I have been in sales most of my adult life.

I’m 51 and have been in a sales role either as an employee or entrepreneur for 33 years. Actually, I’ve been in the sales game much longer than that. In fact, you could call it 42 years as I started hustling to make money as a kid - raking leaves, pulling weeds, or washing cars. I’d hold my own garage sales too until my mom found out I was pawning some of the family heirlooms. That went about as well as you could expect.

No matter how you slice it, that’s a long time to be doing anything aside from living. Writer Malcolm Gladwell (one of my favorites) wrote in the book Outliers 10,000 hours. In essence, he explains that it takes 10,000 hours to become masterful at a chosen skill. When I calculated the bajillion hours I’ve spent trying to perfect my selling ability, I should be a Grand Master of Selling.

But to be fair, I’m not. I’m just a so-so salesman.

But I am a Master Rippler. My strength was not just knowing my product or service better than the next competitor. Though that helped. It wasn’t having a slicker* talk track either. And clearly, it wasn’t brute force in trying to make a prospect buy. That rarely works.

My secret sauce came down to one thing- common courtesy.

Here’s how.

• I was always early to a meeting, never late. (Shared more about this in a podcast interview with Gary Wilburs)

• I was always respectful of my prospect’s time

• I came prepared for just about any situation

• I was always polite and most importantly courteous no matter how I was treated

When you are in sales, people aren’t always the nicest to you. They know you are trying to separate their money from their wallet and well, some people are resentful of that. Even if they desperately need what you are offering.

I’ve been in situations where people have been downright dismissive and rude. I’ve seen it all and for someone like me who takes rejection personally, it was hard not to take it personally.

However, in every situation, with every person, good or not so good, I was always courteous. I treated everyone with the respect and honor they deserved even if the same was not extended to me. Why? Because it’s the right thing to do and, believe it or not, that positive Ripple sometimes - scratch that - often comes back to you.

Before I sold my last office equipment company, I had a director of a big medical facility come back to me. She and I had met years previously where I endured a pretty severe tongue lashing about everything under the sun when I called on her. She was angry at the time with her current vendor and, well, she considered everyone from that industry to be a shyster. To be fair, most were. I didn’t take it personally. I let her tell me what she clearly wanted to tell someone else. I held my own but it was clear I wasn’t going to have an opportunity to work with her so I didn’t push it. I was professional, kind, and above all, courteous.

Maybe 3 years later I received a call from this woman. She was now in charge of a much larger outfit and was in need of assistance. I welcomed the opportunity and went to meet with her. She had not forgotten how poorly she treated me and apologized in the first 30 seconds of our meeting. I told her that I totally understood and I held no ill feelings. Honestly, I had had much worse. I was just glad she remembered my name and was giving me another opportunity. She was blown away.

Months later as we were doing a rather large installation of equipment for her, she brought it up again. I remember she said, “I can’t believe was I so mean to such a nice guy.” That made me smile. What made me smile even more was the $150,000 of revenue she was bringing to my company.

Courtesy pays, boys and girls. Sometimes very, very well.

She and I became very good friends and remained so until she passed away years after I had sold that company. I still remember her telling me when I wrote the first edition of my book, how proud she was to know me. And how honored she was that I had the forethought to not give up on her when she was so mean to me initially.

Talk about a Ripple Effect.

Well Mr. Gladwell, I wouldn’t say my more than 10,000 hours in the sales game have brought me any closer to being a better salesman. But my countless hours being courteous, kind, and willing to be a Rippler for whomever I can have brought me more success than I could have ever imagined. And that sense of satisfaction is sales success in my book.

Ripple On!!!

* My friend Dr. Robyn Odegaard hosts a great little interview series called Quick Hits. She recently covered a topic that was worth sharing - What is the difference between being polished and being slick? Look for my comment in her post and see if you agree or disagree with me.