Whiner assembly xylophone...

A couple of weeks ago, I was working with my sales team on some strategy and getting the details out to the team by email on my iPhone.  I was typing away and autocorrect saved me several times as my thumbs flew over the virtual keyboard. I had several points and ideas and, but  realized that one single word can completely blow up your message and destroy your focus on sales endeavors.

I worked on this email for several minutes and in point 8, I talked about what you need to accomplish when you arrive at "each spot" or location. I can't even remember my point anymore, because when I typed "each" I must have hit the "w" instead of the "e" because my email now stated: When you arrive at "wax spot", not "each spot" like it was supposed to state.  Autocorrect changed it to "wax" for me. Great...?!

One of my coworkers responded with the following: "Sounds like a good plan. My question is about number 8; What is a wax spot?! Do we get this done at the salon before going on sales calls?" I sat back and thought about how unprofessional my email became. Instead of giving some good details on a plan, it became just funny and out of focus. 

I decided to turn it around and responded with the following:

"Whiner assembly xylophone" - you should know that. It's a common sales philosophy.

1. Whiner - find common ground in a complaint the customer has.

2. Assembly - put together a plan of attack using the complaint.

3. Xylophone - this instrument sounds nice and most people like it so play up thee complaint in a nice way until they love the sound and move on the sale.

4. The spot is just the location where you are.

Guess I should have put the explanation I the email. Sorry."

Had to come up with something to cover my failure.

Lessons Learned: Always proof read your emails. Be sure to have a good response for questions you are asked. Also, have fun with your failures...they really don't hurt you.

Thoughts: Have you ever embarrassed yourself with the written word?