Kim Carpenter & Associates, Case Study

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Sales manual for Xerox Business Services internal sales force

Background:

In a span of 5 years, Xerox Business Services (XBS) sales representatives had received (literally) hundreds of sales manuals. Each contained vital information and valuable advice, but the sales reps had severe information overload.

The approach:

Using humor, admittedly absurd puns, and lots of only slightly relevant trivia, we created a sales guide that was so silly it didn't seem like work to read it. As a result, XBS's sales force followed more of the procedures XBS management had implemented ... and sales increased.

From the introduction:

Cliches, proverbs and sayings have some fascinating origins -- as you'll find in this Guide. But first, here's a look at what kids think of some of the sayings we're so familiar with. A grade-school teacher gave each child in her class the first half of a common proverb and asked the students to complete it. Here's some of what she received.

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The introduction points out that XBS tried to make this "mother of all binders" both informative and entertaining -- including ridiculous trivia and the humorous origins of various sayings and cliches to entice readers to peruse the entire guide.

Chapter 4 explains how to exploit competitive weaknesses ... and gives a univocalic version of "Mary Had a Little Lamb," that is, a rewrite using a single vowel.

The sales guide's sidebar notes were sometimes useful and sometimes merely interesting, for instance explaining the origin of the phrases such as "saved by the bell" and "When in Rome, do as the Romans." The guide also addressed information overload with fun facts. For example, a single weekday edition of The New York Times contains more information than was known by the end of the 17th century. And the word "ucalegon" means a neighbor whose house is currently on fire.

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