Books review of author Joe Girard pdf
Joseph Samuel Girardi (November 1, 1928 - February 28, 2019), better known as Joe Girard, was an American salesman, motivational speaker and author. Girard sold 13001 cars at a Chevrolet dealership between 1963 and 1978, and was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the seller of the most cars in a year (1,425 in 1973). Girard later became a successful motivational speaker, and gave regular presentations for corporate clients including General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, and kmart. He resided in Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan until his death.
Girard was the son of Antonino Girardi, "an extremely poor man of Sicilian birth" . He worked from early childhood on. A high school dropout, he started working as a shoeshine boy, then worked as a newsboy for the Detroit Free Press, dishwasher, delivery boy, stove assembler, and home building contractor.
The then 35-year-old Girard walked into a Detroit car dealership and begged a skeptical sales manager for a job as a salesman. He sold a car on his first day and, by the second month, was so good some of the other salesmen complained, and got him fired.
As described in How to Sell Anything to Anybody, Girard decided early in his sales career to adopt the name "Girard" for business purposes as a way to avoid confrontations over his ethnicity or losing customers who might be prejudiced against Sicilians and Italians.