The Tale of Two Sales

Here is a tale of two sales. I’ll let you get to the end to decide which has a happy ending.

Tale #1: A 65-year-old man takes his daughter out to dinner at a very popular chain Italian restaurant. He prides himself in being a bit of a picky diner, who demands the very best when he goes out for dinner. Tonight, the restaurant isn’t too crowded and the waitress comes to the table in a reasonable amount of time. Her attitude is a bit brusk when she rattles off the specials. She brings the drinks and the free re-fill on the salad and breadsticks without saying a word and just slaps it down on the table. By the time the man opens his mouth to ask for another napkin, she's gone with the wind.

When the man’s entrée arrives – pasta with meatballs – it’s obvious that there is only a tiny amount of sauce on what’s basically a field of beige pasta. The man politely asks for a little bit more sauce. The waitress puts her hands on her hips and explains the rules, “Sir, the sauce is measured out at exactly 4 ounces and I need to charge you $1 for more sauce. Can you pay another dollar?” The man is surprised and embarrassed, but agrees to pay the dollar because the pasta dish looks so unappealing with such little sauce. The waitress takes her time coming back with the sauce, too.

Tale #2: The same man takes his daughter out to another chain Italian restaurant. The waiter is jovial and takes two-minutes to joke through the specials even though the restaurant is very crowded. He makes fun of the huge portions and suggests that the two people share the pasta dish.

He brings the drinks and more bread with a smile on his face. He doesn’t even mind when the diner asks him to heat up the bread a bit. It comes back hot and in about two minutes. When the pasta dish arrives, the diner asks the waiter for a little bit more sauce. The man brings a coffee mug full of it and doesn’t say a word. Is this against “the rules?” Maybe yes. Maybe no. No one rattles off the rules.

The point here is that the Olive Garden messed up. In sales, the last thing a customer needs to hear is the salesperson (even a waiter) talk down to him and rattle off a list of rules as if you’re in the principal’s office. It not only ruins the entire current experience, but ensures there will never be another. Asking someone "if they can pay" something as measly as a dollar is insulting.

The second restaurant was Buca de Bepo in the same town. They couldn’t do enough to make sure a large crowd of people on a Friday night were happy and content – even if it meant another few cents of tomato sauce being shipped over to a table…for free. By the way…that same customers has been back to Buca five more times over the last several months, but tells everyone he can that the Olive Garden has a rude staff and bad pasta. The man spends his days at a local community pool. At last estimate, he has probably told 50 people that the Olive Garden in his town has rude waitresses and bad food. Can you imagine how many people those 50 people have told?

As a salesperson, you make the call.

Isn’t it worth it to give a little extra sauce -- no matter what you're selling ? I promise if you do that your plate will be full for a long time.