Victor – he liked the shave so much he bought the company – Kiam sells with a belief in his product that rivals any Super Bowl pep rally. From his humble beginnings running a one-car rental business in France during a student stint in Paris, he has scaled the corporate heights and now views the consumer products arena from a lofty perch atop his $300 million Remington empire. That first car was a Simca, by the way, and Kiam’s first entry into the biographical literary scene was as successful as a sheep shearing in New Zealand. Which brings the reader to another neat new idea from Remington, their fuzz remover, one of many products introduced since Remington’s successful turnaround at the hands of this energetic sales and marketing guru. In this exclusive PSP interview, Kiam talks about his ups and downs and shares his sales strategies for success.

PSP: Do you consider yourself successful?

Victor Kiam: Yes. I have climbed a few mountains and I would like to climb a few more.

PSP: And ridden through a few valleys too?

Victor Kiam: Anybody who tells you that it’s all up is kidding you or himself.

PSP: What suggestions do you have for someone who wants to succeed?

Victor Kiam: Well, first the desire has to be there. Some people say, “At the end of the day, I’d like to be able to look back at what I did and feel good about it and about myself.” If you can be proud of what you did whether you had success or failure, then you can go on to greater success in the future. The only things that I have regretted were when I didn’t try things. I have never regretted trying and failing. I have regretted looking back and not trying. And that’s the secret of success – to keep on trying.

PSP: Did you have a sales goal when you started with Remington?

Victor Kiam: No, actually I reduced the sales.

PSP: Why did you do that?

Victor Kiam: I used to be highly motivated by sales volume as a measure of success. But it really isn’t.

PSP: What is the measure?

Victor Kiam: Profits. When I was out in the field initially, you were measured by your sales quota. It took maturing over a period of time for me to recognize that sales growth without profits didn’t mean a thing and that ultimately it was the profit performance fueled by sales, which you had to keep your eye on. The main goal when I got to Remington was to turn it around and not lose money. I really didn’t care if we did X in sales or Y in sales. There were certain minimums we had to achieve, otherwise we wouldn’t make money because we had overheads. But success for me when I went into Remington was turning it around. That was the first step. Then after two or three years, I recognized that we had an opportunity. We started out with a tremendous differential between us and Norelco. They had a market share of some 60-odd percent. We had 19 percent. In 1987 at the end of the first quarter they had 40 percent and we had 37.3 percent.

PSP: Why did you make the decision to slow down the frequency of new product introductions at Remington?

Victor Kiam: I felt we were in the shaver business. I wanted to make it successful before worrying about something else. So many people who aren’t doing a good job in one thing look at something else and say, “Now, if we could get into that, boy, what a situation we would have.” What usually happens is, if you haven’t made it where you are and get into something else, you’ll turn that off, too.

PSP: Bloom where you’re planted?

Victor Kiam: Yes, before you go planting something else. And then you’ve got to keep your composure. If things are great, you can’t get euphoric because your people will think they can do no wrong and they’ll get careless. If things are lousy, you can’t start moaning and groaning and saying we’re going to be out of business next week. If you do, your people will get depressed and stop trying.

PSP: This is something I rarely hear, and I’m glad you mentioned it because in the beginning of our conversation you said you had been through ups and downs and if you think it’s all peaks you’re mistaken. But to balance out this emotional cycle within yourself is a very key ingredient. People make terrible decisions in the euphoric phase.

Victor Kiam: Yes, you’ve got to be careful to make sure that you don’t feel that you’re infallible.

PSP: How do you develop this self checking ability?

Victor Kiam: In my case it came through experience. Initially, I would get ecstatic if I walked out with a huge order. Then it might be tough to accept other disappointing results when they came. Finally, you learn to be able to cope with either adversity or success. You realize that whatever it is, it’s not the last thing that’s going to happen for you.

PSP: That implies a kind of patience for suffering through the rough spots knowing that the rewards will be there at the end.

Victor Kiam: I think you’ve said the exact right word. It is patience. And this applies to business, too – keeping placid in the storm.

PSP: When you fail and feel disappointed, what are your self-recovery techniques?

Victor Kiam: You have to take another tack. I try in every possible way to succeed with a goal or plan I’ve set, but sometimes it just won’t happen. I may blame my selling technique but I also realize the other guys aren’t so smart either. And when a deal collapses, I know I just have to move on.

