When Jonathan Farrington, creator of TopSalesWorld.com and CEO of Top Sales Associates, wants to make a point, he goes all out. But sometimes, things don't always turn out as expected. Luckily, the unintended consequences don't always have to be disastrous.
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It was an extremely hot summer in the UK. Records were being broken every single day and everyone was complaining. At that time, I was a young sales manager working for a well-known IT company. I'd developed a reputation for being somewhat rebellious and a bit of a crusader.
We were working in a brand new office block, which was all glass from floor to ceiling. And, hard as it is to believe today, it didn't have any air-conditioning. I watched my team wilting, day in and day out. Productivity was declining at an alarming rate.
My prolonged pleas to my sales director achieved nothing, so I decided to bring it up with my Managing Director (MD). However, I was determined to have maximum impact, so I hatched an outrageous plan.
On the morning in question, I left home wearing a blue pinstripe suit, crisp white shirt, polka dot tie, gleaming black shoes … but no trousers. I sported a splendid pair of bright pink boxer shorts, complete with kissing hippos on them.
I arrived at the office at the usual time, knowing that my MD always got in early too. I marched straight into his office – bypassing his assistant, who came chasing after me.
And then, horror. Seated around his conference desk were four board members from my most important prospect, all enjoying a continental breakfast. When they saw me, they didn’t know whether to laugh, choke on their croissants, or simply ignore me.
The meeting with them had originally been agreed for mid-morning that day, but had been rescheduled at their request the previous evening. My MD had left me a message, but I had been so absorbed with my one man protest that I didn't check before leaving for work.
This story does have a happy ending though. After I explained that I was playing a practical joke – not wishing to mention the air-conditioning protest – I was invited to join the meeting, which concluded with us winning a multi-million pound support contract.
And, I remain convinced to this day, that my “escapade” helped me build a very strong relationship with that client – but I do not recommend anyone else to try it!
The air-conditioning? On the strength of that order, my MD signed it off two weeks later. Oh, and I replaced the sales director within three months, so a “win-win-win” all round.
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YOUR TURN. Have you ever done anything embarrassing our outrageous that turned out okay? What made it successful? Please share your stories in the comments section of my blog.