Can I really sell ice to an Eskimo?
By: George Ohan
In 4 Lines:
“I AM the world’s greatest salesman!”, I said to myself on
this morning of August 11, 2015. I had a huge smile on my face as I
walked away from Tio Luis on the side
of the road in Santa Juanita, Bayamón…. 4 bags lighter, because I just hustled
about 200 Mangos to a street side fruit vendor in Puerto Rico.
What is this Blog
about?
This is a short story about overcoming a challenge that I (George
Ohan) was facing and accomplishing a personal goal at the same time.
*A good read for any open-minded entrepreneur seeking
professional growth & development in the area of SELLING. Educate and Accelerate, LET’S BUILD!
You can sell ice to an
Eskimo. Who in the heck came
up with that saying?!? Well, I’ve heard it several times throughout my life and
I’ve always wondered if I really could sell ice to an Eskimo. I mean, why would the Eskimo person
need more ice? What pain would I
be relieving with my special ice?
Do Eskimos use ice for anything besides being cold? Is there special ice? Who rides the dog sleds to bring the
fish and meat back to the igloo; Do they need small blocks of ice for
that? Do you think Eskimos would
buy shaved ice? What kind of money
do Eskimos have?....U.S. $ if you’re in Alaska, right? Does it have to be ice to an Eskimo? How much is a plane ticket to Alaska? …..this is what happens in my head when
I plan on selling something. I try
to dream up any possible question that could be asked, then I try to answer
them…. ALL of them.
*You can breach an obstacle, or you can by-pass an
obstacle. It’s your choice.
Can it be Mangos to a
Puerto Rican street side fruit vendor instead of ice to an Eskimo? Recently, I moved to Puerto Rico and I
noticed that there are huge mango trees all over the island. These trees have hundreds of
low-hanging fruit for anyone to pick and eat fresh from the tree. I had a vision of trying to sell these
to Puerto Rican fruit sellers and that would be my version of “selling ice to an Eskimo.” When I ran this idea across my Puerto
Rican friends, and they all laughed at me…. Out loud…… for a few minutes…. But,
whatever!
ACTUAL RESPONSE:
“How the fu*k is a GRINGO gonna sell mangos to a Puerto
Rican?”
(Laughing
continued)
It was a great question, actually. So, this became my
“selling ice to an Eskimo”
mission. I started by doing
research using my eyes and observing the external environment. Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and
Threats. My initial surveillance
showed that most fruit vendors did not sell mangos. However, in Cosco the cost was about $1 each. Why did the local fruit vendors not
bother to carry mangos? Too little
demand? Did Puerto Ricans refuse
to pay for something that grows so readily on trees? There was only one way to find out. I had to come up with a compelling pitch to sell mangos to
professional fruit sellers.
I started to notice the age of the fruit sellers. The younger guys would have more
avocado, bread fruit, and coconuts.
My conclusion was that they were gathering these items themselves, or
they had other young crews that could easily gather fruit for them. However, most of these guys still did
not sell mangos. I decided that my
target would be the oldest looking fruit seller on my general route. I chose this person, because I’d be
helping him the most. I gathered
up 4 bags of the BEST mangos I could find and I took them to the fruit
vendor. I was going into the
transaction as the mangos being my “Loss Leader” product. I
invested 20 minutes picking the mangos and 20 minutes delivering them, plus
travel and fuel costs. Here I am
with about 200 mangos filled in 4 black trash bags. I show the fruit to the street side vendor as if it’s GOLD!
…..He does NOT look impressed. I
use my almost non-existent Spanish-speaking ability to convince Tio Luis to give me $35 for the 4
bags. He finally agrees after
haggling down from $50.00. I shook
his hand and gave him his money back and let him keep the mangos.
I told him that I picked those for free and he told me the
exact tree that I picked them from.
He knew by the size and color where I got those exact fruits from. It was amazing to do business with a
person that KNOWS his craft so well.
He also knew that he got a great deal! I gave him his money back because I wasn’t doing this for a
profit; I was doing this for the love of business. The reason he
doesn’t carry mangos is because they sell too fast and take up too much room
for other fruits that he sells for more money throughout the day. The basic rule of “shelf space” and who
gets it?
Ice to an Eskimo, We will never know for sure? Mangos to a Puerto Rican, YES! I’m more of a warm weather person
anyway.
When you want to sell anything you must make a plan
and take action. That’s
it. It’s the only way to find out
if people will buy what you’re selling.
Do it.
Very Respectfully,
George Ohan - U.S. Army veteran
International Entrepreneur
Puerto Rico, 2015
#PR2025
George Ohan - Pebble Beach -Concours 'd Elegance
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