The Salty Dog Syndrome

There were about 45 sales people in the meeting and I was presenting them with one of my products, a hot dog.  It was not a new product but it was new to them.  After everyone was just about finished sampling the hot dog everyone seemed sold on the product.

Then, all of a sudden, someone said, “Man, these hot dogs are really salty!”  Pretty soon everyone agreed, they were salty.  I knew the salty hot dogs would never sell so I had to act fast.

I told them that I would arrange to have the hot dogs picked up from their warehouse and send them another order that would be reformulated with less salt.  One month later I was again at the sales meeting presenting the same sales people with the reformulated hot dogs.  Everyone agreed that they were much better.

The formula with slightly less salt was a big improvement.  We had a great introduction offer for their customers and we sold tons of hot dogs.  Everyone appreciated the extra effort I went to in order to give them the hot dog that they really wanted.

Here’s the problem. I had the hot dogs picked up, put back in my warehouse, and two weeks later shipped the EXACT SAME HOT DOGS BACK TO THEM!

Do you really think a company that was making millions of pounds of hot dogs every day with hundreds of thousands of customers all over the world who were very happy with the product would change the formula because one guy in a sales meeting said they were salty?

No way.  And besides, they were not salty, they tasted great.  But I had to make them think that I was able to have the hot dog reformulated.   One guy out of the 45 sales people made a unthinking, uneducated comment, and pretty soon, the other 44 “sheep” believed him and started complaining about the salt content!

Now I have a really tough question for you.  Are you one of the “sheep” who listens to someone on CNN and let them tell you that business is down, that no one is buying, that the hot dogs are salty?  Are you one of the sheep who believe that politicians can create a cure-all for the economy?  Are you one of the sheep who let other people tell you what and how to think?

Or are you a TRUE sales person who has the guts to stand up and go into psychological warfare with yourself and your customers and be part of the solution rather than part of the problem?

If you stick with any prediction long enough, it will happen. The media is unrelenting in its attempt to manufacture an actual recession, or at least convince people there is one. If you hear it from CNN, FOX and MSNBC every single day, you will believe it.

It is up to you to contradict the loud voices of gloom and doom telling your customers to lock up their money in fear.  Money moves around, changes hands and gravitates to the person with an attitude for attracting it.

I didn’t think the hot dogs were salty.  I thought they tasted great.  I wasn’t about to let ONE uneducated sales person spoil my business!

– Bob