敢于要求 Ask, Ask, Ask!

屈联西

The greatest saleswoman in the world today doesn't mind if you call her a girl. That's because Markita Andrews has generated more than eighty thousand dollars selling Girl Scout cookies since she was seven years old.
    如果你称呼当今世界最伟大的女推销员为“小丫头”，她也不会介意。因为玛奇塔•安德鲁斯自7岁起，便以卖女童军饼干赚进了8万多美金。
Going door-to-door after school, the painfully shy Markita transformed herself into a cookie-selling dynamo when she discovered, at age 13, the secret of selling.
　　玛奇塔13岁那年发现了推销的秘诀后，便在放学后挨家挨户推销饼干。原本害羞得要命的玛奇塔，后来竟变成卖饼干的高手。
It starts with desire. Burning, white-hot desire.
　  这一切都起始于渴望——炽热的渴望。
For Markita and her mother, who worked as a waitress in New York after her husband left them when Markita was eight years old, their dream was to travel the globe. "I'll work hard to make enough money to send you to college," her mother said one day. "You'll go to college and when you graduate, you'll make enough money to take you and me around the world. Okay?"
　　对玛奇塔和她的母亲而言，她们的梦想就是能环游世界。玛奇塔的父亲在她8岁时抛下了她们母女俩，之后，玛奇塔的母亲便在纽约当服务生糊口。有一天，玛奇塔的母亲对她说：“我会努力赚钱让你上大学，等你大学毕业后，你就可以赚足够的钱让我们去环游世界，好不好？”
So at age 13 when Markita read in her Girl Scout magazine that the Scout who sold the most cookies would win an all-expenses-paid trip for two around the world, she decided to sell all the Girl Scout cookies she could -- more Girl Scout cookies than anyone in the world, ever.
　　因此当13岁的玛奇塔从女童军杂志上获知，卖最多饼干的童子军能赢得免费双人环游世界的奖励，她就决定尽全力卖出女童军饼干，她要缔造史无前例的女童军饼干销售纪录！
But desire alone is not enough. To make her dream come true, Markita knew she needed a plan.
　　但光有欲望是不够的，为了使梦想实现，玛奇塔知道她必须有个计划。
"Always wear your right outfit, your professional garb," her aunt advised. "When you are doing business, dress like you are doing business. Wear your Girl Scout uniform. When you go up to people in their tenement buildings at 4:30 or 6:30 and especially on Friday night, ask for a big order. Always smile, whether they buy or not, always be nice. And don't ask them to buy your cookies; ask them to invest."
　　玛奇塔的姑姑建议她：“每次都要穿着得体，穿上代表你专业精神的服装。做生意就要有做生意的样子。穿上女童军制服，在四点半或六点半去推销，尤其是在礼拜五晚上去公寓楼里推销时，你要请他们多订些饼干，并随时面带微笑，不管他们买不买，你都要彬彬有礼。不要跟他们说‘买’，而是请他们‘投资’。”
That was the initial lesson for Markita’s big deals. She started out by knocking on doors in the Lincoln Towers apartment complex where she lives with her mother, aunt and uncle. "One of the doormen said, 'If I get any complaints about you knocking on doors, I'm going to bring you down to the lobby,'" Andrews recalls. Sure enough, there was a complaint, and she was demoted to the lobby. But it turned out to be a boon. It just happened to be when people were coming home from the office, and she sold to 45 people that afternoon. She adopted this strategy and has used it ever since.
这就成了玛奇塔“大买卖”的启蒙一课。玛奇塔和妈妈、阿姨、姨父住在林肯塔住宅区，她先从这里开始挨家挨户地敲门。“一个看门人说，‘如果有任何一个住房投诉你，我就会赶你下楼。’”玛奇塔后来回忆道。不出所料，有一名住户投诉了，所以她就被赶到门厅里。但是谁料因祸得福，当时刚好是人们下班回家的高峰期，所以那天下午她赢得了45个顾客。此后玛奇塔采用这一战略，并一直延用至今。
Wearing her uniform helped attract attention when Markita was selling in an office. During this period, Markita also learned to set short- and long- term goals and keep good records. If she did not reach her goal of 100 on one day, she would work harder the next day and tried to think of new places to go; Sometimes, if customers said they had paid for an order and Andrews had doubts, she checked her spiral notebook of all the people she had sold to, what they bought and what order form they were on. When people did not want to buy and cookies, she would try to convince them what a good cause Girl Scouts are. But if they still refused to buy and didn't wish to make a contribution, Martkita politely thanked them. "I know there are people who don't want to buy, but there are a lot of people who do, and I look forward to the people who do want to buy." She says.
在办公室里卖饼干，一身制服令玛奇塔成了人们的关注点。在这期间，她还学会了制定短期和长期计划，并且详细地记录销售情况。如果她一天没有达到100盒饼干的任务，就会有第二天更卖命些，尽量想出些新的地方去卖；有时，若顾客说自己已经买过了，而玛奇塔自己也记不清时，她就会查一下笔记本，上面有所有人的销售清单，包括他们买了什么，是以何种方式定购的。若有人不想买饼干，她就会极力说服他们，宣传女童军是十分高尚的事业。但若他们仍不买帐，不愿做出任何贡献，玛奇塔则会礼貌地表示感谢。她说：“我知道总会有人不愿掏钱，但是还有许许多多愿意帮我的，我会向前看，相信有愿意买饼干的人。”

屈联西

"I know there are people who don't want to buy, but there are a lot of people who do, and I look forward to the people who do want to buy." She says.
她说：“我知道总会有人不愿掏钱，但是还有许许多多愿意帮我的，我会向前看，相信有愿意买饼干的人。”