Right after graduating from college, I went to work at a small, local daily newspaper.
It’s the kind of place where young journalists learn the ropes and watch other, much more experienced colleagues ply their trade. My job was to follow the police and firefighters around to shootings, fires and car crashes and write what I saw for the day’s edition. It was an adrenaline-filled job and every day was more exciting than the one before.
I sat next to the political reporter who had been at his game for many years. Instead of steady diet of exciting, unpredictable natural disasters, crime and mayhem, his job was to sit for hours in countless city and county legislative meetings and hearings and then translate the importance for readers.
Despite the seemingly boring nature of his work, he was nevertheless enthusiastic about every story he wrote. A story about a new sewer line project? Woo-hoo! An annexation by the city? It must be Christmas! To him, each story he wrote was just as important and interesting as the last.
I admit that on many occasions, I sat there in wonder at how he could be excited about something that I considered to be so boring. And it wasn’t that he was just excited about his stories, he was excited about everyone’s stories. It wasn’t until years later that I realized he had it right all along: Just as each and every story is important and interesting to some people in its own way, so too are auto parts.
A part that might not be exciting to you could be the one puts someone back on the road. Or makes their commute more comfortable. Or allows them to take that trip this weekend they were originally going to cancel because their car was on the fritz.
There’s a good reason to get excited about a set of wiper blades, for example, even though the ticket for that sale is less than a muffler. If a customer senses you’re that excited about a wiper sale, they’re going to wonder how excited you’re going to be about a higher-priced item. That enthusiasm sends out good vibes that are impossible to miss. And those good vibes will leave a favorable impression on a customer that they remember the next time they’re looking for parts.
