One of my most memorable sales occurred about 10 years ago while I was working for IBM as a marketing representative in Portland, Oregon.

Other salesmen had warned me about Mr. Smith (not his real name). He didn’t like salesmen and enjoyed making them look like fools when they came to call. But, he was the president and owner of the company and if a sale of capital equipment (computers) was going to be made, Mr. Smith would have to approve it.

As I entered the front door, I saw Mr. Smith back in his office. I announced to Mrs. Jones, the receptionist and Mr. Smith’s secretary, who I was and that I would like to have no more than 10 minutes of Mr. Smith’s time. I smiled and handed her my card. She answered coolly that she would inform Mr. Smith that I wished to see him. She took my card into Mr. Smith’s office and closed the door. A moment later the door opened and Mrs. Jones returned. She handed back my card which had been torn in half and said sadly, “Mr. Smith didn’t say anything but I don’t think he wants to see you today.” Undaunted, I asked Mrs. Jones if I could borrow her stapler. As she watched, I stapled my card back together with three neat staples down the middle. Then I ran a row of staples around the outside edges of the card so that each staple just overlapped the previous one. If Mr. Smith was going to tear my card in two again, he was going to have to work at it.

Again I asked Mrs. Jones to announce my presence to Mr. Smith, I promised not to take more than ten minutes of his time, and I asked her to extend my apologies to Mr. Smith because I had such a flimsy calling card. With a slight smile and a twinkle in her eye, she took my stapled card into Mr. Smith and closed the door.

When the door opened again Mr. Smith emerged, holding my stapled card and chuckling. “You from IBM?” he bellowed. “Come on back, you’ve earned your 10 minutes.”

Over a period of several more appointments, Mr. Smith purchased a computer for his company and became one of my best customers. The day the computer was delivered, I brought Mrs. Jones a rose in a bud vase.