Where's My Checked Sports Jacket and Loud Tie?

I went to a sales seminar today. This was a free luncheon sponsored by the local franchise of the Sandler Sales Institute.

If you asked me, back when I was in high school or even college, whether I would ever even think about attending such an event, I would have responded with a loud and clear, "No Way!". At least that's how I would have responded after regaining my breath from all the hysterical laughing. A salesperson? I remember Herb Tarlek from WKRP in Cincinnati. There was no way I was ever going to do that for a living!

So, what happened?

Well, I started working in my own company full time and no longer had the safety net of my U of M salary, that's what. Suddenly, if I want to eat, I have to find people who want to purchase my services. Crazy, right?

So, what is a "sales luncheon" like? I was fully expecting it to be a hard-core, high-pressure, "sign on the dotted line for our full training course" experience. I was prepared to resist and poke holes in any verbal traps that lay in wait. I was "pleasantly disappointed".

In reality, Joe Marr, the trainer and owner of the franchise gave a two-hour long, informative, fun, interesting, and completely no-pressure training presentation. It was an honest-to-goodness interactive classroom situation. There were eight of us in the class. We chatted about the challenges we were currently experiencing and get some solid advice from Joe. Heck, we even got a free lunch! I walked out with four or five pages of notes and a couple of "A-ha!" moments which I'll be working into my systems over the next week or so.

Ah, you say, but what did you have to give in return? Oh, that. Well, it was pretty rough. At the end of the meeting, Joe just said that if we wanted to have a private meeting with him to talk more about additional training, we should talk with his son, Joe Jr, about signing up for a time. Otherwise we were free to leave, and thank you for coming.

My appointment is for the Friday after I return from Hawaii!

So, when was the last time you were "pleasantly disappointed"?