Tone what down?

Image by James Willamor via Flickr

Now that I am relatively settled in Charlotte(meaning that I know where to buy food, where to work out, I have an office, I’m barred from the nearest pub and I only get lost once a day), I have turned my attention to building my local network. Charlotte is somewhat late to the social networking thing, and is located in the South, so I’ve dusted off my sport coats (so poorly named) and have set out to connect the old fashioned way- in person. Much to wife’s chagrin, I have been accepting every invitation I can muster to meet Linked In friends-of- friends, Jigsaw members, local business leaders, street vendors, traveling minstrels- anyone who will accept an invitation to lunch or let me into their gathering.  During one such meeting, I came face to face with a condition that I think will require some thought on my part- namely the collision of my online (and thus actual) personality with the sensibilities of the typical Charlottean.

The case in point occurred during a workshop event sponsored by the BIG council at the Duke mansion. Bill Whitley, who I’ve only just met but like immensely, was enlightening a group of local entrepreneurs with his own brand of sales training centered around creating an engaging story for prospects. Basically his philosophy is that sales people need to create a “customer attraction story” that immediately piques the prospect’s interest and then serves as a core bond as they go through the various steps in a sales conversation or presentation. After relaying some particularly compelling examples and outlining the basic structure that all of these descriptions should have in common, he invited each participant to quickly write down their own customer story and then present to the table.

There aren’t a lot of things that I consider myself great at (obviously sentence structure isn’t one of them), but I can tell a story. After listening patiently through a few serviceable attempts, I was ready to rock the house. I didn’t even write anything down- I just adapted one of my many sales anecdotes into Bill’s format and launched in.  It was supposed to be a couple minutes, but judging by the smiling faces I went a little over the time limit- just to build the punch line- after which I was expecting to receive my usual accolades for humor, energy, personality, whatever.  Well, you can imagine my letdown when I focused my eyes (I get excited when I talk) and realized that my rocket had missed its mark. In fact, the first person to critique questioned my “flippant tone” and admonished me for “challenging the customer, when I didn’t know everyone involved.”  Even though everyone assured me that I had good enthusiasm, I felt like Michael Moore presenting at a GM stockholder meeting.

Image via Wikipedia

I’ve been in sales all my life- and I know that it is all about finding common ground with your customer, your community, your audience. Taking a guy who has always been on the edgy, confrontational, irreverent, and informal side, even for Boston and San Francisco, and plopping him down in a Southern city known for banking and church attendance is bound to make some waves. But this city’s economy is in a time of enormous transition (and thus potential), and I think there is plenty of room in the conversation for someone like me. I plan on bursting onto both the established business community AND the burgeoning Social Media scene here, and welcome challenges from all comers.

But don’t worry, Charlotte. I’ll keep my clothes on, pick up the check, listen first, and always keep my politics to myself.