Thomas J. Watson
The World’s Greatest Salesman
**This article was written by the U.S. SBA Entrepreneur of the Year, Founder of DJ Connection Tulsa Wedding DJs, Author, and Las Vegas Motivational Speaker – Clay Clark
The Early Life
At the time of his death, Thomas Watson was known as the “World’s Greatest Salesman.” He was the only son of his parents Thomas & Jane. However, he did have four sisters (Jennie, Effie, Loua and Emma). His family did farming and owned a very small local lumber business located in the small town of Painted Post, New York.
After finishing school Watson became a teacher. He was a teacher for one day. After quitting he went back to school to study accounting and business at the Miller School of Commerce in Elmira, New York. In 1891 he grew restless and left school. He took his next job making $6.00 per week as bookkeeper for Clarence Risley’s Market in Painted Post. After nearly one year, he decided to join up with the traveling salesman, George Cornwell. While working for George he peddled organs and pianos around the farm communities for the local hardware store owned by William Bronsons. This was Watson’s first real sales job.
Taking Time Out To Think
After awhile Cornwell left, but he stayed earning around $10 per week. After spending two years in this position, he stopped to think. He realized that he could be making $70 per week if he were working on commission. After he put a pencil to it, he sincerely could not believe what he had discovered. The impact of this discovery was so profound for him that he decided he had to quit and find some new surroundings where he could make some serious money. He decided to move to Buffalo, New York.
Watson then spent some time selling sewing machines for a company called Wheeler and Wilcox. Quickly, his ambition outgrew this job as well. It was then that he decided to take another sales position where he would be selling shares of the Buffalo Building and Loan Company. He would later discover that the man he worked for had no business ethics and was corrupt in nearly every way. He worked for C.B. Barron, until he discovered that Barron was stealing the commissions he owed people and the funds that Watson drummed up. Watson quickly quit, without getting a paycheck.
Failure In the Meat Business
Then Watson did the next logical thing that any of us would have done, he opened a Butcher shop. This business soon failed and Watson found himself without money, investment capital, a job or meat. However before the business failed, Watson had installed a new cash register into his butcher shop to that he could arrange the transfer of installment payments to the new owner of his glorious butcher shop.
Finding A Mentor
While connecting with NCR about getting this new machine, he met a man by the name of John J. Range. He asked John J. Range for a job, and he was declined. However, Watson was determined. Thus, he repeatedly called on Range. Range repeatedly rejected him. The actual number of rejections was more than 3 however, it’s not known the specific number of rejections he received. He was finally hired in November of 1896 as a sales apprentice (today’s version of an internship).
NCR was lead by a man named John Patterson and it was known for being one of the best selling organizations. Range was a branch manager for the company and he became a father figure for Watson and was tremendous mentor. While working under Range Watson learned his management and sales techniques. Watson repeatedly said during his career he learned more from range than from anyone else.
Success Is Around the Corner
After four years with the company, Watson was assigned to run the struggling agency that was located in Rochester, New York. As an agent he received a 35% commission. Within four years time, Watson had nearly turned Rochester into a monopoly.
With his tails of his success beginning to work their way through the community, he was recruited to join Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation in 1914. Watson took over as a general manager. At the time the company had $9 million in revenue and had more than 1,300 employees. In 1924 he named the company International Business Machines to better accommodate its new business model. In 1952 a civil lawsuit had to be filed against the company because they owned nearly 90% market share in the U.S. tabulating machines business. When Watson passed in 1956, IBM had grown to produce an annual revenue of over $897 million. The company had 72,500 employees. He was man who was uncompromising and who lived by a set of core principles. Many of them are listed below:
- “What we do with our leisure time has considerable bearing on what we accomplish during our working hours, and very largely determines the degree of our success, Young men who, like yourselves, devote a predetermined amount of their leisure hours to study and to serious thinking, are the men who are going to progress far and fast. The business leaders of tomorrow will be the young men of today-men like you who are preparing now for the great future which lies ahead. You may view the future with confidence, knowing that from the youth of today will emerge the leaders of tomorrow.”
- How does this apply to your life?
- What action steps can you take to begin implementing this principle in your life?
- “Don’t make friends who are comfortable to be with. Make friends who will force you to lever yourself up.”
- How does this apply to your life?
- What action steps can you take to begin implementing this principle in your life?
- “Would you like me to give you a formula for… success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You’re thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all… you can be discouraged by failure / or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember that’s where you’ll find success. On the far side.”
- How does this apply to your life?
- What action steps can you take to begin implementing this principle in your life?
- “The great accomplishments of man have resulted from the transmission of ideas and enthusiasm.”
- How does this apply to your life?
- What action steps can you take to begin implementing this principle in your life?
- “Every time we’ve moved ahead in IBM, it was because someone was willing to take a chance, put his head on the block, and try something new.”
- How does this apply to your life?
- What action steps can you take to begin implementing this principle in your life?
- “Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the danger of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of ”crackpot” than the stigma of conformity.”
- How does this apply to your life?
- What action steps can you take to begin implementing this principle in your life?
- “Nothing so conclusively proves a man’s ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself.”
- How does this apply to your life?
- What action steps can you take to begin implementing this principle in your life?
- “Life itself is a matter of salesmanship.”
- How does this apply to your life?
- What action steps can you take to begin implementing this principle in your life?
