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| Discounts for Seniors 10 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, June 10, 1986 Meet John Delong, the smoothest door-to-door salesman you'll probably run into all summer. See story for details on John, the "super salesman." xe LANDSCAPING pLE & MAINTENANCE PVN ertiing - Patio Work 18 Yrs. Experience Deck Work 0985-3873 soo ---- li *} NONQUON TRAVEL LTD. He's brimming over with sales zest John the super salesman The way John DeLong is going, he could probably sell refrigerators to Eskimos. John is a grade twelve student at Port Perry High School, brimming over with enthusiasm for his newest part-time job, selling water coolers to anybody who will listen to him. He arrived at the Port Perry Star two days after he started selling, bursting with information about the coolers and persuasively trying to convince a Star reporter to write a story about them. : The Star doesn't usually do stories about a certain product--that's nor- mally a paying proposition to be worked out with the advertising department, but there was a story just asking to be written-a story about John DeLong himself. The tousled blond-haired teenager had no experience selling anything when he heard an announcement over the school PA system, describ-' ing a company's need for students to sell the Laurentian Spring Water Cooler Systems. The company, John says, works almost exculsively with student salespeople, creating on-the-job training for young folks who often complain they can't get it anywhere else. "It's job creation for students," John explains. "Everyone is always whining that students aren't getting any on-the-job training and Lauren- tian is providing that." The company probably also has a lot of success with a young, en- thusiastic sales force, but John prefers to look at the opportunity from his side. It's a part-time job for John, ad- ding to the income he will take home working for a building contractor for the summer, but he approaches his new task like a full-time job. . In two nights of door-to-door sell- ing at local homes, he placed 14 water coolers in a free two-week trial basis. Nine of those coolers were placed TID N % Hi RAY IS NS in Apple Valley homes within three hours of selling. Nine in three hours! That's an incredible success rate, something even the most experienc- ed door-to-door salesman might envy! From those who take advantage of the trial period, he figures 75 per- cent will agree to rent the coolers on a regular basis. For each cooler placed in a home on a trial basis, John receives five dollars, and for every cooler accepted on a perma- nent basis, he takes home $20. At that rate, John won't be a millionaire by the end of the sum- mer, but he'll be doing more than okay. By now, other sales oriented peo- ple are probably wondering how John does it. How he can just knock on a stranger's door who has never even heard of the Laurentian Water Cooler, and wind up selling that stranger on the product. He shrugs at this. "I don't know," he says with a grin. "One thing I do know, is not to knock on doors around dinner time. I don't really want to bother people while they're eating. But anytime after that, until about 9 p.m., is a good time to sell." He dresses in a specially made Laurentian T-shirt and white pants, and as soon as the homeowner answers the door, he begins his sales pitch by describing himself as a stu- dent and then launches into a description of the product. "At first, people don't know what you're talking about," he says. "And you now, as soon as they come to the door, whether they're going to listen or not." Still, when he toured Cawker's Creek, he said, "Nobody told me, no, they're not interested. Everybody listened to what I had to say." He has also learned, in his brief selling career, to answer people's questions before they get a chance to ask them. The technique can lead to embarassing silences ("I never know what to say when that hap- pens,"') but generally it works pret- ty well. : And although John has no plans to be a salesman when he finishes school (he figures he wants to be a teacher), he claims he really loves his job. "Oh yeah, it's great!" he en- thuses. "I could stay out doing it un- til 11 o'clock every night!" ky WATER WEED HARVESTING Cottages, Beaches & Marinas. FREE ESTIMATES WHITBY-OSHAWA HONDA 1110 Dundas St. East - Whithy, Ont. SALES - SERVICE - LEASING NEW & USED CARS Call ... Kevin Cannon Nef 666-1712 TY 686-1745 RESIDENCE - 985-2515 WEEKEND SPECIAL! FRIED CHICKEN ~ and SEAFOOD "The Best of Both from Dixre Lee" Offer expires June 15,1986 . Chicken, family sized cket of fries & 2 family sized salads of your choice 136 Water Street, Port Perry - 985-9009 ii EL Wa A 0