SALES & RELATIONSHIPS
the odyssey chronicles
A little while back I had the privilege of working as the VP of business development. As a team we focused heavily on utilizing our entire workforce, including management, for sales. If I couldn't or our salesman couldn't get to a job for an estimate then we would see who was in the area and, if they were not a total idiot, we would send them. At least to shake hands, say hi and get a general overview of the job. We would then go back and get the information we needed for a bid. This allowed us to be in front of the customer quicker and keep the relationship “warm”.
One particular salesman we had was a tall, skinny, sheepish fella. He was ok with people and good with computers. Nothing was outstanding about the guy but nothing was bad. We worked together on a lot of projects so we had a lot of time to get to know each other. One morning, I had him run to a local multifamily complex we were courting to get some information about an interior paint job they wanted done. I let him know that we would follow up on it the next day at our sales meeting. After the the owner and I would verify the bid, then pass it off to our painter. We both agreed, seeing that this was the regular process for ALL of the work being bid on, we shook hands and went our separate ways.
The next day I showed up to the meeting a little early. I let the owner know that this guy was going to fill us in on the painting project and that it happened yesterday. The meeting started with everyone but this guy. We went through everyone's sales goals, timelines and current projects. We talked about best practices for talking to customers and some wins and losses for the week. After about an hour of us working through our weekly info dump, he walked in. He walked in slowly, made a joke about being late and then sat back in his chair ready to listen.
Now we made a promise to the team, the ownership and I, that we would not breathe down the necks of our guys just as long as they were getting stuff done. We had salesmen come in late or leave early regularly. We were busy and didn't want a sales meeting to keep customers waiting. Generally everyone stayed or showed up, mostly because of the coffee and free donuts. We hardly ever checked in on our guys if they missed a meeting. We knew, based on their output and current workload, that they were busy. We would forward the info we talked about and ask any questions we had for them via email. Overall it was a pretty smooth system.
We finished up the meeting with a few motivational quotes and some funny stories from the previous week. I asked if this salesman had an extra couple of minutes to discuss the paint job with my boss and I and let the rest of the team go. As they were filling out he leaned forward, had a look like he was going to vomit and asked “Am I getting fired?” I laughed because I didn’t expect that at all. At no point in time had we ever fired anyone at a meeting or after it. As far as I knew he wasn’t on anyone's radar. Now, this guy was notorious for literally driving in big circles around the area saying he was busy, mostly to the grocery store and back to his house. We kept eyes on all our trucks vai gps trackers so we knew what was up. But he kept the workflow coming in, so we didn't complain. I said “Of course not, we just want to follow up on the interior paint job from yesterday.” We talked about it for about a total of two minutes after which he leaned backwards, crossed his arms and stared at us. The words that came out of his mouth were wild to us. He let us know that he went to the complex, talked to the manager, formulated the bid and sent it.
The owner and I looked at him speechless for a few seconds. We had a check and balance system in place where no bids were to be sent without approval from two other people. This kept us from screwing up something small that would destroy profits. Neither of us got upset, we just sat down, opened our computers and tried to find the bid. Now the system we were using at the time was older, but still usable. This salesman had a hard time with it ever since he was hired. He kept trying to sell us on using another one. This would have been an unneeded expense and we told him no pretty much every week. After a few minutes of looking I asked him what name it was under and he laughed. This is where is went sideways. He leaned forward and let us know that he not only built it in another system outside of ours but sent it with our company logo and signatures.
Needless to say I was blown away. What a ballsy fucking move! This guy had some serious gumption to throw that out there and laugh about it. The owner calmly asked for the bid so we could review it. This guy breathed out heavily, leaded to the side and grabbed his bag. He slowly pulled out his laptop, took a drink of water, then logged in. He emailed us the bid and we spent about 15 seconds looking at it before we noticed something. This guy had three lines describing the work to be done, one line of warranty and clauses protecting the company and a total. This guy removed about three pages of information not only protecting the company but himself and our subcontractors. Since I was figuring this all out at once I needed to take a few minutes and process. I googled the complex, asked for the email thread between them or info on the conversation. While we were sitting there I called the manager, who I knew but not closely, and asked for some more details on the job. She explained to me that the total job was four floors with complete repaint of two colors, doors, frames and chair railing. I have been in the world long enough to know roundabout where this would be price wise. However, our salesman did not. This guy sent a quote, to a manager of a complex we had been courting for months, for $7,500. Total the material was 9K. To make matters worse we had a spreadsheet, available to all employees, for average costs. This way bids were approximate if we needed to get something out quick and we wouldn’t shoot ourselves in the foot. This guy not only did not utilize the spreadsheet, he made up some arbitrary number, from who knows where, that was going to cost us 15k or more. Before we could say anything, the salesman computer dinged, an email from the complex ownership with a signed copy of the contract came through.
Needless to say he didn’t work there for too much longer. But the situation still existed. We had to find a way to smooth over not only a disappointed potential complex manager but the entire staff that went through the time to approve the bid. The only way to keep the project was to tack on an extra 15k to this bid and get them to resign it. There is not enough coffee and pastries on the planet to make that happen. I spent the next two days getting heated emails, phone calls and one awful in person visit. The only thing we could do is get out in front of it and own it 100%. My position was to keep people happy, keep business running no matter what. I made sure to take responsibility for the miscommunication, we let her know the salesman no longer worked there and explained how we think it happened. None of that mattered to them but it gave them some context. We apologized and took the manager a bottle of wine, which she immediately threw in the trash, and sent the owner a bottle of bourbon. We apologized but didn't grovel, we explained ourselves but didn't demean our positions or company.
We are human and humans make mistakes.
A year later I got a call from that same manager. She had switched locations and wanted me to come look at a roofing issue they were having. I was really interested to see how this played out. I drove down to the complex, got out and walked in. She immediately said “Hi! It's so good to see you! I haven't seen you in forever!”. I smiled, returned the hug she gave me and asked what issues they were having. We walked the roof with their maintenance team and the inspected the area where they were having issues. I spent about an hour there and then left. We generated a bid for over 10x what the paint job was worth and sent it out. It was approved that day.
I believe wholeheartedly that people, even if they don't get what they want, remember you if you do the right thing. We knew we messed up on the previous bid, we knew it was a cluster. However, if we would have spent our time blaming each other or the company we would have never gotten the shot at this new job. This job generated ten times what the previous one would have at the right price. That relationship seemed severed, seemed destroyed beyond repair.
handling it like we did, as a team, as professionals made us stand out even when we messed up.
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