The "evil" manager Round 2... FIGHT

            With a deep sigh, its time for another installment of the one end of the managerial spectrum to stay away from.  That’s right, time to hear more horror stories from my old manager.  This time its got a positive spin on it.

            In my time as an Internet Sales Manager at the dealership I was the longest consecutive person in that position.  People had been promoted, fired, or a combination and ended up in the same role again.  The beauty of the position was it completely ignored what you were told about how to get promoted in the company.  (different blog)

            We were having our entire building renovated and we were moving offices for the fourth or fifth time to accommodate construction.  The three of us at the time were a little upset that the process took several hours to move and setup everything but we were still expected to make calls and have the same response time to emails.  This is kind of difficult when your computer is in a box waiting for you to finish reassembling your desk.

            This time one of our crew was off and the remaining two were moving for the three of us.  Needless to say we were less than excited and were having fun commiserating in the process.  Out of the blue one of our junior salesman stops in to avoid doing his work and talk to us.

            “Where’s mike?”  now this salesman was a bit of an arrogant and/or nosey person who would be upset about not getting enough deals but spent his time playing games on his phone or hiding from customers.  Frequently he would come back to our office to kill as much time as we would let him away from the managers who could actually fire him for this.  Today he happened to hit a nerve and I decided it was time to teach the nosey kid a lesson.

            “Mike quit.”  I looked at my buddy, who shared the same feelings toward him, and he instantly got where I was going with this.  “Yeah, he told us he was done and we’re just packing up his stuff for his wife.”  He gestured to all of Mikes stuff in a box on the table.

            “Nuh uh” and after a few shocked seconds he left, mission accomplished.  After about 10 to 20 minutes he came back.  “Hey, um…were you guys just messing with me?”  But he was asking it in an alarmed tone instead of a “you got me tone”.

            “Yeah, we’re tired of you coming back here and bugging us…you can’t hide from your job…” and with that he turned ghost white.  I stopped talking and asked “Why?” feeling something was amiss.

            “OH CRAP…I just told Gene (our General Manager) he quit!” and at that point I faught the urge to slap him, open handed, full bore as I walked out to cut off the damage he had done.

            “Justin to Gene’s office” rang out over the PA system as I was in the doorway.  I stopped dead in my tracks and hung my head.  Lets just say the words I muttered to the junior salesman had an impact as he slowly backed away from me and never came back to our office again.

            I ran in the door and I see my General Manager and my (evil) manager on every phone in the office trying to reach Mike.  I’m not kidding they had cell phones and land lines ringing trying to get in touch with him. 

            “I already know…it was a prank…I was trying to teach…” and with that they pulled the phones from their ears. 

            “So you’re saying Mike didn’t quit.”  I shook my head yes.  And with that it began.  My general manager cracked a smile in his own twisted way and hung his head.  My other manager turned beet red and it began.

            “WHYYYYYYY WOULD YOU DO THAT?”  He ranted and raved for a few minutes and I figured I had it coming so I didn’t say a word.  “If you spent half as much time selling cars as you do jacking around you’d be the top guy here!”

            As it sat at the time I was the number 3 guy in the dealership that month and only because I hadn’t written any “house deals” from managers that month.  So, in essence I was the legitimate top guy that month but on my own accord without a sweetheart deal handed to me.

            It was also at this point I realized I was standing fully upright, rigid even.  My jaw was clinched and my hands were in fists.  The kind of fists where you can see the tendons and bone glowing white through the knuckles.  I realized I was about to knock him out if I didn’t change my mind, and fast.

            I took a breath and relaxed.  From my time as a bouncer I remembered the most disrespectful thing you could do to a drunk was to put your hands behind your back.  It’s a visual que that you’re not afraid of them and you could take the hit.

            I slid my hands behind my back and looked my “evil” manager dead in the eye and said, “Ok”.  That’s it…nothing more, no implication of evil or being upset or really engaging in any other act than acknowledging him.  “Ok” in the same tone you’d give a grocery store clerk asking if plastic was ok.

            “Noooooo…that’s not ok…whats going on…whats wrong…what aren’t you telling me…” his tone went from aggressive and about to lose a few teeth in the fit of rage I was going to unleash to fearful and “in the dark”.

