The third guideline? ’Touch’ people often. While Girard isn’t a fan of today’s modern networking tools, claiming they restrict the opportunities to be ‘face-toface, eye-to-eye,’ Whitman swears by them. “Liking a client’s holiday photo is a way of staying in front of them without actually trying to sell them anything. In essence, it’s a way to be social. In the sales business, using social media is like cloning yourself,” he says.

Girard also believes in the ’maintain the relationship’ philosophy, though he thinks anything other than person-toperson is ‘bogus.’ “Out of sight is out of mind, but don’t use all that computer stuff to stay in touch. Get out there and talk to people. Any other interaction is junk in my book,” he says.

Whitman chuckles. His 10-year-old daughter Morgan recently started her own networking business, Morgan Marketing, and he says she’d have something to say about that. “Social media is often a way to get that face-to-face. They can complement one another. My daughter has that concept down pat,” he says.

Morgan Marketing initially uses social media, and the bulk mailing of business cards, as a way to connect those in the Halifax business community. Later, at an event organized by Morgan herself, these business people meet, ‘network’ and make connections face-to-face.

“Sales isn’t about nine-to-five anymore, doing the selling. You have to think ahead. Maybe the person you’re meeting with isn’t the right target for your product, but they just might know someone who is. If you keep that door open, the sales potential is huge,” says Whitman. That’s why using a combination of both the traditional (business card exchanges and face-to-face interaction) and nontraditional methods (social media) is the best sales option.

Thinking back to the ABCs of sales, surely the traditional ‘closing of the deal’ is still of some importance? Sales is, after all, about . . . well . . . selling, isn’t it? Our experts agree on one point; if you treat people with respect, and work on building and maintaining a relationship, the ‘close’ happens naturally and without effort.

“I might go to eight meetings a day, and not one of them is about me making a sale. But, by the time the week is out, I’ve made sales. I wouldn’t have a job if I didn’t. My day is about like-minded people talking about things of interest. If a sale happens out of that, which it usually does, then well and good,” says Whitman.

“Selling cars is one hell of a racket,” says Girard, “but I stayed on top because I never forgot I was dealing with people, and people deserve to be treated with respect. The sale of a car just happened because I never lost sight of that fact.” In fact, as far as Girard is concerned, every sale he’s ever made is based on the one he made before, all the way back to the very first car he sold.

While the World’s Best Salesman and the King of Networking claim they avoid the ABCs of sales, the truth is that they’re doing it all the time. It’s just that, for these experts, ABC is more likely to stand for Always Be Courteous.