CHAPTER 9

Search for Stories You Create

SALES HAD BEEN STRONG for another quarter. Jay Campbell sat at his desk, smugly satisfied as he glanced at the glowing reports he had been handed that day. As the founder and president of his company, he’d seen it grow by leaps and bounds, particularly because of its relationship with one major firm that consistently ordered huge quantities of its products.

I may even take the afternoon off and get in some golf, he was thinking when his secretary buzzed him.

“Excuse me, sir, but it’s Mr. Devlin calling,” she said. “I thought you’d want to know.”

Less than an hour ago, in his firmest CEO voice, Jay had told his administrative assistant to hang out the I’m-in-a-meeting sign. However, like all experienced executive assistants, she knew certain names removed any sign posted on the door.

Mr. Devlin was the president of Valco, the major company responsible for most of those glowing sales. Jay’s initial irritation at being interrupted was quickly replaced with his usual grudging respect for his secretary’s wisdom.

Punching the button next to the flashing light, Jay picked up the receiver and said, “Hi, Mark. What are you doing this afternoon?”

“What am I doing?” The voice on the phone spat out the words. “I’ll tell you what I’m doing. I’m trying to calm down after telling one of your saleswomen to get out of my office, and I’m not doing a very good job of it!”

“You had to do what?” Jay said, all five of his senses snapping instantly to attention. Pictures of plummeting sales figures exploded in his mind as the voice continued its red-hot tirade.

“This woman from your office took an hour of my office manager’s time, trying to force her to place a new order. And that was after she’d already been told no. Then, when I came out and told her to leave because she was taking up so much office time, she told me I was rude for not listening to her pitch about a new product!

“Listen, Jay. I don’t care how much money you could save us. When I tell somebody no, I mean no! And I’m telling you, if that woman ever comes back in our office again, you can cancel our current agreements and forget about our purchasing anything from you in the future!”

Click! The phone on the other end of the line sounded like a door slamming.

Jay had been chewed out in his time. There had been his father’s angry words when he had given his pet turtle a bubble bath, his football coach’s screams when he fell asleep during the game films, his drill sergeant’s four-letter blasts about everything he did. Even his wife could lay down the law at times. But to have his most important customer chew him out because of how one of his sales agents had acted —that was too much.

Fuming, Jay paced the office, thinking about the problem he faced. Without hearing a name, he knew who had made the sales call.

Jenn was his most productive sales rep. The last four months, she’d been the volume leader, hands down. She had great skill and determination in closing the sale. But lately she’d become so pushy that she closed as many doors as she opened. Jay liked her enthusiasm and hard-driving nature, and he didn’t want to fire her. But he realized he had come close to losing the account that was the lifeblood of his business. He knew he would have to confront her that very afternoon.

In preparation for the meeting, Jay turned to the search field of imaginary stories. After choosing the right word picture, based on one of the most embarrassing things he felt could ever happen, he mentally practiced it a few times and waited for Jenn’s return.

Jenn didn’t know it, but his words were about to grab her by the collar. In fact, his imaginary story would shake her world so forcefully that simply mentioning their conversation in the future would instantly cause her to back off from being too pushy.

“Come on in,” Jay said when Jenn peeked her head into his office. Only on rare occasions was she summoned into the president’s office. This time his note on her desk had read, “Urgent.”

“I came as soon as I got your note, Mr. Campbell,” Jenn said. With relief, she noticed he was smiling as he rose from his chair.

“Please, come in and close the door. Take a chair over here,” he said. “There’s something I’d like to talk to you about.” As she sat back, he launched into his word picture.

“Jenn, when the company first started, I was the one doing all the sales calls. And during that time, do you know what I used to think would be the absolute worst thing imaginable?”

Jay didn’t wait for an answer but went right on with his story. “Picture this. I’m in the boardroom of one of our top clients, all excited about making a presentation. I’ve got all my charts and graphs ready. Without a doubt, I’m 100 percent prepared to knock the ball out of the park and sign a contract on the spot.

“Well, the chairman of the corporation is sitting next to me. He says a few kind words of introduction, and then it’s my turn to stand up and present our product to the entire board.

“I throw myself into the presentation. I’m talking loudly and gesturing like crazy when my hand suddenly hits the coffee pot in front of me, knocking it right into the president’s lap! I’m talking about an entire pot of scalding coffee.

“You can imagine the scene. He’s screaming and jumping up and down. Everyone else around the table is trying hard not to laugh, but you can tell people are cracking up on the inside. So, I grab a handful of paper towels and try to help dry off the president. But because of where the coffee spilled, drying him off is pretty embarrassing in itself. Finally, thoroughly disgusted with me, he grabs the paper towels and tries to dry himself off.

“The whole time, I’m working to calm him down so I can salvage my sales presentation. I point to the charts and graphs I’ve worked on so long, showing how much money they’ll save with this new product. But he’s not interested in hearing about it anymore. He’s having a difficult time sitting next to me, much less listening to me.”

