Sell me this ink pen! ; By Jim Gandolf

I was at a major seminar on behalf of a major retail company that is not important what the name of that retail company is for this short story, but to get the mood set right I will explain this seminar was for the best sales leaders within that company out of eight thousand some odd stores, or locations would be the proper term. Everyone had a name tag; everyone had earned the right to be there (about 400 sales leaders). I was very happy to be there at the time, and I had never even had the opportunity in my life to achieve such honor until that point. We all had to wear nice collared golf shirts with the company logo on it, with a nice pair of Dockers, for the pants. This was such a spectacle of super stars of this company, the Vice President of each region of the USA and world. The President, plus the Chairman of the Board, and there were major super starts speakers there. Everyone had an event to remember, and each region had a major speaker that hit the stage to talk about the future and how to drive sales through the roof. Just about everyone had some alcohol to drink throughout the night except a few of us, I just did not want these major people see me drink at all; I felt it was none of their business if I drank anything at all. The night was full of excitement, speaker after speaker. The gifts were super major. Some of these gifts were a car, Jet Ski, Vespa, and just about anything you wanted as well. Each one of these speakers interacted with all of us sales people here and there. We had a sales speaker hit the stage and everyone was so pumped so pumped by that point I was just starting to get tired, and yawned and stretched out my arms and this sale motivator saw me act this way and darted right for me and held out an ink pen and said real loud, “Sell me this pen!” I was caught off guard for a minute, but I was standing next to the Vice President of the Midwest Region, and he knew me well, and patted me on the back and said, “Get him good Jimmy!” So I grabbed that Ink Pen and headed up on that big stage with applause and loud rock music playing, and then some of the Midwest people started hollering out, “Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy!” Then it got quiet, and everyone wanted to hear how I was going to handle this challenge. I took a second and held that pen up in the air, and then grabbed my check book out of my front pocket of my pants with the other hand. I opened my check book and tore out a blank check, and slapped that blank check on a stool on the stage, and said, “I have a blank check here on that stool right there (as I pointed to the check), I will sign that check after you write in the amount box on the check whatever amount you want, but you can only complete this action after you buy this pen from me.” I then explained to this sales super speaker, “I don't even know if this ink pen works, but the only way you get this check signed is by giving me $200.00 and then the deal is on.” I was very sure, and confident (it was so quiet, that you could hear a pin drop anywhere and you would of heard the bounce as well) in my challenge to this guy and then I shut up and went back to my seat and sat down, and didn't say a word as the crowd of people begin to cheer as this super sales person got sold his own ink pen, by me. This guy has done this a thousand of times at seminars around the world, and never has been sold like that. All of my sales people started to cheer. I knew I had him sold when his eyes light up and stood back and said, “What?” Right after my pitch, to him. You see he spoke first after the pitch! My father taught me that many years ago when I was a teenager, and I thought my Dad was crazy at the time, but as time went on, and I became a closer I knew how important that was to be silent after the pitch. This guy was so excited he gave me this ink pen and said out loud, “I just got sold my own ink pen by this Jimmy!” Everyone started to roar with excitement, and that was a night that I won big in front of all of my peers in Texas, USA!
Just another note from; Jim Gandolf