Last week, my fiancé (yes, I’m engaged) and I had a conference call with a potential vendor. We were pretty jazzed about hiring her after studying her website, but when we finally all got on the phone, she would not shut up. It was almost comical.

She did a 10 minute run-on sales pitch that left us exhausted.

The interesting part is that she ALREADY
had the job before she started talking.

We were all set to hire her. But her nerves, insecurity and poor sales-woman-ship did her in.  The thought of having this hyped up “Chatty Kathy” at my wedding made me ill. I looked at my husband-to-be who was across the room on the second phone and swung my fingers at my throat mouthing the words, “No way.”

The fact that this woman already had the job is the interesting part of the equation. I think this is frequently the case with sales situations. Every time anyone of us looks into hiring a staff member, vendor, agent or representative of some sort, we are HOPING that this person will be “the one”.  None of us wants to keep researching and interviewing.

Nye Heron who ran the Irish Arts Center in NYC taught me that lesson years ago. He explained, “Most actors come into an audition thinking they have to win the part. The fact is, every actor already has the part before they arrive. Their job is not to lose it.”  He explained how bit by bit, actors can lose the job once they arrive—because they don’t have the acting chops, don’t take direction well, lack the emotional depth or comedic skills required, or have the wrong attitude.

It was an eye opening shift in perspective and it is one worth thinking over the next time you’re up for a gig. You might already have the job. To be sure, one of the fastest ways to lose it is to talk too much. As Calvin Coolidge said, “No man ever listened himself out of a job.”