Falling Asleep on the Job
In Ecclesiastes 3:1 we read, “There is an appointed time for everything.” As a sales guy, I know there is a time to talk, a time to shut up and listen, a time to work hard, and a time to play. There is also a time and place for sleeping, and that is after you've turned off the lights and kissed your spouse goodnight, not while working and especially not while leaving a voicemail.
For years my wife and I would turn off the lights and pray together before we went to sleep. More often than not, one of us would be doing some heavy breathing before the last “amen” was given. That's bad enough.
Once I was essentially in this same state of drifting off to sleep while leaving a customer a voicemail message. I sunk into a monotone “voicemail speak” as I left my valued customer a message and instead of closing with, “you can call me back at blah, blah, blah,” I began punctuating the message with, “...in Jesus name we pray...” (I know. What does this say about my prayer life?) I managed to get out the “in Jesus” part, but then I caught myself right as I was about to say “name.” It came out like, “in Jesus nnn...” Pause.
Can you imagine the thoughts that quite literally raced through my mind at the speed of light as I bolted up from falling asleep? All of this taking place in less than a tenth of a second while being recorded!
“In Jesus name!?! I'm about to end a voicemail with 'in Jesus name we pray'!? What is this guy going to think???!! Should I just hang up? Then what will he think?” Panic...
At some point within this tenth of a second, I essentially came to the conclusion that I would rather be thought of as a blasphemer than a cold, orthodox, droning evangelical. I somehow tried to make it sound like something shocked me the listener could not see and that I had exclaimed, “Jesus!” right as I was about to hang up.
I finished the voicemail with something like, “...in Jesus nnn, oh wow! Sorry, I've got to run, I'll call you back!”
In Jeffrey Gitomer's book, “The Little Red Book of Sales Answers,” he writes a short chapter on “What does the voice-mail message I leave say to my customers?” His main counsel is to leave a voicemail message that is focused on the customer in which “you dangle a carrot.” He gives a couple of great examples. (You'll have to go buy the book.)
The only thing I would add to one of my favorite sales authors – that he misses completely! Know exactly what you are going to say in advance in case they don't answer, AND stay awake through the whole message.
Posted at 10:53AM Feb 28, 2009 by George Miller in Personal | Comments[0]