During my sales internship at an online education company, I met Gary, a sales rep who had almost zero social awareness. Dan Pink explains that, by becoming a keen observer of behaviors and environments, a salesman can attune himself to his customers and win more business. Gary did the complete opposite. His lack of attunement reduced trust and eroded business relationships. For example, he often gave his customers (largely middle-aged men) fist bumps. He spoke in 90s lingo, greeting customers with “yo” and signing his emails “G.” Worst of all, Gary made inappropriate jokes at the worst possible times. These jokes proved to be harmful to Gary’s sales performance and the company’s reputation among customers. Some of Gary’s coworkers recognized his strange behavior, but Gary never seemed to understand why his actions were inappropriate for his business setting.
At a conference in his sales territory, Gary was supposed to give a presentation on the company’s newest products. Before going on stage, Gary made a joke about the host organization’s secretaries being overweight – to members of the host organization, a major customer. This incident and others like it made it difficult for Gary to build rapport with potential and current customers. His sales fell, and within the next year, Gary was out of work.
Although Gary was a good coworker, he failed to observe customers’ behavior as well as his environment. As a result, customers viewed him as off-putting and unprofessional to say the least. I hope that Gary learns to strategically mimic customers and succeeds in the future. In the meantime, we can learn from his mistakes, appropriately mimic customers, and become effective salesmen and saleswomen. Just as importantly, I hope we learn to help our coworkers properly attune to their customers when they don’t recognize their lack of social awareness.
BoweryJE22
Wow. I can’t believe someone could be so unaware of how they come across especially in a business setting. Salespeople need to be self-aware because their job is to talk to people all the time. Even though Gary was very bad at his job, he was a really good example of what not to do which is very helpful. Really great post!