Servant Selling Love Cat - Patrick McCarthy

In January, 1971, Patrick McCarthy began his career with Nordstrom Department Store. He was 26 years old and had a wife with three young kids. Working out of the Bellevue Square location, McCarthy got off to a rough start. Selling men’s wear in the then 3 year old department, he was not prepared for challenge ahead.

Patrick reflects on those early years, in a book he co-authored with Robin Spector: “I made every mistake in the book. Although I liked to dress well, I knew virtually nothing about clothing and had no personal style. I wore my shirts too big. I didn’t know how to fold the garments for display or to coordinate colors and textures. Worse, because I had some learning disabilities, including dyslexia, my work habits and organizational skills were poor. I couldn’t even get to work on time.”

McCarthy’s sales per hour track record was near the bottom of his department. He was almost fired in his second year because he was uncooperative and not a team player. He was desperately failing on 2 out of 3 of Nordstrom’s performance trilogy—Sales, Teamwork, and Customer Service.

Fortunately, Patrick Kennedy, the manager who was ordered to fire McCarthy found he was sincere, open, and friendly with customers. Kennedy began to work with McCarthy and develop his skills in all three areas. Only six months later, Kennedy invited McCarthy to go with him and open a new Nordstrom in Yakima, Washington, a little over 100 miles east.

The store was slow to take off, so the two took to the time honored strategy of making cold calls in order to generate new business. They went out to automobile dealerships, doctor’s offices, bank presidents, lawyers, and anyone who would see them. They arranged for special fittings in offices and homes.

You can read McCarthy’s whole story in “The Nordstrom Way to Customer Service Excellence”. Suffice it to say, 30 years later, McCarthy was Nordstrom’s all-time top performing sales person when he retired. In fact, for 15 consecutive years he was the number one salesperson throughout the entire chain. The detail and attention he gave to his customers is worthwhile reading for any sales professional wishing to make good. McCarthy says, “the key to selling is providing outstanding customer service”. He created and organized a system to insure he did just that.

Unlike Elmer Leterman, who sold 1 million dollars of insurance his first week, McCarthy estimated that it took him 7 years to really learn his craft. He was dedicated, teachable, and eventually that paid off. He was constantly thinking and planning. “I kept improving as a salesperson because I kept learning better ways to service the customer”.

Again, no tricky closes, no hypnotic techniques, but sales through great customer service