LeMay Strikes An Unspoken Deal With Nimitz

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When he arrived at his base, the conditions of the facilities were not great. At this moment in history, the Air Force was actually a branch under the Army called the US Army Air Corps.

People did not yet believe in the strategic power of the airplane. That changed during the course of the war, but when LeMay arrived at his new post, his forces were essentially viewed as “second class” troops. They had to sleep in Quonset huts and the facilities were primitive, to say the least.

The Navy Seabees were the ones who were building the landing strips as the US forces leapfrogged across the Pacific. There was competition between the branches of the military and LeMay used this to solidify a point.

LeMay thought the conditions he was put in were portugal telegram data deplorable. He was invited to a dinner with Admiral Nimitz, a fleet admiral of the United States Navy. When LeMay arrived, he was brought to Nimitz’ headquarters – essentially a palace by comparison. The meal was top-notch, very formal. Delicious. You would expect LeMay to lay into Nimitz about how awful his particular conditions were. After all, he had Nimitz’s undivided attention. But LeMay didn’t.

Instead, Curtis LeMay invited Nimitz to dine with him a few days later. Nimitz shows up and they had dinner in a Quonset hut while sitting on top of a few crates and eating C-rations. At the end of the meal, Nimitz turned to LeMay and said, “I get your point”. Soon afterward, LeMay got the construction materials he needed to complete his facilities.

Send A Stronger Message
LeMay painted the picture. Nimitz received the message and LeMay didn’t have to say a word. Sometimes the scenario you create, or what is left unsaid, sends a stronger message than the words you actually do say.

By filling brief silences during a sales conversation, salespeople often run the risk of over-explaining or pitching, talking over the prospect, or introducing another question before the prospect has a chance to answer the first one.

Let Your Prospect Do The Talking
As salespeople, we must resist the urge to satisfy our own instinctive need to feel important by talking too much.