The Little Thing That Makes The Big difference

by Dean Sampano
(Dean Sampano is one of the countries leading experts on sales and service.)

"A Little Day That Made A Big Difference"

In 1991, I was a sales trainer for the General Motors dealer group and part of my job as trainer was to improve on the quality of our programs that we were using to train 700 sales people.

About after a month on the new job a good friend phoned me and said that he wanted to invite me to an interesting seminar the following night. I said sure what’s the topic? And he said “How to be irresistible to the opposite Sex."

Now I was unclear on what he said at first, so I asked him to repeat several times just to make sure I heard him right. He said yes, It’s called “How to be irresistible to the opposite sex” .

I immediately asked him “why are you inviting me to a course like that, do you think I am desperate?" He laughed and said, "No but I have invited a dozen other friends, why don’t you come it will be fun, trust me."

I thought to myself, famous last words, trust me, but after giving it a little further thought, I did enjoy his company and I did respect his opinion, he was a sharp guy not to mention he was the CEO of a billion dollar company not me. So I put down my ego and went!

As I was driving down the following night, all the way there I tortured myself with second thoughts but some how I made it there. As I walked into the room, I looked around and I was surprised to find the room packed with well dressed professionals.

They started with some short introductions and then they opened the seminar with something that immediately caught hold of my attention, and that was that, No matter how famous a person is and no matter how rich a person is or how good looking or how confident that he or she might be, one of the deepest needs in human nature is still the need to create and have great relationships with other people.

Then they said that research clearly showed that our body language has a lot to do with the quantity and quality of our relationships. Now to me that sounded reasonable enough.

Then they said that if we get off auto-pilot and make the extra effort to reach out and smile and radiate more positive energy with our entire face, lips and eyes, almost overnight, it will start a magical chain reaction that will dramatically increase the quantity and quality of our personal and professional opportunities.

Now this is where they lost me because I had come from a proud long linage of non smilers. My grandfather was not a smiler, my father was not a smiler, none of my uncles smiled and in some strange way I believed it was some kind of great family tradition not to smile.

Now after putting together an impressive case they challenged us to go out and practice all of our new skills and notice the positive results.

Well it sounded a little to good to be true but I decided I would accept the challenge, so I promised myself that I would. For the next 12 hours I would reach out and smile to every person I met. Young or old, man or women, attractive or unattractive and say “Hi, how are you?”

Now the next day I went shopping at Sobey’s the grocer store and as I walked through the automatic doors, I remembered my promise to smile. So as I grabbed my cart and I headed down the right side of the store which was the bread section.

And there coming towards me was a very attractive woman, so I put on my most handsome smile and as she looked up, see saw me smiling and before I could say a word, she said to me; “Hi how are you?

Now being totally caught off guard, I said smoothly back. “Fafa fa ththth”. I could not speak, there was the girl of my dreams and I could not speak.

Now I was a little red and little embarrassed but I pulled myself together and continued to the back of the store and I hung a left at the meat counter and there in front of me was a man crouched over and busy stocking the freezer.

I looked at him gave him my best smile and said “How are you today? He looked up, saw me smiling, stopped work, stood straight up, smiled and said fine thanks, how are you and it was clear at least in his mind, that I was obviously someone very important, maybe even someone who was part of the Sobey’s fortune.

Now I was two for two and feeling great and I made a left up the center isle and there he was, six foot Four inches, 300 pounds of grease. He had long messy hair and he was wearing green coveralls and he had a scowl on his face that looked like solid granite.

After one quick glance at him, I didn’t need another, so I quickly pushed my cart past him without a second thought. As I got about half way up the isle, I remembered my promise to smile and reach out for the next 12 hours.

So a stopped my chart and reluctantly swung it around and slowly headed back down the isle. The only thought that was going through my head was; he is going to think I’m gay and I’m hitting on him.

As my cart reached his, I slowed and as he looked over I gave him the best friendly smile I could muster and said “Hi how are you today? And when I said that, he looked at me and a strange look came to his face and do you know what happened next?

The softest voice I had ever heard in my life said “I am doing just fine thanks, how are you? And I was in total shock. I could not believe that the voice came out of that body. I said “I’m just trying to catch up on some shopping” and he said “There never seems to be enough time in the day to get the things we need done.”

I said “you’re right there!” I said have a good day! And he said “you have a good day too.” As I pushed my cart, I had the strangest feeling building inside me and I thought to myself, “How could I have been so wrong?”

Even when I thought I was so right and then I thought “If I was so wrong this time, I wondered how many other thousand’s of times have I been wrong and what it has cost me. And from that day on it changed the way I look at people, for it reaffirmed in me, that the package has nothing to do with the inside and that a lot of special people come in strange packages.

I learned that if we would forget the games and the gimmicks, and just get back to making people feel important, that little smile can make one of the single biggest differences in your life.

And well I still do training; the new section that now echoes in my classroom is “The “Law of ABS.” Which stands for always be smiling, 24hours a day, 7days a week, 365 day’s a year.

That means smiling when you’re walking; you’re smiling when you’re talking, smiling when listening and even smiling when you’re on the phone.

For I can tell you first hand, if you make a commitment today, to go out for even the next 12 hours and smile at work and at home something magical will happen; and that is you will see an instant improvement in your business, your relationships and your life.

And yes I know the real secret will not be to just smile for 12 hours because I know anyone can promise to smile for just 12 hours. The secret to your success will be what you do on the 13th hour, for if you do it then, that’s when a new character is born and once that happens, I guarantee you will never have to shop for great friends or great customers because they will be sold on you the moment they see your face.

By: Dean Sampano

Toronto, Canada



Over the last decade Dean Sampano has risen to become one of the country’s leading authority on sales and service and has helped 1000’s of people achieve their dreams.

All the above quotes are based on the work of Dean Sampano and covered under Copyright 1032799.

For more information on Dean Sampano and his upcoming seminars visit. www.livemotivation.com or call 416.830.0965