Make a Little, Sell a Little

Our oldest kid graduates college tomorrow and this line's been running through my head the last few days,

Make a little, sell a little.

Some 3M honcho used that line many years ago to describe the way his firm does business and it's always made a lot of sense to me.

You make a little something. Then you sell a little something. And you do that well countless times over decades, you're going to be successful like 3M.

This other line also has been rumbling around the last few days,

If a truck's hauling it, a salesman sold it.

A friend told me he saw this line on a bumpersticker fixed to a truck rolling along the highway once. It makes a lot of sense to me too.

I look at all those trucks out on the road every day and they remind me someone, somewhere, sometime made a sale. Otherwise those trucks wouldn't be out there.

Maybe this graduation season makes me think about pithy sales lines because our oldest kid's going to be put on full-time as salesman for The Quiet Company. And because I'm rooting like hell for him and his dreams. And because of that famous line in Death of a Salesman,

A salesman has got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory.

Actor-lawyer-economist-comic Ben Stein once wrote "lawyers and doctors and dentists and politicians and accountants and actors -- all of us sell something, every day and every time we meet someone."

Here's to The Class of 2010! A new crop of energized salespeople long on hope, with a swatch of economic stimulus in their bag. How great is this!

Class is over but here's to more learning, listening and dreaming.

Congratulations Class of 2010. And, yes, congratulations son! Mom and I are thrilled at the life you are leading and the choices you've made.

GOOD LUCK as you make a little, sell a little.

--tim

twitter @tjmorin