Stopping Premature Pontification by Salespeople

You know what I mean. Salesperson asks, "Do you have a problem with X?" Prospect says, "We sure do. Can you help with that?" Salesperson launches into a demo, get's a "No" when he closes and gets whatever silly objection the prospect decides to give because they didn't drill down before they presented.

Salespeople have been doing this forever. They're so excited that they found a problem that they can fix that they launch into fixing it even though we've told them to stop fixing them. Even though the prospect may have 7 more important problems. Even though they're not talking to the decision maker. Even though the prospect has 27 other reasons to not do business with the salesperson today.

Maybe this story will teach them to dig deeper and pay closer attention to detail.

First-year students at the Purdue Vet School were attending their first anatomy class with a real dead cow. They all gathered around the surgery table with the body covered with a white sheet.

The professor started the class by telling them, "In Veterinary medicine, it is necessary to have two important qualities as a doctor.

The first is that you not be disgusted by anything involving the animal's body". For an example, the professor pulled back the sheet, stuck his finger in the butt of the cow, withdrew it, and stuck his finger in his mouth.

"Go ahead and do the same thing," he told his students. The students freaked out, hesitated for several minutes, but eventually took turns sticking a finger in the butt of the dead cow and sucking on it.

When everyone finished, the Professor looked at them and said,

"The second most important quality is observation. I stuck in my middle finger and sucked on my index finger. Now learn to pay attention. Life's tough but it's even tougher if you're stupid."

If you have a bad taste in your mouth, it's probably because you put it there.

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