I don’t know how you approach sales. Everyone has their own unique way of dealing with sales. I wanted to be different. I wanted to be remembered. I wanted to be creative and above all I wanted to make the whole thing fun. I believe that to truly engage others you need to not only project confidence but create an environment that invites people in. Makes them want to replicate what you are doing and have fun doing it. Whatever that might be. To make people laugh and enjoy what you are talking about to me was essential. I have participated in many sales presentations by others. Many of those did not offer me anything new or exciting. Didn’t move me to act. Didn’t engage me and motivate me to change anything I was doing. Right or wrong a sales presentation needs to offer some item or new way of doing things that causes a person to act and maybe try something new.
One of the things that I did was create characters to share the message. I probably went a bit overboard on this but it served me well over the years. In the beginning it was just characters in a skit. I became Dr. Bob on several occasions, pulling on the gloves and snapping them, offering potions or pills that might help, created selling kits to get people to act. I had a lot of fun creating the props and going through the items in the selling kit. It was great fun and helped involve the people I was presenting to. On another occasion I took the idea from Ghostbusters and called it Wastebusters and used the song that said, “who ya gonna call?” Of course they needed to call me for help to sell paper and place dispensers. I also used the “Hans and Franz” skit from Saturday Night Live. In this scenario me and a colleague were there to “Pump you Up”. Again a lot of fun and a way to motivate the participants to action.
Over the years I put together many such skits and presentations, with the thought that they would be remembered and more specifically that they would remember me and my company and our products. At the end of the day I wanted the sales reps to want to work with me to secure new business.
As life went on I created a couple of characters that really resonated with people in the industry. There were two characters that sort of epitomized what I was trying to do. The most notable was Kaptain Knapkin. My wife put together an outrageous outfit for the Kaptain. It was red, white and blue, included some spandex, gloves, a cape and a top hat all very colorful. He was a bit outrageous also and my point about the way that napkin was spelled was based on the fact that the Kaptain was more than napkins, hence the Knapkin spelling. For whatever reason the persona of Kaptain Knapkin really seemed to take on a life of its own. I was called Kaptain by customers, sales people, colleages and even other people in my organization and in the industry. To this day I cannot believe how powerful that character was for me and how it really became a badge of honor for me. Customers would ask if Kaptain Knapkin would be showing up for the next sales presentation, or at the next trade show and so on. I loved it when customers would refer to me as Kaptain Knapkin. At one point I ran out of business cards and called the office to order some more. The person at the mill ask what name I wanted on the cards and I said Bob Hunsinger aka Kaptain Knapkin. She said that she couldn’t do that and I told her not to worry and just put my name on the cards. About two weeks later I got my cards in the mail and they said on them Bob Hunsinger aka Kaptain Knapkin. I worked for a Fortune 500 company. I couldn’t believe it when I saw those cards. What an incredible thing for the company to do. It spoke volumes about the company I worked for and made a lasting impression on me. I saved some of those cards…they mean a great deal to me.
The latest character that I created was “Professor Peakserve”. Our company came out with a new product named Peakserve. It is truly one of the most revolutionary products in terms of paper towels that I have seen in over 30 years. It was absolutely worthy of a character to help promote it. I put together an outfit for the Professor. He had crazy hair like Albert Einstein, taped together glasses, a white lab coat and, of course a ridiculous pocket protector and saddle shoes. When he entered the room for a sales presentation he became the center of attention for the introduction of the Peakserve System. It was a lot of fun and certainly got the attention of everyone.
I used to joke that whenever I was in the car it became a little crowded with myself, Kaptain Knapkin and Professor Peakserve all in the car at the same time. Those alter egos served me well and certainly shined a light on our company, our products and myself as the representative of our company. It made life fun and interesting and led to much success.
Characters may not work for you. It really doesn’t matter. No two sales people are going to do the same things. I share these ideas with you so that you might create your own way of selling things. Things you feel comfortable with and things that will work for you. Enjoy sales…I believe it is the greatest job in the world. I also believe that if done right it can be the most rewarding job as well. Each day is a new day…it is only humdrum it you let it be. I faced each day with excitement and passion about what would happen that day. It made my 30 years in the business go by way too fast. I miss it, I miss the promise of the future and the opportunities to be creative. In my industry and certainly in my company I know there are many people who fondly remember Kaptain Knapkin and maybe even Professor Peakserve, I hope so.