PSP: Then how do you deal with disappointment? It’s the toughest thing and nobody really has good answers.

Victor Kiam: You don’t. You just have to pick yourself up off the floor. You have to have enough intestinal fortitude to realize that you are going to make mistakes. At Playtex the president was a marvelous guy but there was a marketing manager between the president and me. He was a terrific marketing guy but he wasn’t a visionary at all. The president was a visionary. He allowed people to make mistakes, which is a wonderful thing, and I hope I’m allowing my people to make mistakes. I don’t want them to make big ones but I want them to learn from them. The president of Playtex taught me that. A disappointment is only the emotional residue left after the mistake has been made. Neither are permanent and both serve as useful learning tools for success.

PSP: If you don’t try new things, you’ll never grow, but if you make mistakes and don’t get up and try again with a positive attitude, then you’ll stay disappointed and you won’t grow either.

Victor Kiam: Exactly. And generally you are not as successful if you do things the way everybody else has. If you do, you are a “Me too” and you are just another little follower. That’s why mistakes are important to allow. They’re the road away from the following herd.

PSP: In your book, Going For It, you describe selling as a noble profession. Why?

Victor Kiam: To me it is noble because of the relationships. First, you are convincing somebody else to do something that they may not have intended to do. Second, you are dealing one on one with another individual and building a relationship in which there is longevity. You are going to be back in selling again and again and again. And it is up to you to establish ties that bind without breaking.

PSP: You started out selling…

Victor Kiam: …cokes on the street down in New Orleans.

PSP: What did your father do?

Victor Kiam: My father was a lawyer when I was born in Louisiana. He graduated from Tulane but he got wipes out in the Crash. When he and my mother split up, my father left New Orleans and went to New York and then my mother went to California.

PSP: You went with her?

Victor Kiam: No, I stayed in New Orleans and was brought up by my grandparents.

PSP: When I read the many articles published about you, I got the impression that you have made a lot of sacrifices for your success. Do you feel that the willingness to sacrifice is one of the key ingredients in success?

Victor Kiam: Yes, because if you have certain goals you have to decide what you are going to do to achieve them. Let’s say you started a new publishing venture and your first issue is supposed to come out on the first of the next month and it is the 31st. You realize that you are going to have to work all night to get it out. And a friend of yours calls up and said, “I’ve got two tickets to tonight’s World Series game. How about it?” You have a choice. Now the success oriented individual realizes that going to the World Series is probably a helluva lot more fun. However, is he going to make the sacrifice and stay there and get his magazine out on time, deliver it on time and have satisfied customers, or have to make excuses two weeks later for why he was late?

PSP: Did hardship prepare you to put aside momentary pleasure for long term fulfillment?

Victor Kiam: That also came from my Harvard Business School experience. I decided that I wanted to be as good as the next guy and the only way I knew how to do it was through hard work.

PSP: What does it mean to you to be number one?

Victor Kiam: It is a milestone, a plateau. It’s like if you are in the Himalayas and you climb the first mountain. When you get to the top, you say, “I made it!” That is one goal. Now maybe you won’t climb the second mountain but as least you have the satisfaction of knowing that you achieved the first.

PSP: In your book, you say that there are three criteria for success: 70 percent hard work, 20 percent talent and 10 percent luck. What percentage would you give to the ability to suffer? Is that a separate figure?

Victor Kiam: No, it would be included in the hard work.

PSP: How much would it be?

Victor Kiam: That varies dramatically from person to person. I have learned to take the hard knocks and shrug them off. A lot of that is because I have security so that I say to myself, “Oh well, at least I will eat a full meal tomorrow and it doesn’t matter.” I’m not striving for any personal goals anymore in the business sense.

PSP: In your book, you also say that people admire those who take risks. Do you feel yourself taking risks because you want to be admired?

Victor Kiam: No, I take risks because I think they are justified, not because of admiration.

PSP: How would you define leadership?

Victor Kiam: I think it is the ability to instill direction and desire in other people and to arrive at a decision without creating any antagonism. I think the leader sets the example. Especially in the way you go out of your way to downplay your own importance in whatever decision is made. Even though you might really have pushed it, you try to give other people as much credit as possible for their contribution to whatever idea it was. You try to build people up and not knock them down.

PSP: What if someone comes to you with a bad idea?

