Mr. Shmooze: The Art and Science of Selling Through Relationships

Chapter 9. War Whoops from the Managers

The next day, Mr. Shmooze and I found ourselves on the highway heading to the world headquarters of a major soft drink company. It was a gathering of its sales managers from around the country and Mr. Shmooze was the featured speaker on the first morning of the meeting.

"These folks are really smart," said Shmooze, sipping coffee as he maneuvered into the shared ride lane. "Most companies concentrate their training on their salespeople. Very few of them understand how important it is to also support the sales managers. Coaches need training, too! Hell, we all need help from time to time."

Before I knew it, we were on a stage facing about a hundred, predominantly Type-A sales managers. Needless to say, their tables were filled with various soft drink products. One thing stood out, however. A book by Daniel Goleman called Emotional Intelligence had been placed on each chair. A ribbon was placed around it that read, "Please do not open."

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our annual meeting of sales managers. Thank you so much for making the commitment to come and share ideas with us and with each other." The emcee went on for several more minutes before introducing Mr. Shmooze with the words, "We would like to open the meeting by spending some time with a man many of you already know. He has told me that he will help each of us make more money and have more fun doing it, guaranteed! Here is ... Mr. Shmooze!" Mr. Shmooze strode confidently to the ...