It’s Still a Miracle

The Xerox Monk was an overnight success and Jack Eagle – after thirty-four years – became a star at last.

After growing up in a “not very affluent area” of Brooklyn, Eagle dropped out of high school to run away with the Muggsy Spanier Band as a trumpet player. Always the funny man in the group, he gradually switched to comedy (he was almost pushed into it by now-famous Buddy Hackett, a friend from the old days in Brooklyn).

For 10 years, Eagle did stand-up comedy with partner Frank E. Man. When they parted, Eagle went solo as a Borscht Belt* comic. He did years of opening the show, but stardom eluded him until he auditioned for the part of Brother Dominic.

Eagle’s cherubic 5’4″ 210-pound frame and expressive face that begged to be placed under a friar’s cassock turned the Monk idea into a miracle for Xerox, and more importantly for its salespeople. Now Brother Dom regularly tours the country doing trade shows for Xerox as well as calling on accounts with local reps. Eagle appears at staid corporate sales meetings in full Brother Dom garb, and hits the prospect with now-famous one-liners.

In this exclusive interview with PSP, Jack Eagle – the “Brother Dom Phenom” – describes how salespeople can use humor, determination and a positive attitude to succeed in life and sales.

PSP: People remember you from a Xerox copiers commercial that’s now nine years old. Why?

Jack Eagle: Well, that commercial was an incredible success. It’s in the Clio Hall of Fame. It swept 23 major advertising awards in 1976 and people liked it. We were selling a big machine – the 9200 is a $90,000 item – not something that fits into everyone’s living room or kitchen. But that ad made people happy.

PSP: How did you get involved in dealing directly with customers?

Jack Eagle: One day Neidham Harper & Steers (the agency that came up with the Monk idea) called me and asked if I would be interested in going to a trade show for them – the In-Plant Manager’s Association Show in Dallas – where Xerox would present their new 9200 high speed duplicator. Xerox was not really accepted in the in-plant area where you had ink and water, big presses and large companies with large print shops.

They made up some posters for me to sign but they had no idea what I – as a former comedian – could do. A comedian can do a terrific schtick** at a show.

PSP: So you did your “schtick.”

Jack Eagle: Yes. The people at the show weren’t initially responsive to Xerox. But they did respond to Brother Dominic, to the commercial, and the success of the commercial. I was like the belly dancer at the fair…

PSP: You went in dressed as Brother Dominic and improvised.

Jack Eagle: Right. And it worked out fine. I remember the first poster didn’t even have “It’s a miracle” on top of it. So I’d write it in. Later I told the agency, “Look, that’s your catch phrase, because that’s what everyone is saying to me.” It was like “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing,” or “Try it, you’ll like it” . . .

PSP: Or “Where’s the beef?”

Jack Eagle: Exactly. “It’s a miracle” became a phrase everybody was using. I understand that when Tip O’Neill finally got an energy bill signed he looked up and said, “It’s a miracle.” Basically, I put my show business experience into the character of Brother Dom, who in essence is like me – a mischievous, lovable little guy.

PSP: How did the sales calls start?

Jack Eagle: Out of boredom. There was a seminar that Xerox ran for printers – it was a whole thing about turnaround time, and why they needed a 9200 for their shop. I wouldn’t say it was dull, but it wasn’t exciting either. To beef it up, they had me introduce the leader and do ten minutes of jokes. Then I’d wait in my hotel room while the guy did his thing for a couple of hours. Later they’d bring me back down to take pictures and sign autographs.

PSP: So during the actual seminar, you were just killing time.

Jack Eagle: Right. But one day I said to a sales manager, “You know it’s boring as hell going back upstairs. Why don’t you bring me out to meet a couple of customers? You own my body for the day anyway.” Eventually those visits became more important than the seminars.

PSP: It was your idea, then, to start the customer calls?

Jack Eagle: Well, no one said, “Gee, we ought to take you out to see customers.” That’s something that salespeople must realize. Your job description can’t give you inspiration. That’s something that people create. That’s what can make you a success.

PSP: Has your early background influenced your success?

Jack Eagle: The fact that Jack Eagle is Jewish and from Brooklyn had nothing to do with the miracle of Brother Dominic (chuckles). But then again, that’s a miracle in itself. Someone once said in a newspaper article, “Where else but in America could a Jewish father be a Catholic Brother!”

PSP: Were you always a comedian?

Jack Eagle: No. I left high school at the age of 16 and ran away with the Muggsy Spanier band as a trumpet player. For about 10 years, I played professionally – with society bands, jazz bands, Dixieland bands, Latin bands, club date bands. I ran the gamut.

PSP: How did you get into comedy?

Jack Eagle: I was working at a club where Buddy Hackett was the comedian. We both lived in the same neighborhood so we rode home together – he had a car and I didn’t. He’d say, “You’re funny! You’re really funny!” So one day, when we didn’t have much of an audience, he said, “I want the trumpet player to come down here and do a couple of jokes.” I wasn’t that good but it broke the ice.

PSP: How long did you do stand-up comedy before you got the Monk part?

