Sales Meeting

A sales promotion manager devised a sensational way to introduce a new merchandising aid. He conducted a coroner’s inquest!

Several days before the meeting, he showed the new aid to several top salesmen. In the interest of field testing, a few were permitted to use it.

Then came the meeting . . . When the sales promotion manager was introduced there was no mention of his subject. As he rose to speak a recording of a funeral march was played. A mock funeral procession entered from the rear of the room! It was lead by an “undertaker,” complete with dark suit and stove-pipe hat. Two “pallbearers” followed, carrying a “casket.”

When the procession reached the front of the room, the speaker called it to a halt. The music was also stopped, and the emcee asked for an explanation. “We’re burying an unsuccessful salesperson,” explained the “undertaker.” When asked the cause of death the “undertaker” replied, “I don’t know, but we’re burying all of them. Something is putting an end to all the unsuccessful salesmen.”

The speaker had the casket placed on a table while a coroner’s inquest was conducted. Ten “witnesses” were called to the front and seated apart from the audience. They were questioned one at a time.
 
The first expressed the opinion that unsuccessful salesperson were being eliminated by a new sales aid his department had designed. “It’s a tool so powerful that no salesperson will hereafter be unsuccessful.” Other witnesses confirmed the opinion. Salespeople who had field tested the item told of their success in using it. By carefully selecting the “witnesses” and asking well prepared questions, the speaker had a very rosy picture painted.

A gavel was banged and the verdict announced: “The findings are that death was caused by the new sales aid. This new aid is bringing an end to all unsuccessful sales efforts.” At that moment the “corpse” jumped out of the “casket!” It was a real shocker since the audience had no reason to believe someone was actually in the box! He ran to the speakers’ stand and grabbed the new sales aid. Then he raced out of the room yelling, “Don’t bury me – I want to use it too!”

This event lasted only 22 minutes. It did ten times as much good as a speech of the same duration. Try it!

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