get outta here

The Get Selling training course looms. According to The Bookseller, it’s all about ‘starting a conversation’ with the customer and matching them to exactly the right book. What am I, a social worker? And what kind of conversation? ‘You sound thick. Did you know that Jordan writes books?’

As it turns out though, only managers receive the raw, in-your-face, shock that is the Get Selling training course. They then pass it on to the minions. So although it may be a kind of brainwashing, it will be diluted. An e-mail came through today reassuring managers attending the course that it is nothing to worry about, although it will require ‘a certain amount of interactivity’ and, even more ominously, ‘a change of clothes.’ I suppose the change of personality comes free.

Even the name grates. Get Selling? You can almost hear the Family Fortunes buzzer signalling that nobody chose that one. Our studio audience preferred these phrases: get lost, get bent and - the most popular choice by far - get another job.