A salesman went to his dentist because he felt something wrong in his mouth. The dentist examined him and said, "That new upper plate I put in six months ago is eroding. What have you been eating?"
The salesman replied, "All I can think of is that about four months ago, my wife made some asparagus and put some stuff on it that was delicious.... hollandaise sauce. I loved it so much, I now put it on everything, meat, toast, fish, vegetables, everything!"
"Well," said the dentist, "That's probably the problem, Hollandaise sauce is made with lots of lemon juice which is highly corrosive. It's eating away at your upper plate. I'll make you a new plate, and this time I'll use chrome."
"Why chrome?" asked the salesman.
The dentist replied, "It's simple. Everyone knows that there's no plate like chrome for the hollandaise!"
Moral of the story. As a professional salesperson make sure you fully qualify all of your prospects by asking them exactly "how" they are going to use your product or service. This line of questioning will often lead to upsell opportunities but more importantly it will ferret out unrealistic expectations of your product or service that you will be able to address well before your prospect makes their purchase. In the long term full qualification and customer expectation alignment will result in more satisfied customers and more repeat business.