Jack Eagle: I was part of an act called Eagle and Man for about 10 years, then I went solo for awhile, playing clubs in the Borscht Belt, Miami Beach, and Las Vegas.

PSP: How did you hear about the Monk part?

Jack Eagle: I was with CMA – a large agency in New York, and they called me. I went down, did my schtick, and forgot about it. I heard from them about a week later for a call back and a few days after that I was Brother Dominic.

PSP: Can you draw a parallel between comedy and selling?

Jack Eagle: I sell myself to the audience all the time. If you can sell with a sense of humor, you’ve got a tremendous advantage. I don’t mean just going in and telling a few jokes. Know your stuff, know your business, know your figures, but be light. People want to see you if you bring them joy. They’ll say, “Hey, Charlie’s coming – you know, that salesman from Xerox. He’s a nice guy; he’s funny.”

When you can get in and do an opening line and break a guy up, believe me, when you open up your case of samples, he’s going to buy something. You’ve already made him happy; you’ve already given him something.

PSP: So you think that a sense of humor is one of the most important qualities a salesperson can have.

Jack Eagle: Absolutely – if it’s natural. It’s like being sexy. If it’s not done right, it’s silly.

When I’m signing autographs at a trade show, it’s not all business – I don’t just scribble my name and say, “Next.” Sometimes the lines get to be 30 people deep, so I keep a little schtick going on all the time.

PSP: Can you give me an example?

Jack Eagle: If there’s a chubby person, I might say, “Ah, I see you’ve trimmed down, too!” Or if it’s a thin person, I’ll say, “I ate more for breakfast than you weigh!” I’ll have some people standing around who aren’t even waiting in line – they hang around just to laugh.

PSP: What is the most important thing you’ve learned from your experience in going on sales calls?

Jack Eagle: Always reach the highest level executive possible. Whether I go with a sales rep for Xerox, or the office manager of the company I’m visiting, I always bring him or her up to a higher level of contact. Most salespeople are stuck at a purchasing agent’s level. And unfortunately, the purchasing agent thinks he’s at a fairly high level – he’s not.

When I get to a vice-president and introduce the rep, and the salesperson and the VP exchange business cards, that executive is saying “Call me.” Now the purchasing agent doesn’t have a strangle-hold anymore – he’s not the only guy the rep can talk to. You need that leverage.

PSP: How can salespeople deal with companies that buy from friends instead of choosing the best products for their money?

Jack Eagle: I use an analogy. What if I own a night club and I want to fill the house. I can choose between two acts – Mort Sahl and Phyllis Diller. Personally I love Mort Sahl, and hate Phyllis Diller, but Mort Sahl isn’t going to fill my club. So I’d book Phyllis Diller, and I’d buy Mort Sahl’s records or invite him over to my house for dinner, but I wouldn’t book him in my club.

PSP: Why have you been so successful on sales calls?

Jack Eagle: I’m not a threat. I’m not commisionable. And I can say things that Xerox reps can’t and do it under the guise of comedy. Someone will say they want an IBM Copier III and I’ll ask kiddingly, “Do you know why they call it a Copier III? Because it makes three copies and then the darn thing stops running.” So one guy once said to me, “Yeah, but George Burns used to do their commercials.” And I shot back, “Listen, even God couldn’t help that machine.”

PSP: So you can relieve some of that competitive tension.

Jack Eagle: Oh, talk about tension! The day of the Three Mile Island disaster, I visited Nuclear Assurance Company of Atlanta – Three Mile Island was their account and you can imagine how terrific they felt that morning. I walked in not knowing that this was going on.

The head guy said, “Brother Dominic, what do you think they ought to do with that gas bubble at Three Mile Island?” and I said, “Have they tried burping him?” It broke that bubble of tension for them and the rest of the visit went well.

PSP: An article in Madison Avenue (August 1982) stated that are best in “can’t close, can’t get to see, and no way to save” situations. Can you give our readers some examples of these? First, “can’t close” . . .

Jack Eagle: I remember going to a large chemical company once. There were two orders of 9500’s in a purchasing guy’s desk and the reps couldn’t get them out of there. At a trade show, the guy who ran their print shop asked me to come by. When I got there, the rep pointed out the guy responsible for the orders. I called him aside and said, “Are you the guy with those 9500 orders in his desk? Do you want those machines? You know, if you don’t get those orders out of there quick, you’re not going to get them because there aren’t going to be any more available.” So he said, “Harriet, go get me those orders.” He signed them while I was standing there.

PSP: How about “can’t get to see?”

Jack Eagle: With the Monk, people who are not available suddenly become available. I once took a print shop manager up to meet the president of State Auto of Ohio in Columbus – this guy had never met the president. I said, “You know, this guy’s doing a hell of a job for you downstairs. He’s got the first 9200 in the whole city and he’s really thinking ahead.” This guy got a promotion and he told me, “You got me that job. By my walking you around that day, I got more visibility that I ever had in the 10 years I’ve been with the company.”

