It happened in September 1999, when I was having my hardships achieving my monthly quota in Singapore. It was almost the end of the month, and I had no idea where to find my prospective customers. It always happens to a salesman when he suddenly feels tired or frustrated on looking for his targets.

It was an ordinary day, ordinary afternoon. The weather was crazy hot and humid. I was in my office busying calling my customers to find out who would possibly buy my products, when the receptionist received a call for maintenance. It sounded like the customer's fax machine was down and they were in a rush to send some important invoices to their overseas buyers. Faxing to overseas buyers? I murmured, thinking instinctively this might be an opportunity for me to talk about the benefits my new digital products could bring to them.

It so happened that all the technicians were outside repairing our products. So I told my manager I would go there to take a look at the machine. It took me half an hour to get there by bus. I was surprised to see the customer own one whole building. Just thinking maybe I could help the customer fix the fax machine, I went in the lift, which took me to the fourth floor. I had a habit when being a salesman. I liked to go into a bathroom to make sure I look good before I visit my customers. So I washed my face, combed my fair and smiled at myself to relax and keep conscious. Before I stepped into the office, I didn't realize that this visit would become my most successful selling case in my career life!

A good-looking, young, Malay girl led me to the admin manager. She told me her name is May. The manager looked quite handsome too. From his name card I found his name is Chen Tingjian, and immediately I realized he is not a Singaporean. Because it's written in Pinyin, while the Singaporeans would use "Tan" for "Chen" instead.

People from mainland of China could hardly recognize the surnames of Singaporeans. Just make some examples: The Singaporeans use Ho for He, Cheong for Zhang, Ng for Huang and Chu for Zhao. I once met a girl, and her name is Lo Lai Ha. It sounded so funny in Pinyin that I couldn't help asking her for the right answer. She told me her name in Pinyin is Luo Caixia. Will you believe it???

I didn't talk anything about my business and my products at first with Mr. Chen. We talked the relationship between Mainland and Taiwan; we talked about living in Singapore as a foreigner; we talked the girls here and leisure activities with colleagues. That's what I used to do when trying to propose a product of mine. I wanted to make him feel close to me. The professional saying is: Break the icy barrier between you and your customers before you wanna talk about your business.
(To be continued)
P.S: hehe, it's late, and I feel lazy to finish this. Will get it done tomorrow.
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