In my days of selling I always breathed a sigh of relief  when I knew that I was competing against a salesperson from a multinational. I  mean, let’s face it, they are never going to go that extra mile necessary to  secure the order. It’s easier to feel comfortable within your own skin if you  know that you have undisputable control over the sequence of events that your  own agile enterprise delivers. There are no clumsy corporate systems that you have to comply with and your operation can spend time focussing on fitting into  the way that your client prefers for their systems.

A classic case in point was my experiences on the telephone  with the AA today. They did a sterling job of enveloping me inside their cumbersome and unfriendly telephone systems and internal bureaucratic bunkum.  None of the 3 telephone operators that I spoke to could do anything to reverse the downward spiral due to their own systems even when I pointed out that the renewal for our small fleet was up next month. So it’s Green Flag here we come!

But I once stumbled across an exceptional member of staff from a bank! Yes, one of the very same financial institutions that caused the 2008 global turmoil. Her name was Kath Bamber and she was our new Barclays Business Manager. Being professional was second nature  to her and I say this after only meeting her once and speaking with her on the  telephone twice. She must have left an impression for my 50 year old brain to  be able to recall her and both her names!

After a brief introduction we were seated and she eased into accruing the information that she needed whilst making notes. Although sat opposite, I could see that her handwriting was neat and uniform. She listened intensely to me rant on about what we businessmen love to talk about … ourselves and our successes. I think that her sixth sense was empathy.

But what struck me most and the reason that I remember this encounter after 5 years or so was her array of pens. Periodically she would put  down her blue pen and write a line of text in red. These were obviously action points and it helped her to win my confidence. It also prompted me to contemplate how little things like that make it so easy to outshine the competition.

I use this in numerous commercial scenarios and wanted to share it with others who are interested in continual development. To  this end I am giving away a FREE 4-colour biro to any of my Lancashire based followers on Twitter.

It’s not much but may assist you in employing a technique developed by a lady that  you haven’t met.  The only catch is that they sport our brand. Just direct message me with your preferred postal address details and we’ll post you it. It’s OK to tell a friend to follow and DM but I only bought 2,000 biros from http://twitter.com/Lovetobrand