After a major pivotal moment in my life, I’d left teaching and accepted a job in sales. It was a big change from what I was used to.
Back in the day, Xerox had one of the world’s best onboarding programs. We learned about our products, our potential buyers, how to be consultative, and much more.
To get certified, we also had to demonstrate to our training manager that we could give a complete demo of our newest product. We literally had to memorize a multi-page demo script and present it to our manager.
I’ll never forget it. It started like this:
Mr. Prospect, for years, Xerox has designed copiers to satisfy the needs and requirements of our customers. Our experience and success in the industry is based on these three factors:
1.) Ease of operation
2.) Copy quality
3.) Reliability
Which of these is most important to you?
After finding out, we’d move into our full demonstration, highlighting the copier’s wonderful capabilities.
The first time I did it with a real customer, I nailed it. Literally word-for-word. I was so proud of myself.
Then, at the end, before I closed the order, I asked, “Mr. Prospect. Do you have any other questions?”
He looked at me and said, “No. You’ve been very thorough, Jill. But .... my name is not Mr. Prospect.”
That was the moment I wanted to die. Right then and there. I’d probably called him Mr. Prospect at least a dozen times.
I apologized profusely. I told him I was new. He said he could tell. And I honestly, I can’t remember if he bought a copier. Trauma erased that memory.
So how do you recover from something like that?
As a newbie in any endeavor, you’ll make mistakes. That’s why it’s essential to reframe your “failure” as a valuable learning experience.
When you do that, everything changes. You stop being so hard on yourself.
You quit trying to do things perfectly. Your stress level goes down, which frees your brain to think more clearly and creatively again.
If you’re an experienced professional, sometimes this is even tougher. You’re used to being competent. Now you’re screwing things up royally, and that’s tough to handle.
You’re at a choice point.
You can either live in fear of failure, becoming only a fraction of the person you’re meant to be.
Or you can embrace your mistake, recognizing it as the valuable learning experience it is. Then, throw yourself into figuring it out.
It works!
