Pour It On

i'm sorry we can't do business together today mr graham but i'll catch up with you one of these days goodbye take care yeah yeah honey it's me nope i blew it yeah i thought it was all wrapped up but it just didn't work out that way oh come on come on you win some you lose some well look don't worry we'll eat i'll be home in about 20 minutes huh oh not that again yeah yeah yeah i'll swing by and pick up tommy i don't know why that kid is wasting his time with hockey when he can't even get his school work done look i'll see you later no no dan now that isn't the way i showed you if you're going to slap the puck you've got to do it right here watch [Applause] [Music] [Music] hey tommy why that gloomy look you are terrific today come on tell me what's the matter i might not be coming back next year are you kidding you're one of our best right wingers it's like this my dad doesn't think i ought to be playing i see is your dad picking you up today well i'll tell you what i'll do i'll have a talk with your dad you go find my son blake keep on a mischief and i'll see what i can do okay sure okay gang just one more thing what did we learn out there today about hockey [Applause] what else what's the one most important thing that we have to remember every moment we're out in that ice [Music] [Applause] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] so tommy tommy [Applause] tommy i i'm sorry i'm late i got tied up come on let's go oh we can give your friend a ride home too but come on this is bobby ball nice to meet you mr hull thanks for taking care of my son dad this is the bobby hall of course i've seen you on television didn't you just sign a three million dollar contract why you're spending all this time with kids can you think of a better way for me to spend my time as a matter of fact mr stafford i think i'm obligated to work with these kids well uh that's fine if a man has the time dad mr hall would like to speak to you oh yeah what about has he been acting up oh no nothing like that tommy's a good boy tommy why don't you go with lake for a little while you think we could find a place where we could talk in private well uh i suppose a few minutes won't make much difference [Music] i get the impression mr stafford that you're not a hockey man oh thank you that's right no all i know about the sport is what i see on television i mean i ice skated when i was a kid but uh hockey was just never our sport i get the impression by talking to tommy that you don't think it should be his sport whoa no not exactly um i think kids get excited about sports anyway i don't see where hockey is going to do tommy that much good well if your mind's made up i guess that's it well wait a minute what do you think grew up in this game don it's more than just a game on ice to me hockey is a training ground for life itself yeah i guess you're right um it's competitive kids get good exercise yes and it's more than that the important things that these kids learn from hockey they'll carry with them for the rest of their life for example self-discipline these boys aren't here to practice on time just because they have to they're on time because they wanted are you trying to tell me that hotkey is going to make tommy a better engineer yes i really believe that well if that analogy is true of an iota join your class as a matter of fact don we do have a men's class by the way uh what kind of work do you do i'm a salesman but when i read the sports pages you're a pretty good salesman for hockey well i believe in hockey down like you believe in selling oh oh my job isn't that glamorous no i i make a pretty good living at it though it's getting tougher and tougher every year well my boss keeps wanting me to do better and better no matter how well i did last year what's so funny well i guess hockey and selling aren't that much different see the year i scored 50 goals the next year the fans and the management they expected 55. well that's exactly my point it's the same thing in selling and if you're number one you're always a target ah i don't need that kind of extra pressure you sound like the guys i play with yeah what do you mean one of my old teammates used to score between 15 and 20 goals every year and when i suggested that with a little extra hard work he could score 30 to 35 do you know what he told me no he said bobby he said if i score 30 goals this year next year he says they're going to expect 35. you see what i mean he was content to go along with that average of 20 goals a year and this way he didn't have to compete with himself yeah well i don't blame him whether it's uh hockey or selling as soon as you start competing with yourself management demands more and more on it well why shouldn't they if you've learned the basics and if you've lived up to your expectations you're going to get better every year you've got to expect that from yourself what are you doing anyways just walking through life where are you living it hey wait a minute i thought we were here to talk about my son oh hold it down i'm sorry let me tell you what hockey has meant to me and maybe i can show you how it'll help tommy i was born in a little town in ontario called point anne where the population isn't even 500 people the big difference i guess is that the kids there grow up on hockey just like the kids here grow up on baseball or football that's their whole life there's a little school where everybody in the whole town has attended and the cement factory where my dad worked for 47 years and if you were to go to point anne during the summer you wouldn't find anyone playing hockey but they're running and swimming or playing baseball they're learning the basics the fundamentals of sport and it all pays off on the ice for instance in my business the first thing i have to learn is how to skate and how to skate well believe it or not there are many professional hockey players that never really reach their potential because they never learned how to skate properly now that's basic what are the basics of selling basics well let's see i'll quote my sales manager number one know your product know everything there is to know about number two know your market know who your customers are how your product is going to help number three make those sales calls well i guess that's a basic announcement but you know i can't see how anyone can do anything well unless they really know the basic fundamentals of it i'll take these kids for instance they could never learn how to play hockey unless first they learned how to skate and then they'd have to have that self-discipline to practice and practice and practice well um a salesman practices by calling on his customers or