I walk into our conference room and the visiting presenting manager, salesman and sales engineer were waiting there to give us their “dog’n pony” in hopes of my organization partnering with them. I know all of presenters from a previous life. All very professional and successful in their own right. What happened next was incredibly short sighted on their part however. Below are my 5 takeaways from this experience.

1.) Assumed that we were all “buddies” and took personal liberties at my expense immediately in front of my boss. Also took on a very condescending tone. An “I will school you” approach.
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a.) Made fun of my social media prowess. I update LinkedIn regularly and am very active with this product. It has helped me with credibility, sales, hiring, and marketing.
b.) Commented on me personally about my age and looks. “Wow, Chris, your picture must have been taken some time ago on LinkedIn because you look a lot older in person”. You could have heard a pin drop after that comment.
As the strong influencer in the decision of whether to take on this product, or not, I was not impressed and quite honestly ticked off. With that said I continued on and took one for the team in an effort to help my company make a good decision. Now with a very critical eye however.
