Or I’ll go with a rep into a negative situation and talk to people who don’t expect me to know anything about the products. When I tell a large company about something that’s happened at a rival corporation they sit up and take notice. If you go to a big law firm and tell them that a smaller law firm has a piece of equipment that they don’t have, they go crazy.

So I bring the sales rep or the company employee up to a higher level. I cut through all the garbage.

PSP: And “no way to save” situations?

Jack Eagle: There are some situations in sales when you’ve gone to the limit – you’ve got to go above someone’s head. The deal is lost so you might as well shoot for it.

We went to a company one time where the purchasing agent and the lady who ran the print shop were in cahoots. They lied about figures and they didn’t want Xerox in there. There were 30 old ladies running around in funny blue coats but they would only need six people if they had the right equipment. Well, this company sells knowledge – they’re a credit record company – so they need information momentarily. Yet they’re in the Middle Ages in their print shop.

So I met with the company president, who’d never even seen the print shop, and said, “Let’s go down and take a look.” I told him, “You’re going to see a place that the Smithsonian would put on display to show what a print shop in the early 1900’s looked like.” He laughed – he thought I was joking. Sure enough, when he saw it he said, “I don’t believe it, I just don’t believe it.”

PSP: What about companies that think they have enough equipment?

Jack Eagle: I have another analogy for that. Once, I went to a party for all the contractors of Delta Airlines. The president thanked me for coming and said to call him if I was going to be in Atlanta. Well, we hadn’t done any business with them in Atlanta, so I told the branch manager that I could get him in to see this guy. He said, “Yeah, sure.”

Well, we did see him – the very next morning – amidst posters and buttons and photographers. The president told me how lucky his miracle button had been: “We’ve had more people come through this airport than any airport in the history of air traffic.” So I piped up, “How come you don’t have any of our miracle machines in your print shop?” He told me, “Oh, we’ve got lots of Xerox stuff.” That’s when I gave him the analogy.

“No, sir, you’ve got trains in your print shop. If I lived in Atlanta and wanted to go to California would I take a train? No, I’d take a Delta jet! You’ve got trains – offsets – in your print shop.” You know he turned to one of his senior vice presidents and said, “We have trains in our print shop!” It became a standard joke in the industry and it made its point.

PSP: Did they ever buy any jets?

Jack Eagle: Well, they made some headway. They bought some 55 Marathon copiers, but they’re still not up to speed for the size of their organization. I made another visit in December and this time I spoke with their chief financial officer, who just happens to be from Brooklyn. The sales rep for the area is a young guy who’s never gotten past the purchasing officer. So we went in and had some pictures taken for their in-house magazine. I introduced the rep and the financial officer handed his business card to him and said, “Call me and tell me what we need.” We’ve cracked through. You’ve always got to shoot for the top. That’s what gets results.

PSP: How do you connect with the salespeople?

Jack Eagle: Xerox uses me in major markets. They may set me up for four or five customer calls in one day and I’ll go around with the rep for that area.

I went with one sales rep in Winston-Salem and every call we went on, he closed a machine – a 9200! That’s a big piece of equipment, and he may have been working on those accounts for six months or more. He’s now a sales manager in Houston. “I told them what I did and they hired me right away,” he said later.

PSP: Do you feel that your personal identity has suffered any from being the Monk?

Jack Eagle: People ask me that often, and I say, “Carroll O’Connor get the same question. And he waves from his private plane or smiles from his Rolls-Royce when people call him Archie.” You can’t be upset because you’ve been identified with something that’s probably been one of the best things that’s ever happened to you.

You know, people find negatives no matter what. They talk about traveling – something salespeople have to do, too. Sure it’s a pain. If you look at it as a terrible thing, though, it becomes a terrible thing. But I say, “Hey, it’s a part of what I have to do.” You accept it and do the best you can.

PSP: Just like a sales rep, you have the same product and the same basic message to convey all the time. How do you keep it fresh? What do you focus on?

Jack Eagle: I utilize the situation. Every audience is different. It’s like making love – it’s always the same, but it’s never bad. A company doesn’t stay the same either. The products change, the pricing plans change, your relationship with the customer changes – so you concentrate on the people, and what they need and want.

PSP: What is your measure of success?

Jack Eagle: I see success as people thinking well of you. I can’t think of one person in the world who can say, “I met Jack Eagle and he’s a drag.” You’ve got to do good to have good come back to you. Cause and effect really works.

PSP: Are you available for meetings and do you still perform?

Jack Eagle: I do speaking engagements and talk about inspirations, and I do it with comedy. But I’m very busy as the Monk. Don’t give people my telephone number or anything – if they want me bad enough, they’ll find me. I love you! And stay well.

PSP: Thank you.

*A resort area in New York’s Catskill Mountains long known as a breeding ground for many of this century’s big names in comedy.

**Originally a term employed by Yiddish comedians to designate a routine or piece of business used in their acts . . . The word has become part of Madison Avenue slanguage, since a schtick may help to make an actor sufficiently popular for his name to be valuable in “merchandising tie-ins.” – From Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins.