A discussion about sales, sales tips and advice, and about those who land the deal

OK, this is only marginally on our assigned topic of sales, selling and "landing the deal".  With his post today about spotting a new "trend" that's developing (next up: Tuba players driving SUVs), Seth Godin reminded me of a funny story from my outside sales career that I've never forgotten (well maybe we are still on topic...this did happen when I was on my way to a sales call, so that qualifies, right?).\

I was driving to my sales territory one day, which happened to be about an hour away.  I came up behind a car that swerved to the right every 30 seconds or so.  "Great", I thought.  "A drunk driver at 8 in the morning."

I approached with caution.  Inside the cab of the pick-up, I could make out a driver and a passenger.  They were having an argument.  Here's the problem: They were deaf.

That's right, they were arguing using sign language, which required them to use their hands, which - when the driver was trying to make his point to his female companion - caused the car to swerve every once in a while.

I started to laugh, and decided to follow the truck.  Partially out of my concern for the couple locked in a rage-filled sign language debate and their safety, but mostly because I have never seen anything like that before and it catered to my weird sense of humor.  But it makes sense: Why shouldn't deaf couples be able to fight in the car like those of us who can hear?  The argument continued for about another 10 minutes, and I was late for my first sales call of the day.

Just one of my memories from my days in outside sales.  I have another memory, but it involves a dead cat on the side of the road and rigor-mortis that had set in, and my evil plan for stopping and propping up the aforementioned cat on the side of the road for all to see.  But that's a story for another time...and probably another blog dedicated to things people do with roadkill...