The picture her boss acted out while telling the story was so comical that, in spite of herself, Jenn was laughing right along with him.

Jay paused a while after the laughter subsided. Jenn finally asked, “Mr. Campbell, did you bring me in here just to tell me this story?”

“Well, in a way I did, Jenn,” he said, his voice and manner becoming serious. “You see, this morning you poured scalding coffee right into a very important person’s lap.”

Another long silence stood between them before Jenn looked down and said in a faltering voice, “What do you mean?”

Deep inside, she knew what he was talking about, but she felt justified in trying so hard to get that office manager to hear all of her presentation. She had worked hours in putting it together, and in her heart, she felt the president was wrong in not taking the time to listen.

“Jenn, this morning when you were at the Valco office making your presentation, you were so excited you knocked a whole pot of scalding coffee into their business manager’s lap.

“I know you do a great job of presenting our products. You also work hard at overcoming sales resistance. But for all your good intentions, you almost lost us our key client because you were far too pushy. Their business manager made it clear she wasn’t interested in buying anything else at this time. Yet you still took an hour, trying to force her into a decision she couldn’t make.

“To top it off, when the president came out and asked you to leave, you scalded him, too! In fact, telling him he was rude for not letting you finish was like opening the lid and just dumping hot coffee all over him. He called me to talk about it after you left.”

Jay moved over next to her chair and looked her right in the eye. “Jenn, pouring scalding coffee on people will only ruin relationships and lose accounts that take years to establish —not get you sales over the long haul. And I must say that I’m concerned about you as an employee and as a person. You see, people talk, Jenn. I know you’re having trouble in relationships with the other sales reps.

“I know there’s always competition and petty jealousy, and I’m not trying to take away any edge you might have. But you’re ruining your relationships around the office by pouring coffee on people. And while I’m not trying to be too personal, I imagine you’re probably doing it to your friends outside the office as well.

“If you scald people once, they may chalk it up to an accident. But if you keep doing it, you’ll be the loneliest person in the world. If you want to sentence yourself to loneliness in your personal life, that’s your decision. But if you keep scalding our key clients,” and he said this slowly, “understand that while that’s also your choice, it will cost you your job.”

At various times, others had tried to talk to Jenn about her over-aggressiveness —both at work and in her personal relationships —but she had always rationalized it away as jealousy. Every time, she would excuse herself by saying, “They don’t understand the situation” or “There’s nothing wrong with having strong opinions.”

Jenn came from a family whose anger and fighting had become ingrained in her. Hearing “no” from a customer ignited all her old emotions, causing her to overreact and snap into her verbal attack mode. She had never been willing to look at her overly aggressive nature, because it would have forced her to look at too many painful memories at the same time.

For years, no one and nothing could crack her ironclad defenses. But a significant conversation did —when her boss caught her broadside with an emotional word picture. It was as if he had ripped up a 60-foot billboard from beside the freeway and planted it right in her front yard. This time, she couldn’t miss the message that she was too pushy.

Jay was to tell us later, “Jenn is still my top salesperson, and she’s still pretty aggressive. Only now she’s a lot more sensitive with our customers. In two years, to my knowledge, she hasn’t scalded anybody else —including anybody at Valco.”

Though this businessman didn’t realize it, he had not only saved Jenn’s job, but he had also given her a tremendous gift. Her attitude had been revolutionized and redirected with her coworkers and friends.

Her boss’s ultimatum, wrapped in a word picture, did more than scare her. It changed her. His clear picture grabbed her emotions so forcefully that before walking into a sales meeting, and soon in her personal relationships as well, she would sit in her car before going in. She now kept an empty coffee cup in her car’s cup holder. She’d hold the cup. Close her eyes. Take a deep breath. And purpose to walk in and not spill a drop —on anyone.

The word picture that was used against her, in a way, became the very thing that helped her grow in both sales and in her personal life.

By tapping into this third search field of imaginary stories, Jay used a source of word pictures that is limited only by a person’s imagination. In fact, imaginary stories unlock the limitations that are often a part of everyday words.

As we mentioned earlier, people love to hear a story. When the tale begins, it’s an open invitation for them to try to guess its outcome. It also locks in their attention and leaves a lasting memory of what they hear.

Imaginary stories can use everyday objects or items from nature, as we’ve seen in the two previous search fields. In addition, they can picture an event, a situation, or an occupation, and thereby pull the listener into the scene. It’s your story! Use a coffee cup or a whale or a car wreck. The sky’s the limit on creativity.

You don’t need a degree from the film school at USC, UCLA, or New York University to come up with great imaginary stories. Nathan did it. Alyssa did it. You can do it!

Already, you have thousands of options for word pictures available in these three search fields. However, pictures from the fourth may capture a person’s heart more quickly than anything else.

In the search field of “Remember when . . .” or past shared experiences, you can link to so many memories. And many times, even the most painful or embarrassing ones turn out to be the best word pictures to share with someone. That was so true for years with something that happened with Gary and me.