A sponsored Silence £1000 raised for CMN – by NOT speaking for 24 hours
This challenge may sound easy for many, how difficult can it be? But for an experienced sales person not speaking is like asking an accountant to not use a spreadsheet or painter not to use a brush. Paul loves his Rugby and is known for leading the Rugby team songs some would describe him as super extrovert others as London Geezer.
What started as an idle challenge during a sales meeting turned into a 24 hour charity challenge where Paul did not speak for the entire day. Paul has been with his company for 13 years and would be described by many as a larger than life Sales leader who loves to talk! His commanding voice is one of the key tools of his trade.
In the face of much friendly barracking Paul was being tempted into taking the challenge on of keeping silent for the day, he jested that he would do it no problem if all the people ‘prodding’ him gave a charitable donation expecting no-one to put their money where their mouths were………………….. after a short pause the pledges came flooding in and approximately £1000 was raised in minutes. The Silence started!!
The next day taking the pain
The following day Paul was in a Sales planning workshop Paul could only communicate via email, messenger, writing and the power of mime. At one point he did try the Stephen Hawkins approach and use a computer software freeware which converted his emails to electronic voice, this was immediately dismissed as not sporting.
Paul is known to many across his business who will know this was a particularly tough task to overcome especially when some of the subject matters needing to get resolved were very close to Paul’s heart Sales commission pay plans. One of Paul’s ‘Friends’ Tom Edmonds also added to the tension by contacting Paul’s wife to ensure that the challenge continued at home until Midnight, Paul’s wife was very pleased to help out.
Paul successful completed the task and took great pleasure in letting as many people as possible know at 1 minute past midnight.