Selling Crab Cakes And a Pissed Off Meter Maid.

Let’s talk random “sales-pitchery”…

Have you ever encountered the angry parking meter maid who puts a ticket under your windshield wiper as you’re getting back to your car to put a few more quarters in the parking meter. You run up out of breathe and eager to explain why you were 7.5 minutes late.  Meanwhile, she just stands there glaring at you, knowing that she isn’t going to budge one inch.

No matter how loud you get or how pitiful you become slobbering over your pleas for mercy, she isn’t haven’t having any of it.

Think about it.  Have you ever talked a meter maid into ripping up a ticket?  Have you?

Forget about that Shark Tank reality show on ABC.  The real shark tank is you right there in that moment on your hands and knees trying to talk your way out of a $25 parking violation.

Which is altogether different than the gentle “I guarantee you’ll like them” manipulation you might exert on your Friday-night date asking how good the crabcakes are.

And guess what?  Even if she does shrug off your machismo attempts at chivalry and chooses the Cob Salad, you are hardly likely to fall to your knees and start begging her to “give seafood another chance”.  In fact, the words, “you won’t regret it” probably won’t enter into the conversation.  You’ll move on.  Paying enough attention to your manners to warrant a good night kiss — or perhaps something more.

Imagine using the same sales pitch on the pissed-off meter maid as you did your girlfriend?  Objective gentleness.  Would chivalry earn you more lenience?  A kind touch and tolerant attitude?

Who knows.

On one hand, you can make the case that I am full of myself and the whole discussion is just random “blog post puffery”.

And maybe you’re right.

But maybe — just maybe — there is a point to this whole chicanery.  Maybe people are different and you need to sell to them differently.

Maybe you need to think about how you like to buy. And then start selling that way.

Maybe that’s all you need to be outrageously successful.

This post was first written (in a slightly different format) for Sales Bloggers Union.  I write there once a month with a dozen other sales gurus as we share different opinions on the same topic.  Here are a few other articles I’ve written there.