            “I need to get back to selling cars now…are we done?”  I looked at my General Manager who was in a state of shock.  I found out later he was waiting for me to unleash hell and had gone into “fear mode” trying to figure out how to stop everything.

            While my “evil” manager was still trying to figure out what I meant by “OK” I walked out the door.  Not angry or upset…just casually strolled out the door and made sure not to slam the door as I closed it.  In doing so I saw the start of an hour long conversation between the two on what had just happened.

            I realized in a split second how to handle this jerk.  He was the kind of person who enjoyed manipulating and instigating drama.  By simply not engaging in his games I not only pissed him off, but avoided being tied up in a aggravating situation.

            For the next month or so I decided to take it to an extreme.  I made it a point to use as few words as possible with him as I could.  “Yes” or “No” were ideal…almost like the bit from the original Tron movie from the 70’s. 

“Did you they tell you anything about their trade?”

I nodded and said “Yes”.

“Ok…what did they tell you?”  I pointed at the trade appraisal slip with notes on it.  “Are you going to talk to me today?” 

I barely smiled and said “No” and then walked back to my customer.  Its important to note that I had given him everything he needed to complete his job as my manager without engaging in the typical drama that came with it.  It was heaven, the guy was so put off by my activity he started avoiding me whenever possible.

To save face he even handed a few deals off to other managers because he was “busy” when I had a deal to work.  The culmination of the over simplified communication project was during a contest where the managers were picking teams.  I had just finished my best month in the dealership and was the salesman of the month.  Interesting how that worked out when I wasn’t fighting pointless arguments for his amusement every 30 minutes.

“I can’t pick Justin because he’s mad at me or something…”  and the room didn’t laugh like he hoped.  It was the awkward chuckle you give someone so it isn’t creepy quiet.  Two of the other managers had to look away because they began to laugh at the reaction of not only me, but the room.

The lesson learned in this case is to choose your battles wisely.  Understand your “enemy” and don’t feed into their process.  Use a “pattern interrupt” to get outside of the norm.  Break the cycle that gets you worked up and, occasionally, in trouble by hyper focusing on your duties.

Had he written me up for my actions what was he going to say?  “Justin is doing his job and won’t fight with me when I feel like being an ass.”  Or “Justin is mad at me because I interfere with his job duties on a regular basis.”  Take away the power the bully has and they become helpless. 

I’m not going to lie…I’ve had some vivid dreams since that instance where I took that shot in the office.  The first punch always feels so damn good in the dreams.  It always gets way out of hand after that and I would probably be writing this on toilet paper in my cell had I not had that moment of clarity. 

Booze, Bribery, and a man named Bob

            As a wholesaler of wine & spirit you find yourself in all kinds of weird places.  Quite often the people you work with are also a little odd.  But that’s where the challenge and fun of working with people comes into play.

            Not all people are fun to work with.  Some people are a downright nightmare to work with and they seem to work hard at making it difficult.  In my “rookie” year at the wholesaler I learned a lesson the hard way in just how difficult people can be.

            One account I had was notoriously a “difficult” account to work with.  Not only did you have to write a minimal shelf order but you had to transcribe the order to the companies own manifest for double checking.  The manager of the account, Bob, would frequently cut the order and make you do the whole process over again so it didn’t look like he was being lazy.  (you were doing his job for him by the way)

            On my second or month on the job I was finally cut loose on my own to take care of my accounts.  Bob was out that morning doing god knows what and I wrote a conservative shelf order.  Because of the pricing structure of the chain neither of us controlled the prices they were getting.  So it didn’t matter what I sent it was at the correct price for his shelf.

            I noticed a few of the displays on the floor for his ad were extremely low on product.  Being a rookie I wanted to be sure I didn’t run out and so I added a few cases to the order to restock the displays without being excessive.

            The next day I got a heated phone call from Bob.  I’ll spare you the details but I told him I was sorry and I would be taking the product back, no problem.  I was trying to help and meant nothing by it.

