Today, I witnessed a salesperson blow it. Big time.
First, he snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by misreading an objection and closing a door on a sale. Then, he blew up the relationship through a careless (mis)use of email.
Dude.
Watch the story, and please share yours! Whether in the comments, on your own blog, or on Twitter, I’m determined to rid the world of silly behavior, and I think one way to do it is to get these tales of unprofessionalism out in the open, where offenders can see them, see how ridiculous they are, and then maybe feel compelled to change their behavior. (Or at least think about it.)
(If you post, please: psuedonyms or first names only; this is meant to be enlightening, not vengeful.)
Jason Seiden is Co-founder and CEO of Ajax Social Media, a training company that shows professionals how use social media to work more effectively.
I'm the CEO of Ajax Social Media. We're helping 1 million people shine by making their online stories better. 
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BUSTED! Jason, I’m sorry it happened to you, but that’s a great story. And it’s powerful what you say: If you look at your sales prospects as “marks,” get out of sales. No truer words are spoken. Wow.
Nice work as always…and now I’m thinking about my story to get to you.
I’ve had that email debacle happen to me – someone sent an email that was intended to be about me, and not go to me. At first I was incredulous… then I had to laugh, because I know that it happens to many of us, and that I’d done something similar years ago via instant messaging. Anyway, a friend told her I’d received it, and the gal who sent it was ashamed and apologetic. I let it drop, because she was genuinely sorry. People can be petty, and careless, but you’re right, there’s really no such thing as a good excuse for it.
I’m working on leveraging technology and the whole WEB 2.0 with our current recruitment strategy. I wanted to share one that I got from one of our “candidates” via my Linkedin profile.
John,
I did apply at **’s website, but as any other company’s career website if you don’t have an inside connection to pull your name from the pile of resumes, it will ended up in the trash. I have the skills and the experience to take this internship to the next level. I just need to get the door open.
Hmmm, Let’s see. I’m in HR and we don’t put stuff in the trash.
I also received a doozy once. I was trying to buy a product from a vendor, but it did not seem to do what I needed. They had a similar product, which I asked the tech guy about. They tried to steer me away from it and toward product 1, but I inisited the features would not be enough. Tech guy doesn’t get back to me in a timely manner, so I ask the sales rep, who follows up with the tech guy.
The tech guy writes: To my dismay, we need to use product 2. <<<<DO NOT SEND THIS TO THE CUSTOMER!!!!!
Of course, sales rep forwards it to me with a note about here is the latest update, shall I write up a quote?
To which I reply: Don’t bother.
@Geno Nice reply. Remarkable what people will try to do to protect their ego… when a simple “oops” would solve the whole thing.