Hey folks,
Let me share with you a story which I heard and which I follow as a mantra for a Sales guy.
There were two friends, Ram and Shyam ,both Computer Engineers who had to appear for an Interview the next day.
Ram is very hard working and very nervous about the interview, he prepares every single subject he has read, all the programming languages, datastructures , Operating systems etc.
Shyam goes to read and learns an Essay on "The Cow" (Hindi mein GUY). Ram asks are you crazy, is that all you want to read for interview. Shyam confidently says thats all he needs to know.
Next day at the interview Ram goes for the interview, it lasts gruelling 2 hours and after the interview Ram is scared and nervously comes out of the room.
Shyam confidently enters the interview room, the interviewer asks him what would he like to start with, Shyam answers "The Cow".
So the Interviewer asks him "tell me something about the Cow".
Shyam answers "The cow is a very useful animal, it gives us milk. From the milk we make butter, curd, ghee , cheese etc. Cow has 2 horns, Cow has 4 legs, It has one tail. Cow is called as mother..."
Interviewer says " Enuf, tell me something about Mango tree"
Shyam says "Mango tree gives us mango, it has lots of green leaves, it has a thick bark. You can tie a rope to the bark, you can tie a cow to the rope, Cow is a very useful animal, It gives us milk, from milk we make butter, curd, ghee, cheese etc. Cow has 2 horns...."
Interviewer says "Stop, now tell me something about the farm".
Shyam says " Farmer does farming in the farm , he works very hard, when he gets tired he comes and sits under the mango tree, mango tree has green leaves, it has a thick bark, you can tie a rope to the bark, you can tie a cow to the rope, Cow is a very useful animal, It gives us milk, from milk we make butter, curd, ghee, cheese etc. Cow has 2 horns...."
Interviewer gets frustrated and thinks this guy is trying to outsmart him, so let me ask him something that he cannot answer.
He asks "Shyam tell me something about helicopter".
Shyam says : " Helicopter is a flying machine, it can fly vertically, it can fly over the cities, rivers , farms. You can see the farmer in the farm, resting under the mango tree mango tree has green leaves, it has a thick bark, you can tie a rope to the bark, you can tie a cow to the rope, Cow is a very useful animal, It gives us milk, from milk we make butter, curd, ghee, cheese etc. Cow has 2 horns...."
The Moral of the story : A good sales man is like Shyam he may not know a lot of things but he knows about his cow and always brings the customer to the qualities of the same.

heh heh! so finally who get the job?
Wonderful Post. Really funny and yet very useful. You hit the nail right on the head.
@acts_aug2007 , I m a salesman, I heard the story till "the cow" only :)
I think no got the job but the interviewer lost his ...
@shyguy: Well Shyam did answer to all his questions :)