Thursday, November 14, 2013

Sales Joke of the Day (November 14) The Headlines.

A salesman traveling down main street,  through a small town in Georgia, noticed a wild dog suddenly leap out and attack a small boy on the sidewalk.   Without thought for his own safety, the salesman instinctively dragged the dog off the boy before having to throttle it to death with his own bare hands.


The shocking incident was witnessed by a reporter on the local newspaper who went up and shook the hero by the hand.  The reporter told the salesman that the headline in this week's paper would be:  Brave Local Salesman Saves Child By Killing Vicious Beast.


"But I'm not from this town," replied the salesman.


"No problem," replied the reporter.  "The headline will be:  Georgia Salesman Saves Child By Killing Dog."


"As a matter of fact," revealed the salesman, "I'm not from Georgia at all!   I'm from upstate New York!"


The reporter glared at him.  "In which case sir, the headline will be:  "Yankee Salesman Slays Family Pet!"


Moral of the story.    True sales professionals know that in order to succeed at sales they have to travel extensively and spend a lot of time away from home.  When on the road, true sales professionals know that in order to survive they need to blend in as much as possible.  Don't draw attention to yourself and never use rental car companies that put a big sticker of their logo on the back bumper of your rental vehicle.   They might as well just put a neon sign in the back window of your car saying:  "I'm from out of town on business.  I'm carrying a lot of cash, a computer and credit cards.   No one is going to miss me for a few days.   Rob me now!"


"People get up, they go to work, they have their lives, but you'll never see the headlines say, 'Six billion people got along rather well today.' You'll have the headline about the thirty people who shot each other."         -      John Malkovich