sometimes practices all he gets yes but you get better don't you oh yeah sure once you know those basic fundamentals it must be just like hockey where instinctively you know what to do well a salesman learns from experience that shortcuts don't work you have to plan your strategy just as though this is the only sales call you're ever going to make and that's where psychology is so important in your business and in mine see we play over 90 games every season and each player has to get himself mentally prepared for every game or do you think that's tough i have to psych myself up for hundreds of sales calls every year i have to i have to get those competitive juices going before i go in and talk to that prospect in hockey that moment of truth is that very critical faceup well i've never heard it call that in sales but uh i guess it could be applied we have to face off with a customer every time i try to prove how good my product is and how much he really needs it and why don't you make every sale well for the same reason you don't score every time you try to get one under the net no but i guess the real reason is because well i forget for a moment what my real purpose is how important my product is to that customer i used to take that moment just before i go in and talk to a prospect to get myself totally geared for what was about to happen you see you are getting prepared for that face up do you know who taught me my father you know he and mom still live in point in and he was a pretty fair country hockey player and you know what he still to this day isn't satisfied with my performance you should hear him when we get together sometimes say robert i don't know whether you realize enough but you would partly to blame for that loss in montreal the last time he was in there i've seen you walk in on those goaltenders have the goalie at your mercy and then didn't know enough to put the puck over the top fiddling around with a puck there with your ability and your strength you should get two or three goals every game every time there's a gang from point and down you stink the joint out [Laughter] but honestly don aren't you your son's biggest critic sometimes [Music] yeah maybe i uh maybe i could give my son more time maybe maybe i could concentrate on him a little more do you exercise down oh a little golf some swimming i should do more well then maybe you should join my class are you out of your skull well i happen to think that exercise is the best way to build up your power what kind of policy physical and mental well how do you suggest i keep up my power by eating bobby hull's favorite breakfast cereal every morning well not exactly but how about 10 minutes of exercise every morning when you get up you know some deep knee bends or push-ups or what have you if you do that i'll bet you that within a week you'll find that exercise does keep up your power it keeps you more mentally alert so you're better able to do your job hey wait a minute you must think i'm some kind of a bomb as a salesman well you've already admitted that you're not as good as you could be oh come on i've got to get going it's good hey you really do squirm when the heat's on bobby you can play hockey but i can sell i can't skate my way across an ice cube but i'll bet you couldn't sell that ice cube to a man dying in thirst hey hey wait a minute don i'm sorry i shouldn't be telling you how to sell well i guess i should be more impressed i know you're considered one of the great stars of the game oh i don't consider myself a star i do one or two things a little bit better than some of my opposition i skate well and i shoot well well isn't that the whole game oh not by a long shot now take bobby orr for instance he does everything well and yet you know what he's a team player well now there's one idea that doesn't apply to salesmanship when a salesman is in his territory he's all by himself now he either gets the job done or he doesn't get it done oh that sounds just like me those first few years i played grabbed that puck hell bent for election down that ice just me and the opposition goaltender or what happened i didn't get the first base i had to learn to pass that puck off to my teammates race to get it back get in the clear to get a good clean rip at that net you don't mean to tell me that you don't have anyone else in your team while you're selling do you well there's my boss and how about at the home office yeah well we have backup people and how do you use these backup people well well i guess i um i don't take advantage of all the help they can give me couldn't these backup people look after a lot of the details so you could spend more time selling sure if i remember to communicate with him oh there you go just like me again grabbing that puck and down the ice all by myself don have you ever thought about this if you didn't have any other help on your team just how good would you be about as good as a little old corner shoemaker and you know he doesn't exist anymore people don't realize that no matter what they do in life they have to be a team player we have to depend on each other no matter what we do and that's the important thing that your son's learning bobby there are some good things that hockey teaches uh what about some of the fans for instance well you look like you've taken some pretty good jolts yeah i have a few stitches well that's the thing that uh worries me about tommy what are you going to do protect them all his life sound the first thing we learn as kids playing hockey is that you're going to get hurt this is part of the game but if these kids can accept that then they're going to be able to accept all the little hurts and setbacks that they have throughout life the things that you're not going to do anything about anyway well what do you want tommy to be a winner or a loser well i'll tell you there are some things that bother me about hockey some of the things that i see on television you guys get into an awful lot of fistfights i don't want tommy growing up thinking he can square off with somebody just because he gets bumped a little well i'm not going to uphold all this fighting you see on the ice yeah sit down but i i would like to say this much that when people are involved and when they have that spirit of winning emotions run high isn't that true of selling well somehow i don't see myself taking a swing at a purchasing agent however there are some with dessert yes but you can harness that emotion can't you the same intensity goes into your job and the way yourself emotions cause you to persist how um how do you define persistence it's a feeling deep inside you never give up you never stop trying and you give that 110 of