All I Needed to Know in Life I Learned Selling Door to Door [Paperback]

Robert Louis Grottke (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 7, 2006

Robert L. Grottke's All I Needed to Know, etc. is his detailed account of successfully selling vacuums as a door-to-door salesman, working his way through college, and towards a fulfilling and recognized career in sales. He shares his telling reminiscences as well as the business knowledge that he learned.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robert L. Grottke, a native of Illinois, burned a Bachelor of Science degree from Northwestern university, in Evanston, Illinois. He worked his way through college, selling Rexair vacuum cleaners, door to door. He later became a salesman with the Real Silk Hosiery Company, and proved so successful with the firm that he was made the subject of a feature article and cover picture on a magazine, "Salesman's Opportunity." He then became a Certified Public Accountant, and worked for one of the Big Eight accounting and auditing firms at the time. He is currently the Chief Financial Officer of an international food retailing group, which licenses and franchises food stores in over 30 countries around the world.

Product Details

• Paperback: 90 pages
• Publisher: BookSurge Publishing (September 7, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1419632000
• ISBN-13: 978-1419632006
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,055,097 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "All I Needed to Know in Life ..." is a simple book with a HUGE impact., January 29, 2007

By 

J. Weaver - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: All I Needed to Know in Life I Learned Selling Door to Door (Paperback)

"All I Needed to Know in Life I Learned Selling Door to Door" will teach you, educate you and entertain you -- Robert Grottke has delivered a very simple book with a HUGE impact. Everyone in the business world should read this book

All I Needed to Know in Life I Learned Selling Door to Door
by Robert Louis Grottke
Publisher: BookSurge Publishing (September 13, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN: 1419632000

"All I Needed to Know in Life I Learned Selling Door to Door" by Robert L. Grottke, is a must read. This book is a fresh, simple, honest, straight to the point, modest, and articulately detailed nonfiction literary addition to an already crowded genre of self improvement books. This book stands out high above a majority in the genre. Mr. Grottke does something in "All I Needed to Know in Life I Learned Selling Door to Door" that many others from the same genre miss - And that is he lets his experiences, knowledge and lessons from life do his talking. This is a small book that achieves in a big way. There is a lot of truth behind the old saying, "You can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?" "All I Needed to Know in Life I Learned Selling Door to Door" is a book that has clearly 'walked the walked.'

Robert Grottke is a native of Illinois and earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois. In his book "All I Needed to Know..." he retells working his way through college, selling Rexair vacuum cleaners, door to door. He later became a salesman with the Real Silk Hosiery Company, and proved so successful with that company that he was made the subject of a feature article and cover picture on the magazine, Salesman's Opportunity. Mr. Grottke then became a Certified Public Accountant, and worked for one of the Big Eight accounting and auditing firms at the time. He is currently the Chief Financial Officer of an international food retailing group, which licenses and franchises food stores in over 30 countries around the world.

"All I Needed to Know in Life I Learned Selling Door to Door" is packed with lesson after lesson. One comes away from reading this book feeling motivated and ready to take on the world. Door-to-door direct selling is not a common employment in today's high-tech world of fax machines and email. The heart of this book is simple - Nothing is better than face to face interactions. It's impossible to email a handshake or fax a smile.

One of Mr. Grottke first jobs as a young man (along with delivering newspapers and cutting grass) was a "pin boy," someone who resets the pins at the bowling alley. As the author states in the book, "This job experience provided me with some appreciation of what it meant to "work at a job.' "Working as a "pin boy" allowed. Mr. Grottke to work at his own pace and as he states was a "character building" which he says, "I needed a strong character as I started my selling career."

In the summer of 1948, between high school and college, Mr. Grottke became a door-to-door salesman selling Rexair vacuum cleaners. He used his parents' 1947 Buick where began a journey that taught him life-instructions that he still practices today as a successful CFO with an international company. "The Rexair experience taught me a lot. I grew up a bit," the author writes, "I learned that if you keep trying, even in the face of continued failure, you can ultimately succeed. I learned a little about how to persuade people to buy something, when a short time before they had no idea they were going to make a purchase. I learned how to overcome objections, to listen to the customer and to respond. I learned to think 'on my feet.'

"All I Needed to Know in Life I Learned Selling Door to Door" is a valuable book with many valuable experiences -
* A Positive attitude should be in everything you do.
* Don't be afraid to meet people.
* It's very important to gain people's trust
* Learning how to be a self-starter can last a lifetime.
* Selling products can be fun and exciting but you must first sell yourself.
* Listening is more important than speaking.
* Hard work and ambition are learned and not taught.

"All I Needed to Know in Life I Learned Selling Door to Door" will teach you, educate you and entertain you -- Robert Grottke has delivered a very simple book with a HUGE impact. Everyone in the business world should read this book - I'm very glad that I did."
[...]

2.0 out of 5 stars Poorly written, not amusing, August 23, 2011

By 

Amanda L. Richey - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: All I Needed to Know in Life I Learned Selling Door to Door (Paperback)

My husband was very excited to receive this book as he has been a door-to-door salesman for over 10 years. He always says that all of the experiences he had and heard from other salespeople would make a bestseller. The author was a D2D salesperson a VERY long time ago. My husband could not relate to the author at all. He also said that the writing was very poor and the stories are not interesting at all. Luckily, it was a short read. Perhaps he needs to sit down and pen out his own anecdotes!

4.0 out of 5 stars Good 2 Hour Read!, October 16, 2008

By 

Endangered Herculite "(on a vision quest)" (Brooklyn ,NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: All I Needed to Know in Life I Learned Selling Door to Door (Paperback)

I liked this book, It felt felt like a serindipitous conversation with an older salesman by chance, talking about their sales experiences. This was somewhat motivational also because the author(Robert Grottke) always persevered after several poor starts and eventually did very well...
Robert , thanks for the good quick read.
You'll like this if you enjoy Og Mandino's and W Clement Stone's writings...