Getting yourself wanted: the original Challenger Sale?

Norval Hawkins

In 1907, Norval Hawkins was doing some accounting work for the Ford Motor Company. He wanted to run the sales organization. He was confident. “I believed myself fitted for the position.”

How would an accountant get a role running the sales organization?

He never came out and said that he wanted the job…or even believed he was best qualified.

“I did not make that statement to Mr. Ford; because it would have been poor salesmanship.”

Hawkins believed in this concept of “getting yourself wanted’, and applying it to everything in sales.

“I never said to him that I was the man he needed. But I suggested it by presenting my ideas of how the job should be done.”

He taught Henry Ford by suggesting ideas on how to more profitably sell cars…

It didn’t take long before he got himself “wanted without having to overcome any resistance in the mind of the man with whom I had chosen to work.”

Henry Ford offered him the job, he took it, and stayed in the role for the next eleven years.

This was his philosophy for selling everything…

“First, you must show the prospect what he lacks”, that “there is an unoccupied opportunity for such services as you believe you are capable of rendering”

“Second, you need to picture yourself filling the place and giving the service”, essentially showing the prospect “your qualifications at work in their business” without ever actually saying it.

Hawkins spoke of this approach as using “the force of affirmative suggestion”.

Ford referred to Hawkins as the greatest salesperson in the history of Ford Motor Company, and his “million dollar man”.

I could not help but reading this in his 1910 book, Certain Success, and thinking I was reading The Challenger Sale. It’s teaching the prospect, via a tailored message where you are making deposits…you’re not selling. The approach builds credibility, sets yourself up as the expert, and from there you’re able to control the process.

The greatest salesperson of all time (at the time), and he was using The Challenger Sale approach…just 100+ years before it was ever written.

Want more on Hawkins? Here are a couple more resources on him, his books, and his life:

What is Success?: An article I wrote on his perspective on success – in life, and in sales.

An Interview With A Top Performer..From The Early 1900s: I interviewed Hawkins in this episode of The Sales History Podcast…well, using his words at least. 

Top Sales Books of All Time: The Snubs: I wrote this article to illuminate some of the greatest sales books of all time, including Hawkins, that time forgot. 

Sales history is just a hobby for me. Shameless self-promotion: My day job is running Sales Melon: doing sales keynote speeches and workshops for revenue organizations. I teach the power of transparency applied to things like your messaging & positioning, your formal presentations, and my most popular workshop is negotiations. Albeit, the item striving to overtake negotiations is The Transparent Sales Leader workshop, teaching the structure of modern revenue leadership, optimized by science, on a bed of transparency. Reach out if you want to figure out whether me as a resource for you and your organization would match up. I’d love to help! tcaponi@salesmelon.com | info@toddcaponi.com | www.toddcaponi.com