spartacus53
Banned
- Jul 5, 2009
- 10,503
- 1,073
- Detector(s) used
- Ace 250
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
Not everything I say is original, but I do come up with more than enough original lines and ideas. Sometimes it's best to resort to a line that is already out there waiting to see the light of day again.
When I worked for Polish Ocean Lines, we had a sailing schedule that was not competitive with our competition, due to our call port rotation. There was a big push for exports going to Antwerp at the time and out transit time was 14 days, because we were making our calls to Europe counter clockwise.
Sailing from NY, BALT, NFK, SAV, Le havre then Antwerp was 14 days. By switching to a clockwise schedule NY to Antwerp was now 7 days.
We were told to hit the streets and alert everyone of the improved transit time. I had no problem in doing this, but I like to make that presentation in style by using humor. I was with my then Sales Manager, who was a joke, as I outsold him hand over fist. For our first call I was just asking about their volumes to Antwerp, without making any reference to the schedule yet. Once she started talking, she was telling us of all the good freight to be had. She was very familiar with our company and old schedule with the slow transit time. Now was the time to interject. I said excuse me, but our transit time from NY to Antwerp is 7 days. She was now impressed and was asking what were the changes to make this happen. I just sat back, grabbed a lapel in each hand and said, "Our boats have 3 propellers". She just started to laugh, almost uncontrollably.
When we left her office, my manager started yelling at me. "Why did you tell them our boats have 3 propellers"? I told him that it was a joke, and she got it. He was complaining that the customers would think our ships had 3 propellers, I told him, "What difference does it make, what they believe"?
A week later I had her freight
All thanks to the Honeymooner's Ralph Kramden 
When I worked for Polish Ocean Lines, we had a sailing schedule that was not competitive with our competition, due to our call port rotation. There was a big push for exports going to Antwerp at the time and out transit time was 14 days, because we were making our calls to Europe counter clockwise.
Sailing from NY, BALT, NFK, SAV, Le havre then Antwerp was 14 days. By switching to a clockwise schedule NY to Antwerp was now 7 days.
We were told to hit the streets and alert everyone of the improved transit time. I had no problem in doing this, but I like to make that presentation in style by using humor. I was with my then Sales Manager, who was a joke, as I outsold him hand over fist. For our first call I was just asking about their volumes to Antwerp, without making any reference to the schedule yet. Once she started talking, she was telling us of all the good freight to be had. She was very familiar with our company and old schedule with the slow transit time. Now was the time to interject. I said excuse me, but our transit time from NY to Antwerp is 7 days. She was now impressed and was asking what were the changes to make this happen. I just sat back, grabbed a lapel in each hand and said, "Our boats have 3 propellers". She just started to laugh, almost uncontrollably.
When we left her office, my manager started yelling at me. "Why did you tell them our boats have 3 propellers"? I told him that it was a joke, and she got it. He was complaining that the customers would think our ships had 3 propellers, I told him, "What difference does it make, what they believe"?
A week later I had her freight
All thanks to the Honeymooner's Ralph Kramden 
