Top Five Funny Sales Memories
OK, I know most lists of this nature have at least ten but I’ve only been blogging since January so I decided to be an easier taskmaster. These are the moments from my career to date in sales, sales management or training that stick out in my memory as either been funny or just plain strange.
#Funny Sales Memory Number 5
This happened as part of an interview I attended early in my sales career with a rather grumpy sales manager. Towards the end of the interview, I was handed a chewed up ballpoint pen and he asked me to demonstrate how I would sell it to him . Being young and innocent I attempted to rise to the challenge listing one by one the benefits of this plastic saliva filled tube . When I had finished he looked at me with a kinda rye smile and said that he wouldn’t buy from me because the pen was the wrong colour. It was blue.
#Funny Sales Memory Number 4
I was working as an in-house trainer for a telecommunications company and ran an induction course for their new sales starters every other month. An exercise I often used on these courses was to get people to write down three adjectives to describe their course mates. The intention being that people would highlight three positives that they saw in the individual. However on this particular course, there were two guys who had a grudge from a previous confrontation. When it came to describing the other, well just say that the words were choice to say the least, needless to say that was the last time I used that particular exercise.
#Funny Sales Memory Number 3
Working as a Sales Manager in IT, I was asked by my boss to attend a meeting with a disgruntled customer. My information was that this person was very upset in relation to a piece of software having malfunctioned the previous week and I was to attempt to calm the situation and retain the business. To my absolute surprise he gave my company a short overview when questioned and proceeded to spent most of the meeting giving out about a competitor. Not wanting to rock the boat, I listened intently although wary of not joining in in this slagging.
I left his office thinking that I had had done a wonderful although strangely unusual job of securing the business. Unfortunately I was to later find out that the poor gent had mixed both suppliers and names up and I was in fact the competition he had been giving out about.
#Funny Sales Memory Number 2
This one comes from my time selling insurance polices. I had sold this chap a income protection policy and he asked me to return later to collect a cheque to which I agreed. Later that evening I ran ahead to make sure he was still happy to proceed and proceeded to drive the thirty or so miles to his house. When I got there, his wife answered the door saying that he was at the neighbours and wouldn’t be back for at least an hour. I explained that I had driven a long way and asked he she wouldn’t mind me waiting. I could tell from her reaction that something was wrong and she asked to wait at the door.
To my surprise and amusement I noticed a ducked down body moving through the field beside the house, I watched as the guy I sold the policy to mounted a gate and proceeded to walk back up the road to his house. He greeted me with a forced smile, then apologising and telling me that a neighbour had just been taken ill. Without wanting to embarrass him, I explained that he didn’t have to go ahead with the cover if he preferred to which he explained that he would prefer not to as his wife had already taken out a policy that he wasn’t aware of. I wondered as I drove that evening why he needed to go through such dramatics but then the world would be a boring place if we were all the same.
#My Funniest Sales Memory Ever
Like number 5, its from a another sales interview only this time I was the interviewer. I was was asked to fill in for our telesales manager who was out sick and interview for spanking new telesales team. These were entry level sales roles so invariably it meant that most applicants came with little or no sales experience. I had a quick look at the CV of my next interview. It was very vague but he had just recently finished secondary school and had a huge interest in cars.
I went out to bring in the individual and you can understand my amazement to be greeted with a very young looking chap with a lunchbox, not one you have in secondary but the ones from primary school with power rangers or something of that nature on the sides.
I brought this person into that interview room and started to ask questions. I didn’t want to exclude someone on the basics that they looked very young or for that matter carried a lunchbox. To my relief, it quickly became obvious that this chap was indeed in primary school but wanted to leave because he hated the lessons. After I rang his mother, I put a call into the recruitment agency that had sent in the CV. I preferred not to give out to much as their utter embarrassment seemed to me to be punishment enough.
So what about you ?, have you got any funny sales or work memories that you would like to share? . Please refrain from mentioning either names of individuals or companies.
Posted by Niall
Tags: funny, Humour, Interviews Techniques, job, Management, memories, moments, Sales, work