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Jack was a true sales pro, pushing software worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. But his lack of attention to a seemingly minor detail ruined his shot at a big sale with a big company. Here's Jack's story:
While selling specialty software, I had arranged a presentation in front of a group of facilities managers for a former computer giant. The meeting was to be held at the company's corporate offices in suburban Boston. Upon hearing about my meeting, one of my associates begged to come along. While Massachusetts was my territory, getting into this company would be helpful across the country. So I agreed, and off we went.
We were delighted to present to 12 facilities managers in a meeting room with two large white boards. This was a salesman's dream. It was agreed that I would do the bulk of the software presentation while my colleague played backup. During the presentation, he decided to be helpful, so he grabbed a nearby marker and proceeded to draw a series of illustrations on the white boards.
One of the managers pointed out that my partner was using a permanent marker. Essentially, a roomful of people whose job is to care for their company's property just got to watch some sales joker ruining it.
We were told we could either buy new white boards or try rubbing the otherwise permanent marks off with black coffee. It took several hours and plenty of coffee to get the boards back in presentable condition. But we lost our audience and, of course, the sale.
Postmortem
If you sell by doing stand-up presentations, you should always carry your own supplies, like regular markers for flip charts and erasable ones for white boards.
If you blew the call, your might want to inject some humor into the situation. You should be incredibly remorseful and beg for forgiveness -- perhaps even on your knees. Send a follow-up letter with the phrase "I love my facility and will take better care of it" written 500 times. Be different, and you might save the sale.
