A salesman on my team was foot-blitzing one afternoon. Entering one of many small businesses that day he was greeted by a “lets get rid of this guy” employee. As my salesman was about to leave… a salesperson from their company pipes up and offers to meet with us. She asked who the decision maker was and called me. Her offer was to listen to our offering if we would listen to hers. I am truly impressed!
I was out on a closing appointment with a sales professional that had been in the industry for some time. As we were sitting across from the potential customer I noticed a competitors card sitting on his desk. My immediate gut feeling was that we were not going to win this deal after all. Chit chat and niceties prevailed but no one was getting to the point of this meeting. I couldn’t handle it anymore and simply asked the client if we were going to be awarded the deal. The customer unblinkingly said no. Looking at the salesman I could see shock and disbelief. Definitely an awkward moment.
I’m cruising along thinking things are going well when a call comes into my office. “Chris, can you come see me”. Entering my bosses office I can immediately sense this is not going to be a normal meeting. I am right. After the “you have been laid-off” statement my mind went numb. Wow, I did not see that coming. They didn’t replace my position and I received a wonderful letter of recommendation but reality was sinking in fast. I was unemployed and job hunting sucks.
Have you ever dealt with a salesperson that was less than and pretty sure they were winging it? No real substance and professionalism? Not confidence inspiring and definitely not an evangelist for their offering? Pushy, almost panicked, to make a sale? Maybe you’ve found yourself winging it? How does this happen! Well, there’s actually a good explanation and it has to do with sales training.
