Prefer to read this in Spanish? You can find the full Spanish version here
What Makes You Memorable?
It was 2002. I was about to turn 24.
A manager I had back then — John Tweedale, someone who genuinely cared about my development — convinced me that the best master’s degree to understand a business was simple: sell, spend time with customers, and listen.
That advice is what pushed me into sales.
We did receive formal sales training. It was structured, thorough, and well designed.
But once training was over, the real learning started. You were sent out to shadow experienced salespeople.
In my case, I was assigned to spend a couple of days visiting universities with Faye Upfield — a true legend.
My role was to observe. To take notes. To see how what we had learned actually played out in real conversations, before being sent out on my own territory.
That’s how one of the most valuable lessons of that period began.
We were on a follow-up visit. Faye had already introduced herself, made an impact, we were sitting with the professor, and she started the conversation. Since the book had already been sent, she asked quite naturally:
“Have you had a chance to review the book I sent you?”
The professor looked surprised.
“Well… I haven’t received it yet.”
Faye seemed genuinely puzzled.
“That’s odd,” she said.
She looked around the room and — to my surprise, and the professor’s — leaned down towards the bin. Slowly. Almost instinctively. She pulled out the copy of the manual she had sent him and said:
“Here it is.”
Complete silence.
The professor turned bright red.
Faye immediately realised what she had just done and started blushing herself.
And there I was, completely stunned, watching a sales move that had definitely not been covered in any training session.
“It must have fallen off the desk and I didn’t notice,” the professor said, trying to break the tension.
I don’t know who started laughing first — Faye, me, or all of us at once — but once it started, it took a while to stop.
I can guarantee that was a memorable visit.
For me.
For Faye.
And I’m certain, for the professor too.
Faye went on to secure many adoptions at that university. And I’ve reflected on that visit many times since.
The sales training we received was very good. I still use it today. It gave me structure.
But what Faye gave me was just as important — if not more:
any framework only works if it adapts to who you are. It has to feel natural. Genuine. Never forced.
Faye wasn’t exceptional because she followed the training better than anyone else.
She was exceptional because she made it her own — blending structure with her personality, warmth, and unpredictability.
We all have something that can make us memorable.
It might be your sense of humour.
Your smile.
Your attention to detail.
Your discretion.
Your ability to listen.
Your commitment to your word.
Whatever it is — make it visible.
Be memorable.
That has been, if not the most important, certainly one of the defining traits of my career — and even my social life.
Being memorable also means there will be people who don’t like you. People more comfortable surrounded by mediocrity than by something different. Ignore them. They don’t matter. Envy is corrosive — distance helps.
And don’t misunderstand me: don’t force it. Don’t start digging books out of trash cans.
But find what makes you different.
Don’t hide it.
Show it.
Build a process and a structure that work for you, never the other way around.
And now, are you ready to answer the question we started with?
What makes you memorable?
I’m listening,
Santi