You've got to be good at creating relationships, good at lining things up, good at understanding what it takes to make something happen.

CG: You've got to love selling in order to be good at it.

GJ: What's required of a person to be good at selling?.

They taught me a lot, but most of all they taught me that there's nothing wrong with selling if you're selling the right product to the right person. I was blessed to have the guys a Bear Stearns as mentors. It's easy to talk about business theory and production time and just-in-time development.

CG: Business school professors don't take selling seriously because they don't know how to sell.

GJ: With that in mind, why don't business schools treat sales seriously?.

It's one of the highest callings that you can aspire to. I've never considered selling anything other than profession, but it's more than that. The guys in compliance don't have anything to measure until a salesperson sells something. The guys in production can't produce until a salesperson sells something. Until a salesperson gets an order nobody in the company has a job. Salespeople are the most important people in any organization.

Chris Gardner: Let me explain something to you.

Why aren't people in sales always considered professional? Let's start with a subject that's really important to Sales Machine readers.

Geoffrey James: Chris, thanks for taking the time to talk with me.

So it is with great joy that post it as a holiday present for all of you. This brief conversation was one of the most enjoyable and enlightening interview I've ever had the pleasure of conducting. Readers, I have interviewed over a hundred assorted gurus and motivation speakers. He's also got two excellent books out The Pursuit of Happyness and Start Where You Are, which are available as signed copies on his website. He's now involved in numerous media and public speaking projects, such as the Take Control Of Your Life tour, where he'll be appearing on January 16th.

Earlier today I spent a half hour chatting with Chris Gardner, the sales professional portrayed by Will Smith in the movie 'Pursuit of Happyness.' As anyone who's seen the movie knows, he's an inspiring role model, but the movie only documents his early years.

Chris gardner the pursuit of happyness