IBM
0174 IBM My Sales Training
My first six months at IBM were great fun. After all I had a job, when I had begun to fear that I would never get one again! Furthermore, the intellectual achievements involved - in learning so much technical data and so many languages - was very stimulating. In addition, the branch manager, Ron Davies, was very friendly and a great supporter. For once I felt quite secure and happy.
This came to the end when a new branch manager was appointed and turned out to be something of a bastard. He put a lot of unnecessary pressure on me.
In addition I was then moving onto sales training, and I felt very unsure about this. Not least, I was lacking confidence and didn't really see myself as a salesman. This wasn't helped by the criticism I received in the dummy calls that I made. The criticism was, I am sure, very well-intentioned; though later on, when I was on the other side of the desk as a sales training instructor in IBM, I thought some of my colleagues got pleasure from destroying the confidence of the people they taught. It was only when I made a really excellent call, almost by mistake - it was the first time I reacted naturally and that was exactly what I needed to do, that I started gaining some confidence.
Thus, I progressively gained confidence through all my courses - until I came to Sales School
In this time I went round supporting various salesmen in Richmond branch. I remember going into British Airways with the IBM salesman for this account. The British Airways computer operations centre had a number of IBM's largest computers installed. It even had one which they didn't know what do with, since it was located in a side room. So it was just used for testing. The centre was, though, immediately under the flight path into Heathrow. Planes thundered overhead, only 50-70 feet above us. As, even by that time, their business depended on the computers driving its network terminals across the world, this seemed to me to be an accident waiting to happen. Fortunately it never happened before the systems were relocated off the airport.
I wasn't impressed with the IBM salesman, since he knew very little about the technical side of the equipment and seemingly even less about customers business! He must have done something right, though, since he later became the general manager of the whole United Kingdom! But, perhaps, that was indicative that even within IBM politics got you further than ability!
As the final Sales School - which essentially tested your sales ability - approached, I started getting quite nervous. The sales job is one where you live on your nerves. Your job is only as safe as your next sale, and -- especially in IBM -- your performance over the year. Fail and you are shown the door. That was how I felt, anyway, even as a trainee.
As I have indicated, the climax of training for salesmen was Sales School. The equivalent for systems engineers was about testing their technical abilities and knowledge, but Sales School was all about selling skills.
Sales School comprised, in its entirety, a series of the test calls and presentations. I viewed its approach with terror. Almost immediately before, we had gone down - with Pat's mother - to a static caravan we had hired at Bognor Regis. It was relaxing, I suppose, but I was aware that overhanging it was the Sales School. However, I went into the Sales School well prepared. Not least, I had the best set of magic markers you ever saw, and I still have two of those in use after 30 years!
To my surprise, I started to do rather well. Indeed by two-thirds of the way through, when we were coming up to the last presentations, I was doing very well -- as were the other members of my team. Accordingly, the sales trainers suggested that we took a very risky approach to the final presentations. I don't know whether this was them being nasty, since I saw similar things happen when I was in the Sales School team later, but whatever the reason the presentation was a disaster. Accordingly, it really was touch and go when we came to the end of the course. I scraped through, but barely.
Even so, I was now a fully fledged salesman and joined the others at the traditional dinner in the luxurious hotel next door. It was an interesting meal, not least since Eddy Nixon, the chairman of IBM UK, joined us and let us into some secrets. I remember that then, at the end of 1972, he described a computer of the future. It would be as powerful as the biggest IBM computers and yet it would fit into a teacup. We believed him, since IBM's technical expertise then was at its peak. Even so it was nearly 30 years before it was to happen!
So, there I was; a fully fledged IBM salesman. I got back to the branch to have the manager greet me with “You only just scraped through, so you had better watch your step!”. This did nothing at all for my confidence.
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