A Message from Mike Tidwell

“NEVER GIVE UP”

Many years ago, the National Retail Dry Goods Association conducted a survey of sales representatives to determine how many sales calls a representative needed to make on a prospective client before convincing the client to place an order. Here were the results:

• 48 percent of the salespeople stopped calling if the customer did not buy as a result of the first sales call.
• 25 percent of the salespeople moved on after the second unproductive visit.
• 15 percent made three sales calls before throwing in the towel.
• Only 12 percent indicated they would continue to call on a prospect indefinitely until they finally made a sale.

Now here’s the most intriguing fact about this survey. The 12 percent of sales reps who were persistent in their sales calls — the ones who kept visiting potential customers time and time again — accounted for 80 percent of total sales.  They were successful because they “Never Gave Up”.

We, as Christians can learn something about persistence from these results, as well.  Jesus taught a valuable lesson about prayer using a parable about a persistent widow, who complained repeatedly to a judge until he granted her the outcome she sought (Luke 18:1-5). The point of Jesus’ story was that if a judge who “did not fear God nor regard man” could be swayed to action by persistence, all the more will a loving God be persuaded by a child of His who pleads insistently for relief.

But the lesson has another application as well. Sometimes in reaching out to people with the gospel, or inviting them to worship with us; we give up too quickly. We might approach a person once and if he or she shows little interest, we abandon hope of being successful. So we stop trying.