Sales Horror Stories - February's Failed Sales

PUNCH DRUNK PROSPECT VS. RIPPED REP
Bar Code Labeling Pro Labels his Prospect

Bar codes have changed over the years and our company is one of the biggest players in the market. You might have noticed that most bar codes on mailing packages like UPS are now round rather than linear. If someone tears it or marks over the round code, enough information is embedded in this new shape that the scanner can still read it and help your package arrive on time.

Each year we run a big sales conference with our team as well as vendors and potential vendors attending. We use this big event to court new distributors who can sell our bar code imaging equipment for all kinds of customized uses.

The last night of the meeting we have a spectacular party: Funny speaker, wild games and LOTS of liquor. Did I mention there was plenty to drink?

I’m a big beer man (drinking volume, not size-wise), but my buddies convinced me to taste the hard stuff this evening. And if that decision wasn’t difficult enough, I had chosen to hit on this cute gal who was working at our company.

So I’m nuzzling up to her and chatting her up, but competing with another rep. Ah, competition – good salespeople thrive on it. However, this other rep is a potential vendor whose company needs a product just like ours, and this conference is our chance to close him.

Suddenly I’ve had enough – enough to drink, enough of the loud music and more than enough of the competition for my woman.

So I step up to this guy and tag him. Not with a bar-coding device, but with a right jab to the jaw.

Down goes the competition!

But I don’t win.

I don’t win the girl, who is not impressed by my slick conversation or quick hands.

And I don’t win the sale for my firm as my friends drag me out of the ballroom.

My ex-potential vendor woke up to a headache which he associated with my company. So simply avoiding a situation where he encounters us in the future (translate that “BUYS from us”) was a simple choice.

I learned that holding my prospects dearly was just as important as holding my liquor.

POSTMORTEM: Okay, I speak at 3 or 4 events like this a month, year round. Last weekend I took a rocket-speed Nerf football to the chest during an international sales conference party in Los Angeles and was grateful there weren’t baseballs being passed around instead. I recovered in time to close the event the next morning. These events (or any public events you attend – networking, fundraising, etc.) are really about Image Management. How well do you project the person you want others’ to believe in? Are you coming across as the classy sales pro or a
class-less dummy? Manage your image with your clothes, language and actions and you’ll portray the person that others will want to hang out with and buy from.

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