Reading Zig Ziglar’s “Secrets,” I was amazed to find the story of the “Gloomy Gus” shoeshine man.

Seeing Zig approach the shoeshine station, Gloomy Gus asks “Well, I suppose you want the regular shine?” (as opposed to the “Best shine” or the “Spit shine” etc.)

Zig-(incredulously) “I can’t believe you said that! Why would you offer me the Regular instead of the Best?

Gloomy- “People don’t pay for the Best on rainy days because their shoes get muddied up later.

Zig- “It seems to me that if the Best shine gives the best protection and your business is down on rainy days, you would work awfully hard to increase the sales of your Best shine.”

It sinks in a little for Gloomy. Zig gives him a few words that improve his sales pitch and Gloomy feels better.

The lesson behind the story woke me up. Why do we sell (or pitch, or talk about) anything less than the best for our clients and consumers? Why would we assume that they didn’t want the best for themselves?

I think it’s because we’re scared. We’re scared that we’re not delivering the best and that consumers know it. We stretch to sell (reluctantly) because we don’t believe we’re delivering value to the customer.

What if we switched our framework slightly? What if we realized it’s about confidence, yes, but also about the inherent belief that we’re delivering something of value to the person; that we’re helping them acquire something they need. That we’re not only selling them something, we’re helping them by selling them something.

Gloomy’s assumption that people wouldn’t want to pay for the Best shine undermined his profession, his respect for himself, and the respect for the customers. He should have understood that people want the best for themselves and they’re willing to pay for it. Why undermine it when they aren’t?

When you think about it in this way, it feels lovely to want to sell. To want to get the other’s permission and give them what they want.

I wonder how often I’ve sold to people with a lackadaisical attitude, a less-than-enthusiastic pitch, not believing what I was saying. How many times have I decreased my chances just because I assumed someone wouldn’t want the best for themselves?