What Can We Learn From An Old Man In A Music Store?

A while back, I had an interesting conversation with the owner of a guitar shop I like to visit.

He told me when he was starting out he worked at a very popular music store. One day an old man with thinning gray hair walked in wearing worn denim overalls and shoes that hadn’t shined since Clinton lived in the White House.
All of the sales people quickly began to act as if they were very busy. This was done in an effort to ignore the man as he wandered by looking at the new Les Pauls and Stratocasters. However, the store owner I was speaking with, told me he was not so willing to take part in the shunning. He wasted no time and walked up to the man to ask if he could be helpful.

As it turned out, the man in denim had been the victim of an accident at work. His hand had been seriously hurt and his doctor recommended recovery might be faster if he were to take up an instrument, like guitar, to work the muscles in his fingers. The elderly gentleman had never played guitar before, but always wanted to, and figured this would be a good time to pick one up and start.

After spending about an hour with the man, a guitar was finally chosen; a Taylor acoustic with a $3800.00 price tag tied to the neck. The customer reached in his pocket and pulled out a fat roll of cash, removed 38, $100.00 bills, and walked out with the instrument. (Note: He also spent $250.00 on a new guitar case.)

Over the years this elderly man became one of the music store owner’s best customers. Periodically he’d return for new guitars, amps, repairs, harmonicas, harmonica holders, and a whole lot of other music related “stuff.”

This is a great lesson for all of us! The other music store staff judged the old man to be a waste of time. Had our hero not taken just a quick moment to talk to the customer, the customer would have eventually walked out and spent his money at another music store, not to mention the thousands of dollars generated by later sales.

There have been more times than I can remember when I made sales calls thinking “Why am I wasting my time calling this person?” and then that call turned into a sale.

The lesson here is you should never judge you should just “do.” After all, you never know who will be the next person is to pull out a fat roll of cash and transform themselves into your new customer.