CHAT BACK: The smell of success

In 1874 a door-to-door book salesman named David McConnell had an idea. To get people to listen to his spiel, he would offer them a free gift. As he went from door-to-door it was the lady of the house who would answer, (no doubt because in 1874, the man of the house would have been off conquering nations, winning bread or shoveling coal) and so he figured out pretty quickly that his potential customers were women. Hence his ingenious idea.  

With the help of a local pharmacist our hero mixed his own concoction of perfume, placed it in small phials and offered this as a free gift to the lady of the house, if they listened to his sales pitch. Not a dumb idea really when you think about it, but low and behold the plan backfired. Book sales went down, but the ladies loved the perfume – (ain’t it always the case with free giveaways)?

Undeterred our young champion had another idea. He was smart enough to see the opportunity for what it was, let go of his original plan of luring ladies to buy his books, and decided to sell them perfume instead.

It wasn’t long before David then started to sell them other related items as well as cosmetics. Our enterprising young salesman hit pay dirt and eventually went on to great levels of success and in 1876 created the company that would become a household name, Avon. And in the process David McConnell changed the face of direct selling as we know it.

But what I love more than that is the simple thought of what if young David McConnell had given up when his first idea went south? What if after he gave away all his perfume he simply packed up shop because he failed to sell his books? What if he was so focused on selling his books that he never saw the amazing opportunity that lay at his feet?

We may never have heard the wonderful words ‘Avon Calling’.

Focus is a great thing but narrow mindedness is another. Sometimes you need to remain open in order to see what’s what and be willing enough to let go of your existing ideas and conventions to pick out and run with the gold.