Contrary Training Impression

I just had a thoroughly enjoyable chat on the phone with a new rep at one of my customers.  After several years selling internet services in both America and England, followed by a two-year stint selling art with his wife, he’s back in the corporate saddle and loving every minute.

His enthusiasm is sky-high and has a patch that appears largely uncultivated for far too long.  As I remember from my own similar experience over a decade ago, this presents both opportunity and threat.  Images of felling all before you on virgin turf are tempered by the disgruntlement of uncared-for punters.

He has faced a barrage of negativity, ranging from outright hostility to casual dismissal.  In each case, he wisely plays the newbie card to elicit a fair hearing.  The one killer line I’ve heard him use is along these lines:

“Everything you’ve just told me runs contrary to what I was told during my induction.  As I’m no expert yet, how about we bring in our experts on a conference call to discuss these issues in detail?”

It’s allowed him to prosper time and time again, and with a simple tweak to rather refer to ‘refresher training’, it could work in just about any given situation for us all.