I was watching Selling Power Daily Report and today’s video interview is with Dan Seidman of Sales Autopsy. Dan is a sales trainer who has written a book by the same title which is a collection of sales horror stories.
In today’s video he recalled a horror story that happened to a salesperson who was trying to build rapport with a new prospect who was the President of a company. The salesperson took 6 months trying to set up this meeting with this prospect through phone calls, snail mail and messages with the gatekeeper. Finally, he landed a face-to-face meeting:
He was led into the President’s office which was very expensively decorated and he became somewhat intimidated. Knowing what to do, the salesperson looked for the fish on the wall or the golf trophy to make a little small talk. There it was on the desk – a photograph of this president with John Madden. So the salesperson asked how he had gotten his picture taken with his arm around John Madden.
The president glared back at him and said, “That’s not John Madden, that’s my wife.”