Selling By Not Selling

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Selling by Not Selling
From $24 to a turnover of $300 million Jim Penman

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Back Cover
This is the story of Jim’s Group, as told by its founder. An account of how a $24 business became one of the world’s largest franchise chains, with over 3100 Franchisees in four countries. It is an unusually frank and honest account, showing the human weaknesses and mistakes as well as thesuccesses. But also the ideals and the passion which has made this very unusual business a leader in its field. An invaluable handbook for anyone interested in small business. For the rest, an intriguing glimpse into the ‘face which launched a thousand trailers’.

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Jim’s Group Values
Our first priority is the welfare of our Franchisees We are also passionate about customer service We workconstantly to improve our service and lower our costs We sign only Franchisees and Franchisors we are convinced will succeed

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Introduction
I am an unlikely person to build a successful business. For a start, I’m lazy by nature. Given half a chance I can spend hours or even days reading or playing computer games or doing anything but productive work. I’m also a poor manager, not well organised,not good at sticking to systems, and with very little head for accounts. On top of that I am introverted and socially inept, hate crowds and have no capacity for small talk. Not only can I not remember names, but I have a rare condition which makes it hard at times to remember faces. Lack of social skills means I often offend or upset people without meaning to. This might not matter so much to acomputer programmer or engineer, but my business is one that depends totally on relationships between people. I have no formal business training, have never done a business plan or written a proper mission statement. I’ve never been able to create or stick to budgets. My mind is practical rather than theoretical, and to be honest I find most business texts difficult if not impossible to follow. Sohow did I come to run Australasia’s most successful service Franchise, with 2780 Franchisees world wide and growing fast? This book is the story of that journey. It’s a messy story, full of dumb mistakes and blind alleys, financial and family crises, unlike any business book you’ve ever read. But anyone who reads it should get a sense of why this business works, with some valuable clues on how tomake any business work even if you’re not especially talented! I dedicate this book to my staff, to my Franchisees who put so much effort into satisfying their customers. To my Franchisors, whose passion for the success of their Franchisees so often goes beyond the call of duty. And most of all to my incomparable wife Li.

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Chapter 1 Selling by Not Selling
I can still remember the day when Ilearned how to succeed in business. Not just the day but the hour and even the minute. It wasn’t when I made the decision to franchise, or even the day I signed my first Franchisee. It happened years earlier, when I had a business aimed at building up and selling lawn-mowing rounds and found I simply couldn’t sell. In fact, I had never been able to sell. One of my first ‘jobs’ after leavingschool was selling encyclopaedias door to door, and I put the word ‘jobs’ in inverted commas because it never actually made me any money. I knocked on doors for several weeks without being able to persuade anyone to buy. Later I tried canvassing for a paint company, and failed also. I had no people skills, I couldn’t take rejection, and I absolutely hated selling. I was a thoroughly awful salesman. Butnow, for my business to succeed, I had to sell mowing rounds consistently, month after month. I struggled with this problem for a couple of years and tried many ways to overcome it. I approached business agencies, experimented with different forms of advertising, even hired others to sell rounds for me. It came to the point where a professional salesman, on commission, sold rounds for me in my...