On August 25th I had boxing and business legend George Foreman as a guest on my radio show – The Profit Express on 88.7 FM WRHU, NY.
The success George has enjoyed as a boxer, preacher and businessman would make anyone proud. His response to many of my questions were rather insightful. Perhaps they weren’t the kind of answers one would expect from a former Heavyweight Boxing Champion.
He intuitively knew a lot about the world of sales. Here is some of what George had to say.
I asked him after his very last fight against Shannon Briggs (which he lost) why the 1st thing he said to the interviewer was “Have you ever heard of the George Foreman Grill?”
I asked him if it was planned or did it come naturally. George responded, “There was no planning because I planned on winning that boxing match – and I was going to talk about victory. But then I realized you have this moment, you have this microphone in front of you, all the world is listening – what are you going to say? I can’t come in about losing because I didn’t have that intent. I must say something – I MUST SELL SOMETHING. THAT IS WHAT TV is all about.”
We then went on to talk about having belief in what you sell. George said, “You’ve got to believe in it, you’ve got to love the product – if you don’t love it you can’t sell it. I always tell my family you can’t sell one perfume and smell like another.”
George talked about how he once used excuses to explain his loss to Muhammad Ali and that he would never use excuses again – in boxing or business.
George said, “I can handle death but I will not be able to handle offering excuses again. That’s what I have told my kids about business – you are going to have to get up in the morning and you just can’t come home and set a table and feed your children excuses – you MUST come home with some bacon.”
Now I would like to leave you with my final question to George along with his answer that left me absolutely shocked and stunned!
George – if you could leave the listeners with one idea – as they continue each and every day to head in the direction of their own dreams – what would it be?
George answered, “Forgiveness – I tell my kids forgiveness is the subtle thread that binds both love and friendship. And to be a good sales person – a lot of doors are going to be slammed in your face – and you are just going to have to go down to the next door and make your rounds again and forgive those people – and keep trying to sell. Be sold on forgiveness and you can sell!”
If you gave me a 1000 guesses I would never have guessed he would have said – forgiveness. How right he is. Being mad and holding a grudge isn’t going to serve you in the world of sales. Remember you never know where your next sale is going to come from.