            Fast forward to a few months later.  As a company we were chasing a huge number on several products I sold.  Bob’s account was known to do a lot of volume on these items so I knew I should pitch him. 

            I walked in and saw him by the front door.  “Hey Bob!” I called out to him.  “Bob…hey Bob” and he kept walking away from me.  I walked behind him across the entire store like a little kid trying to get a parents attention.  “Um…Bob…hey Bob…wait up!”  He finally stopped in the back corner of the store as if he ran out of real estate.  “What the f@ck do you want?” 

            Pitched him what was the biggest order I had ever presented to the store.  It was all stuff he was going to run on his ad and he would probably go through it regardless.  I was able to get him the pricing he needed in advance to get the sale.  It was a win/win scenario if I’ve ever seen one.  “F@ck you…no” and he walked off.

            When I returned to my office and told my managers he said “No” they both shook their heads and looked at each other.  “Anything in there?” one of my managers said to the other.  With that he opened a locked drawer and pulled out an envelope with $100 bills.  He grabbed $300 and put them into an envelope and handed it to me.  He then pulled out the “dealer loader” page and ran through items connected to the order.  “Give him the cash and the things I just told you about…don’t worry about the case requirements I’ll override them.”

            For those of you not familiar with the concept of a “dealer loader” its merchandise used to enhance a display or to give away to the public.  “Enter to win this TV” or some branded kind of merchandise.  Frequently these items end up going home with the manager or the salesman and never make it to the display.  They’re also usually attached to enormous numbers of cases to keep it profitable.

            I walked back into the store and this time had them track down Bob for me.  He was in the back so I knew he had less real estate to drag me across.  I found him and got a lovely “Whaaaat?!?”  when I saw him. 

            Pulling him aside from the rest of the group I walked through the order again.  “Damnit I said NO and I meant it!”  I acknowledged our earlier conversation and then pulled out the list and the cash. 

            “If you take the order like I have it written here we’ll give you all this ($600 worth of stuff including a full size basketball hoop, inflatable boat, and other crap) plus $300 cash.  But we need to write it this month.”

            He looked over the list and smiled.  He looked at me and said, “Ok…bill it this month and ship it next week…thanks” 

As he reached over to grab the envelope with the cash I pulled it back and put it in my pocket.  “You know what Bob…I changed my mind…don’t worry about the order.”  And with that I turned and casually strolled away with Bob in tow screaming profanity.  I never turned around in the tirade that followed but I can imagine it looked similar to our exchange earlier only with an angry child throwing a tantrum.

I returned the cash to my boss and told them what happened.  Strangely, they already knew as Bob had called them to complain.  He also had me banned and barred from the store and threatened to put a restraining order on me…for not bribing him.  The managers smoothed things over and made the sale without me in the mix.

At the end of my first 6 months I went in for my performance review.  The management had decided to pull me from my current territory and division and move me to a rural route in a different division.  At the top of the list why I was being “demoted” was the experience with Bob.  The VP at the company said, “Honestly, I’m amazed we’re letting you stay here after you were thrown out of an account in your first 6 months.”  When I defended what I did about what had happened they said “I can’t believe that’s true…and we’re not going to discuss it.”

My now “former” managers were in the room and they denied it ever happening.  My new manager was in the room and was shaking his head in disgust.  He had already told me he knew what had happened and was on my side.  Apparently the entire wine & spirit community heard about it and I was somewhat of a hero for all the people who Bob had treated like shit.

Flash forward a decade or more.  I learned more and had more fun working for Tom in that “punishment” territory than I did in the first one.  He and I are still in touch today and I give him credit for being the type of manager I would want to become some day. 

Bob, on the other hand, hadn’t had the level of “personal growth” I had in that time.  He had been fired from the chain as a scandal about bribery and even extortion surround him.  Apparently another company had enough of his actions and ran it up the flagpole.  In the middle of charges being filed on him Bob got cancer and ultimately died.

I have never wished ill will on another human being in my life.  Having lost family members to cancer, I always feel bad when I hear someone losing that battle.  However, when I heard Bob had died I didn’t feel bad.  I didn’t smile either, for the record, but I definitely felt a sense of Karmic justice.

