big winner. Sales professionals understand that satisfied customers are the key to long-term success. Selling is essentially a transference of feeling. If I can make you feel about my product, goods or services the way I feel about my product, goods or services, you, the customer, will figure out a way to buy my product, goods or services.

If the customer does not "win," the salesperson must spend an inordinate amount of time prospecting and avoiding old customers. That is not the way to build a sales career. When people ask me what they should sell, I always tell them to find products in which they can fervently believe and would be pleased to sell to their parents, children, brothers or sisters. They should choose products or services so good they can always say with pride, "The product I sold benefited the customer far more than it did me and offered more benefits than the price we were asking."

In a nutshell, sell a product that does the job, and the people to whom you sell will be happy to recommend your product to their friends, relatives and neighbors. That's what professionals do. That's career-building selling. Build your sales career that way, and I definitely will see you at the top!

All of Us Are in Debt

Albert Einstein said, "A hundred times every day, I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received." As you think about what Einstein said, you will come to realize the completely unselfish wisdom of those words. First, we're indebted to our parents because they were responsible for bringing us into the world. Next, we are indebted to the doctors, nurses, aides, orderlies and other hospital personnel for the part they played in making our arrivals safe and healthy ones.

We're indebted to the educational structure where we learned reading, writing and arithmetic, which are critical to our lives. It's sobering to realize that yes, somebody did have to teach Albert Einstein that two plus two equals four.

We are in debt to all the pastors, priests and rabbis who taught us the essence of life by instructing us in those character qualities that are important to us, regardless of our chosen fields of endeavor — athletics, medicine, education, business or government.

We certainly owe a debt to those people whose messages have been encouraging and positive, as well as informative and instructional. We are deeply in debt to those public servants who committed their lives to service through appointed or elected offices in this great land of ours. That includes the postal worker who brings the mail, the pressmen and reporters who are responsible for putting these words in print and the workers who build the highways upon which we move from one location to another.

The list is endless — which brings us back to Einstein and his quote. We do have a heavy debt, and one way to repay that debt is to regularly express thanks and gratitude to the men and women who make our lives worth living. Think about it. Thank a lot of people, and I'll see you at the top!

To find out more about Zig Ziglar and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com. Subscribe to Zig Ziglar's free e-mail newsletter through [email protected].