Life On Mars persistence

I felt starved of genre-defining drama on TV since the turn of the new millennium.  The 90s gave us innovative gems such as This Life, Between The Lines and Cracker, with even the Americans rising above their normal moral evangelism with the first season of NYPD Blue.  But what’s been around to herald a new epoch since?

Then along came Life On Mars.

If you know nothing about it, it’s where 2006 policing crashes into 1973, with the major sizzle coming from the riveting abrasions between the two main characters.

After its stunning viewing figures success (forget the final ten minutes of the final series one episode) the beeb had a 1973 week on BBC3, which included a re-run of all eight shows.  After one, they aired a 20-minute interview with the trio of writers.

When they made their initial pitches to programme schedulers, no-one was interested.  In fact, this eventual ratings winner took 7 years and an incredible 36 re-writes to make it onto the screen.

And naturally, this got me thinking about the Life In Sales.  How confident are sales people that they truly, sincerely believe their product is tailor-made for their prospect?  I myself recently came across a situation with one of my guys where everyone was telling him that the Big Boss was crying out for what we uniquely provide.  Over two months of emails and phone calls failed to get commitment to a meeting and with dis-information seemingly of Sinophilic proportions, the email that moved the meeting into the diary began formally “I feel puzzled that the facts appear to be distorted.  May I re-state them…..”

The message is clear, when you honestly feel you’ve got what will change someone’s life the way they want, do not relent from telling them.