The salesman, who had been sandbagging a deal or two, decided to now include the extra several hundred thousand dollars in potential sales, look like a rock star, and take the opportunity to ask for a raise. So he attached his file to the response email, but not before entitling it, "Increase_my_pay."
A few moments later his email was returned, acknowledging the great effort in drumming up new business. But there was no comment on the file name or his likelihood of getting a raise.
It was then that the salesman noticed that his attachment had been returned and the name of his file had been changed to, "Fat_chance."
Moral of the story. True sales professionals know that when it comes to negotiating wage increases, it always pays to do it face to face. Be bold and assertive, Letting management know that you are going to be in their face until you are justly rewarded, will often work in your favor. However, being meek and hiding behind file name changes to get your point across, will never go anywhere. Those tactics are too easy to get rid of, or ignore.
The same can be said for sales in general. Want to close a big deal? Go out into the field and meet your customers face to face. Make it impossible for them to ignore you. Or you can stay in the office, send out a bunch of templated emails and hope that "Tinkerbell" waves her magic wand and whisks you away to quota attainment. The choice is yours.
"The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it." - Henry David Thoreau
