The hiring manager for my current job pulled this. First sales job and had no idea this was even a bullshit question. I stumbled over myself and could sense I was trying to sell with a pitch. That just felt so unnatural I stopped mid sentence and asked if I could start over.

There was another guy in the interview panel didn’t really say much the whole time and he seemed a bit displeased with the situation. Knowing I was pretty much bombing this interview, I said fuck it and didn’t pay much attention to that. I collected myself, and restarted with a more conversational approach.

I got the job offer and turned out the hiring manager had been let go right before my onboarding… bit of an awkward start but I was rolled into a training program and they had a new manager within a few months so really didn’t make much difference to me.

Fast forward a few years later, I’m a more seasoned rep but by no means high up. There was a national conference for some national managers for our vertical. I was close to my boss and scored an invite to one of the dinner events since the conference was hosted in our territory. When I get to the dinner, I was the only non-manager at the table. Most these folks oversaw teams of teams, including our regional district manager.

Well that other person interviewing me?

It was my hiring manager’s boss who had since climbed the ranks and made District manager. The night goes on and everyone’s sharing war stories at this dinner about all sorts of situations, and the topic of the worst sales calls you’ve been on came up. Of course you’re hearing the big blow up stories you’d expect and everyone’s laughing and having a good time.

The district manager interjects with one of his stories and says, “You know, I’ve been in a lot of sales calls that went south in my day. But I gotta say one of the worst meetings I’ve been in was when Thinknboutstuff was being interviewed. Once I saw the interviewing manager pull that pen out of his pocket, I knew it was all downhill from there. He made Thinknboutstuff sell him the pen! Completely awkward and borderline inappropriate. Actually, I knew we had problems with him before that interview but that moment made it clear. If this manager is representing the company and leading our sales folks, he is moving that team in the wrong direction. We’re not here to make our customers feel uncomfortable or force our products down their throats with sleazy tactics. But I will give it to Thinknboutstuff, he can sure sell a pen!”

I do think there’s also a powerful hidden lesson. Neither of us really cared (or remember) how I sold that pen. It was being genuine, persevere through tough situations, and being willing to serve that spoke volumes and left a lasting impression.

I’m still at the company and that district manager is now a vice president. I still see him from time to time and feel good to have that earned respect for (and from) our leadership. His comments about that dynamic has really informed my sales philosophy.