Victor Kiam: You make sure that even if the idea is bad, you don’t destroy it. Through your analysis of what is wrong with the idea, you help the individual learn something from the experience of having his idea turned down.

PSP: How do you apply leadership in dealing with difficult people?

Victor Kiam: Well, true leadership is expressed in the way a leader exercises authority and power. Thirty years ago, I wanted to prove that my way was the way to go on a particular question. And I would have pushed point because I wanted to prove myself and make a mark. But with experience, I now realize it is not all-important. We’re going to be around together for a long time – whether it is a manager I have on my staff or a difficult customer or prospect. I would think that the worst way to set an example of leadership is to push your point over someone else’s idea just because you have the power. I’m not infallible either and maybe I should listen to all the ideas around me. One of them may turn out to be very profitable.

PSP: It’s the same as the measured response to a sale. You can’t high-pressure a sale and you can’t low-pressure a sale.

Victor Kiam: That’s right. If you figure, I’m not leaving here without an order on this particular trip, you may harm future relationships. Sometimes it’s better to walk out and say, “Look, I think you’re wrong, but I’m not going to argue with you anymore. But I’m coming back.”

PSP: Right. But by doing that, you really show the prospect that you have a long-term commitment to his needs.

Victor Kiam: Yes, and also that you’re tenacious. You don’t necessarily agree with the other fellow, but you’re broad enough to listen to his views.

PSP: As a sales manager, what tools did you use to assert your leadership?

Victor Kiam: First was to set the example. I never asked anybody to do anything I wasn’t willing to do. And in a lot of cases, it created a hardship for me. I worked from the time the first store opened until the time the last store closed. So many managers say to a salesman in the field, “I’ve got a big appointment tomorrow.” First of all, you never say to a man that you have a big appointment tomorrow with someone else. When you are there, his account is the most important thing in your life if you are a manager. Now you and he might be calling on Sadie’s Corner Gift Store and the next day you have a date with Sears in Chicago and if you spend the whole day when you are with this guy saying, “Gee, I’ve got to think about that date with Sears,” you just denigrate him, denigrate the importance of what he is doing.

PSP: How do you motivate yourself?

Victor Kiam: I always have a long-range goal. I wasn’t working to get a promotion. I just said, “I am shooting for the stars. I may only it the moon but I am going to shoot for the top.” I shot for it, therefore I never had to worry about motivating myself.

PSP: Did anyone influence your thinking in a particularly positive way when you were starting out?

Victor Kiam: I had a professor at the Business School named Church Dorio who was unique and different. He gave me insight, but he was extremely egotistical. Dorio gave me insights and also set the vista that says don’t try to do everything the same way everybody else does just because it’s being done that way. If there was a role model in my life, it was the former president of Playtex, Wally Hines, who died recently.

PSP: How did Wally Hines help you?

Victor Kiam: Well, he set an example. He was extremely tight-fisted on everything. He was running an enormous company. I always liked the fact that he was also the freethinker and would try to figure out ways to do things differently, and better, of course. But even if they weren’t maybe sometimes better, they’d be different, so they would stand out. He also had a willing ear. There was an organization but if you had a great idea and your boss was turned off so that you had no means of expressing that idea, Hines was always willing to listen and if he agreed with you, he thought it should be explored even more or even pursued. He was a genius in developing a strategy to have the idea come out without his involvement.

PSP: What do you feel are the characteristics of a successful salesperson?

Victor Kiam: Number one: Have faith in your product. Make sure that the product will produce whatever you or your company says it will produce to the ultimate consumer. Number two: Make sure that you’re there to back him up. Approach this as a partnership. And always listen to what your prospect wants. If you get out of him that he wants the top of your line, gear yourself to those desires.

PSP: Are you saying that you’ve got to be more interested in the buyer than in pushing your product?

Victor Kiam: No – as interested. It’s a double-edge. Balance the two. The other thing that’s important, too, is to have a “good news” story. Your call should be an upbeat one. You want the other fellow to do something which he may not necessarily have intended to do before you walked in there. And therefore you want him to be in a frame of mind which is open and not closed.

PSP: I see you as a showman as well as a salesman.

Victor Kiam: Well, I think in everything, there are two sides. You’ve got to start off with a good piece of meat, a steak, that’s your product or service. Now the way you present it is the sizzle. You can’t have a success if you haven’t got the steak. And you won’t have success if you don’t put any sizzle on the steak.

PSP: How do you sell the sizzle?

