Can You Hear Me Now?

Spurgeon Sells Cells....continued.

{insert photo here of Charles Spurgeon holding a cell phone...you'll have to imagine, because I haven't figured out how to do that yet.}

So I'm working as a store manager for an independently owned Cingular store. A guy comes in to look at cell phones. Normal guy...middle aged...wearing jeans...normal guy.

I go through my typical spill, showing him all the features of the phones, the rate plans, the costs, blah, blah, blah. He seems interested in getting two phones- which makes me happy. Then gives the dreaded line: "Well, I'm just checking around right now..." or something like that. Bummer. No sale.

Now, for those of you in sales, you're thinking, "Aaron, close the deal! Put on some pressure! Turn up the heat! LIE TO THE GUY OR SOMETHING TO GET HIM TO LAY DOWN THE GREENBACKS!" Ok, maybe you're not thinking that, but you are wondering why I don't try to close the sale. For the record, I do have a couple of things that I used to say to a potential customer if I didn't think they were going to buy now. But after I said those things (which were slightly persuasive but not at all high pressure) I would just let it go. It's difficult to be a high pressure salesman and believe in the sovereignty of God too.

Anyhoo...we continue talking & the guy asks me about my phone, a Nokia 7160 (I had been showing him our basic model, the 5165). Now, at the time - I guess this was in 2002 - the 7160 was the first internet phone. I thought it was pretty cool, myself. It was also cool that my boss supplied me with a phone & usually gave me the latest models since I was a store manager.

I'll bet you're wondering when I'm going to get to the part about Spurgeon. He's coming. Hang tight. By the way, if you don't know who Charles Spurgeon is, click here or here.

So I'm showing him my phone...telling him about it's internet features. I say something like, "Yeah, just the other day, I accessed the internet with my phone, and within a couple of clicks, I was reading Charles Spurgeon sermons on my phone."

"You know Spurgeon?", he said as he cocked his head back and crinkled his eyebrows.
"Yeah man. I know Spurgeon. You know Spurgeon?" I answered.
"I know Spurgeon" he said.

And the rest was easy. We just started talking about Spurgeon and good preaching and church and so on. Turns out he knew my pastor, Lance Quinn and thought highly of him. Turns out his pastor was a big Spurgeon reader as well.

Long story short, after talking about Spurgeon for a bit, he says (and I think this is an exact quote), "Alright, since you know Spurgeon, I'll go ahead and get a phone today."

Cha-Ching!$$ Can you hear me now?

As posted before, click below to access the most extensive Spurgeon archive on the web, hosted by Phil Johnson, who, Lord willing, will be speaking at our 222 (college/young adult ministry at BCLR) conference in June. Interesting guy.