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Retracing the steps to success
Video
By Jon Moffett
If the shoe fits, sell it.
Larry Joltin, 65, lived by that very motto, which earned him accolades beyond his wildest dreams. The former shoe salesman gained national fame when he was featured on an episode of the CBS show “On the Road” with Charles Kuralt in 1983.
Kuralt dubbed Joltin “the official, recognized champion shoe salesman.”
Twenty-five years later, “CBS Evening News” correspondent Steve Hartman revisited Joltin for a segment on the Liberty man during the network news program tonight. The Joltin interview is the third of four Kuralt segments being revisited by Hartman.
“I wanted to do this series in part because we now have a generation of young people who don’t remember Charles Kuralt,” Hartman said. “Kuralt was, and still is, a treasure who shouldn’t ever fade, and these are tremendous stories with wonderful new twists ... For those who will be hearing the name for the first time, this will be an education in the nearly lost art of TV storytelling.”
Joltin echoed Hartman’s sentiments as he recalled his time with Kuralt.
“Charles Kuralt was like a poet,” Joltin said. “He was a wonderful guy.”
Joltin was featured in a 1983 episode focusing on his success as a salesman at Reyers shoe store in Sharon, Pa. He had been named the top shoe salesman in the United States by the National Shoe Retail Association that year.
Joltin said he sold more than $625,000 worth of shoes in 1983, which he estimated would be the equivalent of nearly $2 million in sales today. He credited his sales success to his attitude toward competition.
“I want to be the best, that’s the only thing to it,” he said. “It’s like a fire burning in me. I hate to lose in anything I do, even to this day.”
Joltin grew up in Brooklyn and loved to play basketball. He said that despite his 5-foot-5-inch stature, the game was his best sport.
His competitiveness drove him to be best in sales. But Joltin said his customer service and people skills made him successful.
“A lot of it was service,” Joltin said. “It’s knowing the business and knowing how to keep customers happy.”
Joltin said he’d have eight customers lined up at one time waiting for his assistance. He would offer them a cup of coffee for their wait, and then would give them service they wouldn’t forget.
“You want to sell something with a smile on your face, and they want to have confidence in you,” he said. “I went over and beyond what was recognized as normal.”
House calls were part of the norm for Joltin, who said he would deliver shoes to homes, hospitals, restaurants or wherever they were needed.
For Joltin, there was no such thing as a typical day or schedule.
“If you want to be just average, you work 9-to-5,” Joltin said. “If you want to be the best, you work overtime.”
When asked why he worked so hard to please so many customers, especially since he was not on commission, Joltin said it was because it was the way the job was supposed to be done.
“If you sell something that day, that’s fantastic, but that’s not what it’s about,” he said. “It’s about making a sale for tomorrow. You want that person to come back to the store and come back to you. Selling one pair of shoes is wonderful, but you want them to come back the next time; you’re not just selling one item.”
Joltin said at one point he owned around 150 pairs of shoes. Today, he said he owns a modest 25 pairs.
Joltin has since left the shoe business and works with his wife of 36 years, Shelley, doing tile and grout restoration.
“It’s the hardest work I’ve ever done in my life,” Joltin said. “But that is the way the job should be done. If you’re going to do a job, do it the right way.”
jmoffett@vindy.com