Victor Kiam: I believe you should try to get the attention of as many of your customers’ senses as possible. Normally, in selling, you use only one sense, which is sound. But I’ve always believed in putting what you’re saying on paper and giving this chap a brochure or a selling sheet or whatever. If the fellow is reading it at the same time as you’re discussing it, you’ve occupied two of his senses. Now at the same time, it’s even better if he can smell it and taste it and feel it. Give the product to him so he can feel it, and you’ve got three of the senses occupied. Then there’s a much greater remembrance factor.

PSP: How did you recognize this selling secret?

Victor Kiam: Well, I’ve called on people who were glancing at papers at the same time that I was talking to them about my product.

PSP: You’ve got to be very sharp.

Victor Kiam: And try to bring the other fellow in by getting him to agree with the basic principles of what you’re doing. For example, if it’s now Christmas time and you want a big Christmas order, instead of saying to him point blank, “Now it’s Christmas time and it’s going to be a big buying time. Here’s the order I suggest which is three times what you gave me last time,” you come in and say, “Well, Charlie, now is your big season. How much more business do you do at Christmas than you do in July?”

PSP: Set the stage.

Victor Kiam: Yes. He says, “Three times.” You say, “Whoa, three times. Well, I hadn’t really expected it to be that big.” He’s the one who told you two and a half times more than you thought it was.

PSP: What was the biggest sale? One that you were really proud of?

Victor Kiam: When I was working for a cosmetics firm and we came out with a product which was supposed to go into the little lines of a woman’s skin and reduce the shadows. I was having some pretty good luck with it in Cleveland at a chain store and I went in to see the buyer and I gave the pitch and he said, “Well, it sounds pretty good, I think we’ll buy a little.” I said, “A little. You guys can do better than that,” and I gave my ultimate pitch. I ended up pitching the product to a man named Herb Durr who later became president of the company I was selling to and he got all excited about the product. The next thing I knew, we were in the president’s office. And we set up a promotion in every single store with demonstrators in about half of them. I went around to all the department stores and said, “Hey, this is what they’re doing at Gray Drug. You guys can’t let them take this product away from you.” And the next thing that happened was I sold more than any three or four other territories put together. And because of that, we got the national break.

PSP: Do you remember how much it was in dollars?

Victor Kiam: Maybe $100,000.00. That was back in 1951.

PSP: Did you get commissions on that?

Victor Kiam: Very little. I didn’t do it for the commission, I did it for the success. I was paid a salary as I recall, of $62.00 a week. And I think I got something like a half of one percent of sales.

PSP: Opportunity always seems to favor the one who is ready for it.

Victor Kiam: And a lot of people have opportunities they never even recognize.

PSP: How do you get better at recognizing opportunity?

Victor Kiam: Well, I think you have to develop a mental approach that says, “How can this be utilized?” Sometimes the ideas that you look at are not the ideas that ultimately you act upon but may lead to a better idea.

PSP: What is your biggest weakness?

Victor Kiam: Probably trying to do too many things. We are such a diverse company and if there’s an opportunity, I try to seize it, and I probably try to seize too many of them. Another weakness is not having enough people working for me. That goes with trying to do too much. And I fly tourist and rent economy cars. I’ve had disputes with my board of directors over this.

PSP: Don’t you also use a limo every once in a while?

Victor Kiam: Never. Not unless somebody else is paying.

PSP: Really?

Victor Kiam: No, Sir. I don’t think I’ve had a limousine pick me up at my expense, except one about four or five years ago during a blizzard in Chicago when we were at a housewares show, and I didn’t think we could get any cabs, and everybody was there, so I rented a limo.

PSP: I was under the impression that you had a chauffeur.

Victor Kiam: Oh, I have a driver. But it’s my car – a 1976 Cadillac. It has over 220,000 miles on it now.

PSP: What has given you the greatest satisfaction in the last 10 years?

Victor Kiam: I think the way our kids turned out. I couldn’t ask for a better progression on their part. And the fact that the whole family seems to be, at least at this point, stable and everybody enjoys everybody else. That’s what life is all about.

PSP: That’s a wonderful outlook. And a lot of people do not realize that the family is really a source of tremendous meaning.

Victor Kiam: When we’re gone, that’s the only thing we’re going to leave behind. You want to do the best job you can to make the next generation a little bit better than the previous one.

PSP: Thank you.