It was a long two hour car ride with the worst manager of my life.

We were driving to a customer site deep in the hills of Pennsylvania. Other than grilling me on deals, there wasn’t too much chit-chat between us. The mood was sullen because it was 2009 and given the financial crisis we were in, deals were not closing and the pressure from on high was intense.

The uncomfortable silences must have gotten to him because he began to tell me stories of the best reps who had worked for him over the years.

One story has always stuck with me.

It was a great example of going above and beyond to stand out to decision-makers.

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The Story of Mark and the Baseball Cards

Mark was an early-40-something and an extremely ambitious rep. He was known as the go-to guy to bring in large deals and was at the end of a long and winding sales cycle, which took over an entire year.

It was an ERP deal at Oracle. Competition with SAP was fierce and this was a must-win deal for both rivals. It came down to a final presentation to the buying committee chaired by the customer CEO.

Mark had spent weeks preparing his team to deliver the readout of the proof of concept they had run. The results were good but not amazing. He knew the PoC numbers alone would not win the day.

Beyond depending on a technical win he planned something… extra.

The presentation took its course and after the SME’s had played their parts Mark made his concluding remarks highlighting the key ways his product was the best and safest path for the customer’s project to succeed.

His master stroke came next.

Mark walked over to the CEO (Mike) as everyone was gathering their things to leave the conference room and said:

“Mike, it’s been a great ride working with you and your team in this process. I appreciate its importance given the level of your personal investment of time which you have spent getting into the details. I remembered the story you shared over dinner a few months ago about how your grandfather was a professional baseball player before World War II. I could see how much his legacy meant to you. That story stuck with me so much that I kept an eye out and found this when I happened to be browsing at a flea market.”

Then Mark reached into his pocket and retrieved an old baseball card encased in a clear plastic cover. It was the baseball card of the CEO’s grandfather.

Mark said,

“As you had mentioned, your grandfather was never really famous but I thought it would mean something to you so I went ahead and got it. Here you go.”

The CEO’s eyebrows shot up as he stared at the baseball card.

He shook his head in disbelief.

But Mark wasn’t finished. He then said:

“And I also remembered that as you told me about your grandfather you mentioned how you would tell your son stories about him and the lessons you learned from him. I dug a little deeper and wouldn’t you know, I found a second baseball card of your grandfather as well. Please pass this along to your son.”

Mark produced the second card from another pocket and handed it to the CEO.

The CEO was visibly emotional. This was a completely unexpected gesture and clearly impacted him deeply.

"Wow Mark, I’m speechless. I didn’t even know they made a card for my grandad, let alone that there were two out there in the world. I can’t thank you enough.”

They shook hands and parted ways.

Whether it was the impact of the gifts or not, Mark won the deal.

It was the largest deal in his region that year, closing well into the millions.

As my manager and Mark walked to their cars to leave my manager said, “You didn’t just ‘happen to find’ those baseball cards did you?”

Mark said, “I had to go to six flea markets and sport memorabilia dealers to find them. Took me weeks.”

The point I take from this story is not that we should all go find meaningful gifts to influence our buyers.

The point is that whether it’s gifting, research, making connections, whatever - the lengths we go to to nail the outcome will speak volumes to our buyers.

Until the next edition, happy selling.

Jamal

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