We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend - I want to tell you about some amazing young men that made our July 4th weekend very special.
My son Jack is an avid NASCAR fan so living in Orlando we make the trip to Daytona twice a year for the races. This year we decided to go early and go on the infield and enjoy the pre-race festivities, one of which was an autograph session with some of the Nationwide series drivers. My expectations were low and I tried to make sure my son did not think Dale Jr. or his hero Kyle Busch were going to appear.
When the time came we got in line and waited to see who we would meet. To my surprise we were able to meet about 15 different drivers from the Nationwide series - all of whom my son recognized. Needless to say he was excited.
What stood out for me was the excitement each driver exhibited when my son asked for an autograph and a photo with the driver. To a man they all were friendly, attentive, accessible, interested, and most of all kind. They all showed an extraordinary level of kindness to me and my wide eyed son.
Justin Allgaier high-fived Jack, listened while he told Justin how to win at Daytona, and took a nice photo.
Brendan Gaughan also was extremely warm and kind.
These guys were about 2 hours away from driving 190 mph bumper to bumper, with fierce competition on the track as well as off it for sponsors, cars, and chances to move up to the Sprint Cup series. High pressure, high stakes, yet they were friendly and kind.
Are you and the people that work for you this focused on being nice to your customers no matter what the situation? Not just selling them something and cashing the check but caring enough about them and their interest in you and your products to be kind - and mean it.
I believe too much time is spent on training things like closing tricks, learning how to get past the gatekeeper, how to write the killer letter that opens the C suite, and other process oriented stuff (much it of dubious long term value). Kindness lasts - Jack and I will never forget the attitudes of these special drivers and we will be fans forever. People remember kindness because they probably do not see it very often from sales and customer service people.
Neither Justin nor Brendan won the race that day but they won two fans and showed in a memorable way how to make an impression and a 'sale' the right way.
Topics: Sales
