
TAXI DRIVER
What reminded me of this was a recent trip I was on. I had to go through Paris several times over a 2 week period. So on the first trip out of CDG, I met a taxi driver who seemed great – clean, nice car, good driving skills and pleasant. I told him I had several more trips in and out of the airport as well as trips within the city. He eagerly gave me his card and told me to please use him for all the rides. I told him I’d take him up on it. He just got a nice sale!
I was ready for a calm ride after that and would have let it all slide and continued to use him. I understand that time lost is money lost. But nope, he had to do it, yep, bring up politics, and went so far as to say “how could you ever vote for a woman to run your country?” Needless to say I told him not to go there, but he wouldn’t give up. He kept pushing the issue to places where I just got fed up. I mean, at the end of the day I don’t need a debate on my taxi ride, I’d really rather catch up on business emails. When he dropped me off, I let him know I wouldn’t be needing his services any more. He lost a a big sale & good amount of certain income. F for his sales strategy.
SMART PR
The flip side, years ago I was at a well funded start-up and we were interviewing PR firms. I was meeting with the last company, and was so impressed hired them on the spot. After telling him to shoot over a contract and other docs, I’d never seen a guy wrap up a meeting so fast! He immediately stood up, said thanks, rounded up his team and bolted out the door. I talked to him later about it, and he said “what good would it do, at any time someone could have said something to screw the deal?!” Great point. He knew when to shut up. Great sales strategy.