yourself in everything you do [Music] assist have you ever watched hockey done very closely no no obvious obviously not otherwise i'd know more about what uh what am i supposed to be watching here oh a number of things people want to know how i felt after i scored my 500th goal and then my 600 and you know don i'm wondering how i'm going to feel if i happen to be able to score 700 or more man this is a fast game it sure is and how can anyone just coast through a game that moves as quickly as this look there's one of my teammates out of position and we missed the scoring opportunity what what caused that oh it could be any number of the things that we talked about tell me how do you feel when you lose a sale how many ways can you say rotten [Music] salesmen seem to feel the same after a lost sale you're hurt you know you blew it but you're too busy feeling sorry for yourself analyze why now i'm going to start critiquing myself after each lost sale so i can learn why it happens no what what's happening here oh i believe this was back in 1965 when i scored my 51st goal was that some kind of a record well it was at that time no one else had ever scored over 50 and i ended up that season with 58. is this more of the same no uh this is in 1972 when i scored my 28th hat-trick hat trick what in heaven's name is a hat-trick well well don that's when one individual scores three goals in any one particular game but why hat trick well there are a number of explanations that's uh said that uh at one time the men patrons threw their fedoras onto the ice in appreciation after an individual had scored three goals another story has it that a haberdasher bought each player a fedora if he scored three goals in a game and who has the record for hat tricks and professional hockey i don't even know why i asked that question [Music] you see don you have as much going for you as i do for me there's only that one difference i'm a hockey player you're a salesman i reach the people through my talents but you make their lives better and more useful with yours how can you let one single day pass by without putting everything you have into selling that was quite a slap shot mr hall [Music] before i came over here i lost a sale one i shouldn't have lost i hurt that fire and his company by not convincing him did it really hurt sure but i passed it off i convinced myself once again you win some you will sign you know you may have thought you were talking about keeping my son in hockey but everything you said was really talking about me they call you the golden jet don't they well only when we win well i can see why everyone considers you one of the greatest athletes in the world you'd be good at anything including sales boy you really hit it on the head with me i've got to stay out of that comfort zone do you know something i put as much time and effort in my job whether i win or lose and winning makes a heck of a lot more sense than losing well then what are you going to do about it well i've got to get it all together my talent my ambition my experience i'm going to spend a lot less time worrying about it and a lot more time doing say that sounds like you're really getting ready to pour it on yeah that's right i'm gonna pour it on hey you've likely already missed dinner there's just one more thing i want you to see hey guys hey guys settle down all right fellas i've told you this before but i want to repeat it men in every sport there are guys with loads of talent but there are only few with the right mental attitude to put this talent to work no matter what else you learn through playing this game of hockey this one thing you'll carry with you for the rest of your life now i believe in five things i have them right here in this easel we talked about them before i'm going to see how good your memories are [Music] okay who knows the first one bill prepare for the face-off prepare for the face up and okay uh what does that mean concentrate correct a man has to mentally prepare himself for competition don how does this apply to selling oh i i would it would be the same thing i guess um a salesman has to be sure he's got his fundamentals down he uh he has to uh know his product yes now his market he has to keep making the sales calls uh he has to be prepared to face off with his customer just as you're doing hockey you see boys this doesn't just apply to hockey okay who knows the next one then keep up your power keep up your power and uh how is this applied build up your muscles right a man in good physical condition keeps his mind sharp right don every morning from now on i promise all right number three be a team player right be a team player no one can do it alone guys your real strength comes from building on the strength of your team don we talked about that yeah yeah it's about time i got on the team with my company all right who knows the next one persistence right and that one word could be the big difference between success and just rocking through life if you're involved and if you've concentrated and if you refuse to give up eventually you're going to be a winner and there's only one way to achieve this and that's by walking through life with that chin stuck out every foot of the way and what about these little hockey hurts fellas so everybody gets banged up once in a while and when you win the game it hurts don't hurt so much and if you lose you just go out and persist all over again now what's the last one and this is the important one don there are some people that can rise to their peak once in a while but the real stars in this world are those that can pour it on day after day year after year throughout their entire life and that's what this game of hockey's all about that's what life is all about tommy tell me miss no fathers aren't always right i didn't tell you that but in the game street i made a hand trip you know what a hat trick is don't you yeah i do now well done we keep him in the lineup well i don't see how he can keep him out well you heard what mr house said i'll promise to come to every game if you promise to pour it on and i will too i think i might be able to do that hat [Music] trick [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] oh where is he hey you should see that son of yours has he ever come along in the last few weeks well so bye thanks to you yeah i thought i was making it but i'll tell you something now i'm really making ah that's true but i want to show you something what's that i made a hat trick today one two three sales and three sales calls well let me tell you anybody that makes a hat trick deserves a reward come out with me whatever where are we going [Music] everybody stop all right go [Music] you