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Did you happen to catch last week's episode of The Office? (It played on Oct 21, 2010)

If you are a fan and haven't watched it yet, stop reading this email and refer back to it when you have watched the episode — spoiler alert!

For those of you who watched it, or those of you who will never watch it, here is a very brief recap:

Michael, Jim and Dwight are outsold by a GREAT salesman and they a) try to “steal” his techniques and then, when they fail utterly, b) “steal” him from his current
employer.

I am a TV talker on the best of days and watching particular episode I was loudly involved.

Dissecting this show will, without a doubt, make you a better sales person. So, lets dissect.

1. Jim & Dwight have a meeting with a client and they see their most fierce competitor in the waiting room. They get psyched out and call in Michael. Dwight tries
   to antagonize and threaten the competitor; Jim is embarrassed.
   Michael is embarrassing. In the meeting, before even listening to
   the client, Micheal offers to sell at price to retain his loyalty.

What NOT to do:

• don't harrass or threaten your competition. It makes it obvious to everyone that they are a threat to you, and that is NOT the reputation you want to build for
  yourself

• don't let your competition get under your skin. Watch, learn and adapt.

• DON'T ever give away your whole margin unless it's going to REALLY pay off. A whole year's worth of product at cost is NOT a healthy decision for your company. You need
  a better plan of action for customer loyalty. Back to the drawing
  board, folks.

2. Micheal, Jim and Dwight decide to trick the competing salesman, Danny, into revealing his sales tricks so that they can steal them.

What is WRONG with this situation?

• If you have to trick your competitor into revealing their sales secrets, you could probably better spend your time and energy on getting some REAL sales
  coaching. Learn how to sell your own products better, rather than
  copying what others are doing.

• Sales should never be about “tricks”. Sell honestly and your customers will recognize your integrity and stick with you.

3. When Micheal, Jim and Dwight learn ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about salesmanship from their sad little ruse, Micheal offers Danny a job.

What can you LEARN from this?

• actually, this is the first SMART thing Micheal did all episode (even considering he finally learned how to ride a bike without training wheels). There is a popular
  cliché, “Can't beat 'em, join 'em”. I strongly suggest taking
  this with a grain of salt, but if there is a great employee out
  there, why not ask them to join your team? Ironically, Micheal had
  to conduct some pretty impressive and HONEST sales speak to get
  Danny to agree. If only he was this REAL when trying to gain
  clients.

4. Jim, Dwight and the rest of the Dunder Mifflin sales staff get furious at Micheal for hiring someone who is going to steal their sales.

What BEHAVIOUR should be left behind in Grade School?

• If you think there is someone on your TEAM who is a great sales person, try learning from them rather than viewing them as a threat. Friendly competition encourages us
  all to improve ourselves and our skill sets.

Oh boy. One of my favorite things about being in the sales industry is that there are always people doing really stupid things that you can learn from and NOT do.

Being great at salesmanship is very important, but it is almost as important to be selling products you believe in, stand behind and, of course, make money on. Don't go
giving away your margins, for goodness sakes!

Happy selling!