Embarrassing moments

'In a customer-facing role, you will be presented with limitless opportunity to make a complete and utter fool of your self''

An early piece of advice from a sales training course way back in the early '80s.  Having seen and taken a few of these opportunities, I would also add that for some unfathomable reason they always seem to occur in the same place meaning that, whilst most of your customers will view you with varying degrees of respect, a small handful will see you as at best incompetent and at worst a menace to society.

In my days of dealing with the motor trade the ultimate no-no was to drive through a showroom window (I have met a handful of people who actually did this); mindful of this caution, I put my own spin on things and actually walked through a plate-glass door (well, my knee was the only thing that actually went through). The noise and impact were spectacular - if not entirely conducive to good business relations.

When managing sales teams I used this information to try and coax out other embarrassing moments - partly for fun, partly to make people appreciate that they are not alone in looking foolish. Unfortunately only half of the people ever played the game, with the remainder split between dressing up a great result as an embarrassing act (the equivalent of listing being too determined as a weakness), or simply not acknowledging ever having embarrassed themselves; really? Never!? What a dull life...