Monday, November 18, 2013

Sales Joke of the Day (November 18) Northern Exposure.

A salesman decided to take his wife up North for an early winter wilderness retreat.   When they arrived at the campsite, a Canadian national park ranger started things off with a speech.  Really it was meant to be a warning to the latest group of tourists about the danger posed by grizzly bears.  He said: "Problems can occur when people unexpectedly stumble across bears.  To avoid this, we advise hikers to wear tiny bells on their clothing, like these, in order to warn the bears of their presence.  And always be on guard when you know bears are in the area, particularly if you bear droppings."

The salesman asked:  "How do you identify bear droppings?"

"Easy," replied the park ranger.  "They're the only ones with the tiny bells in them."

Moral of the story.   True sales professionals know that in order to succeed at sales they need to be hunting for new business, which means a lot of cold calling and ringing a lot of new numbers.   Sales professionals make sure that when they mass telemarket, they do so with a message of real value to a targeted set of prospects.   True sales professionals never just go around ringing for ringing sake.   True sales professionals realize that high random call volumes are no guarantee of generating increased or any revenue at all.   They know better than to poke the bear.

"The act of bell ringing is symbolic of all proselytizing religions.  It implies the pointless interference with the quiet of other people."                                                        -  Ezra Pound


(And now you know where the phrase, 'Pound'ing the phones comes from.)