Fishing For a Sale
A keen country lad applied for asalesman's job at a city department
store. In fact it was the biggest store in the world -you could get
anything there. The boss asked him, "Have you ever been a
salesmanbefore?"
Yes, I was a salesman in thecountry" said the lad. The boss liked
the cut of him and said, "You canstart tomorrow and I'll come
and see you when we close up."
The day was long and arduous for theyoung man, but finally 5
o'clock came around. The boss duly fronted up and asked,"How many
sales did you make today?"
"One," said the youngsalesman.
"Only one?" blurted the boss, "most of my staff make 20 or 30sales
a day. How much was the sale worth?"
"Three hundred thousanddollars," said the young man.
"How did you manage that?" asked theflabbergasted boss.
"Well," said the salesman "this man came in and I soldhim a small
fish hook, then a medium hook and finally a really large hook. Then
I sold hima small fishing line, a medium one and a huge big one. I
asked him where he was goingfishing and he said down the coast.
I said he would probably need a boat, soI took him down to the boat
department and sold him that twenty foot schooner with thetwin
engines. Then he said his Volkswagen probably wouldn't be able to
pull it, so I tookhim to the car department and sold him the new
Deluxe Cruiser."
The boss took two steps back and askedin astonishment, "You sold
all that to a guy who came in for a fish hook?"
"No," answered the salesman"He came in to buy a box of Tampons for
his wife and I said to him, 'Your weekend'sshot, you may as well go
fishing.'"