Pain is a good teacher. Fourteen years ago I suffered the most painful experience in my sales career – so painful, that it’s burned in my memory as vividly as the birth of my children. And so powerful and formative were the lessons from that experience that it’s not an exaggeration to say it changed the trajectory of my career.
I share the whole gory story of this boardroom disaster in Chapter 13 of New Sales. Simplified. Almost everyone I meet who has read the book quickly teases me about the word “preezentation” and shares their own equally horrific sales call nightmare. It’s just one of those sales war stories that anyone who’s ever sold can relate to.
That story caught the attention of master storyteller Paul Smith, author of the very successful and helpful book, Lead with a Story. Paul contacted me recently and asked me to come on his podcast to share that story and the painful lessons with his listeners. And even though that experience doesn’t paint me in the greatest light, I was happy to sacrifice my ego for the betterment of the sales community at large 🙂
The unfortunate reality and sad truth is that there are still a whole lot of salespeople and executives committing these very same sins on sales calls and presentations. Let me encourage you to benefit from my pain and take a few minutes to link over and listen to the story of this boardroom disaster.
I do like the way Paul Smith titled this podcast episode: “The worst sales call ever witnessed by the best sales coach in the business.” Thanks, Paul. And even more thanks for not mentioning that I was more than just a witness!
Click here to get to that recording on Paul’s site.
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