So, you think you're having a bad day?

Bet it wasn’t as bad as this guy’s.

Several years ago, I was fortunate to be in an innovative, Consultative Selling training program. At the time, I had just started working for Xerox Computer Services, a division of Xerox. It was an intensive, five-week-long, program. There were seven of us. Two women, and five men, from different states. Each day, we would have a guest speaker, providing us with information and instruction about aspects of not only this unique selling program but also technical information regarding the software platform and its benefits.

To put this training in perspective, we were selling software that Xerox had developed in the mid-1970s. It was the predecessor of SaaS (Software as a Service) and utilized a Graphical User Interface (GUI), which Xerox created that both Apple and Microsoft later commercialized.

Today, that doesn’t sound like a big deal. But, again, this was in the mid-1970s. So, to say convincing someone to buy this software was a challenge would be a huge understatement.

This particular day, one of the software gurus, was going to be sharing information about the interactivity aspect of the Xerox program. How it allowed businesses worldwide to simultaneously “talk” with each other via the “Ethernet” and update multiple databases pertaining to sales, inventory, financial information, just-in-time delivery, spontaneous tracking systems, and more.

Our instructor introduced the software guru; providing us with some background information about him. When he finished his introduction, the presenter stood up and started walking to the front of the room. Looking a little nervous. My immediate thought was, “Boy, this ought to be really good,” another, boring, hard-to-stay-awake tech talk.

He stood there silently for a few seconds. Squinting his eyes. Making nervous facial expressions while swallowing hard and clearing his throat. Looking panicky, trying to compose himself. It was almost like he knew we had already decided his talk was going to be boring. He took a drink of water. Coughed into his closed hand twice. Then began relating how his day had started.

He explained rushing down the hallway in his house, towards the front door to leave. Once there, he reached for the doorknob and started turning it. As soon as he touched it. It broke off in his hand.

He told us he was running late. And as he was leaving the house, he yelled down the hallway to his wife. Asking her to have the local handyman fix it, and started heading towards his car.?

When he got there, he quickly grabbed the door handle. Apparently, a little too quickly, and like before, just as he touched it. It broke off in his hand. So, he went around to the other side of the car. Jumped in the passenger side, sliding over behind the steering wheel. He then drove to work. Eventually getting there and parked in his assigned spot. Got out of his car. Hurrying to the entrance door of his office building. Went to open the door, grabbed the handle. And, just as he touched it, you guessed it . . .

The handle broke off in his hand.

That’s when he stopped talking. Turned his head down. Staring at the floor. Then, he lifted his head. Looking out nervously at us and said,

“Everything I touched today has broken and fallen off.

?At this point, I’m afraid to go to the men’s room.”

There was silence for a few seconds. Then everyone broke out laughing. From that moment on, he definitely had our undivided attention and made boring tech talk, not so boring after all.

Humor had opened the door to learning, and touched us. In a good way.

#businessdevelopment #training #sales #entrepreneur