I may have lost the account and the territory but I kept my integrity.  From that instance on the two managers who sent me into the account that day avoided me if at all possible.  Occasionally I would walk by their office and I would hear them go silent, as children do when they are planning mischief.  Sometimes the big sale isn’t worth the cost on your soul.

The virtues of selling on value vs. price.

            When I was working for New York Life Insurance Company I had a client who gave me a whole new perspective in one case.  The perspective he gave me has changed the way I sold things from that day forward.  Its also changed the way I purchase things on my own behalf.

            I’ll spare you the details but I lucked into having a client who needed a long term care insurance policy.  Long term care, for those who don’t know, is a policy that pays for your nursing care in your later years.  Its cheaper to have you stay in your home than a skilled nursing center so these policies and companies fight to keep you at home as long as you can.  There are even tax incentives to make purchasing one of these policies more appealing.

            This particular client was someone who knew me from when I was a kid.  Honestly, I think he took the meeting because he wanted to help my career out and I was the rookie.  Regardless of the outcome I knew the experience would help me grow as an agent.

            I’ve always been a fan of being an expert in what your good at.  If you’re not an expert, know someone who is and get them involved when you’re out of your depth.  Nobody will ever complain you brought a specialist in to work on something important to get right.  Our office had a long term care (LTC) specialist and I brought her in to help me work the case.

            When we sat down with the client and his wife she instantly started to go through her somewhat scripted process.  She normally worked with clients who could afford the policies but were more focused on the daily aspects of living.  This particular client had been a CEO for years and was the President of a company at the time.

            When she started asking questions designed to illustrate a gap in your current plan her presentation fell apart.  “If you were sick where would you go?”  Most people respond with “a doctor” but this guy responded with a specific doctors name.  “If your house had mold what would you do?”  Most people would call a mold specialist, however, this client had a general handyman he had worked with for years and used his name.  “If your car was broken where would you take it?”  Again, the obvious answer is “a mechanic” but he not only said the specific dealership name but the salesman who handled things like this for him. 

            After some laughing at how “squared away” he was she was afraid to read her final question.  I knew there was one more question because I could see it on her printed notes in front of her.  I stepped in at this point, “Lets assume you didn’t have these contacts or knew exactly where to go to solve a problem…wouldn’t it be worth while to have someone you trust give you direction?”  He got where she was going and we got back on track.

            After laying out how the policies work and what was covered we came to the dreaded “money” question.  “Now, we agree these are valuable features in the policy, right?”  You could hear how uneasy she was after being thrown off her script.  “How much would you be willing to invest in a policy like this?”  And with that she sat quiet.

            For those of you who don’t know this rule its an amazing technique.  When you’re negotiating and you lay out your solution, whatever it is, stop talking.  “The first person to talk looses.” Was what an old sales manager once told me.  He and I stared at a piece of paper, with a customer, in total silence, for 45 minutes once.  The customer ended up buying the car and I learned a huge lesson on the “hard sale”.

            However, this wasn’t your easily closed client.  He thought about it, I think he recognized the technique, and then after a few seconds said.  “If its worth it, I’ll pay it.”  I was surprised to hear that come out of his mouth but I began to understand it.  Meanwhile my “specialist” restated the question and fumbled through trying to get a number commitment.  “Look, I don’t want my children to have to take care of me and my wife when we’re older.  This policy does that and more.  If you can show me enough value in the policy, I don’t care what it costs…because its worth it.”

            After I picked up the ball from where my slack jawed “specialist” left things we concluded our meeting and agreed to meet up again in a week with our solution.  We went back into our cubicle bullpen for new agents and began to recap the meeting.

            A few days go by and we meet to go over the plan.  She had 3 plans laid out that were a few hundred dollars a month and fairly modest benefit periods.  I had played around with the software and knew there was an “Unlimited/Unlimited” option for the policy.  Basically, the policy paid out unlimited funds for an unlimited benefit period.  If you triggered the policy you were taken care of in the very best way possible. 

            “Lets show them that…its what he wants”  We argued for a half an hour and she was afraid to scare him out of the room with the premiums.  The premiums were more than some mortgage payments, but the value was there.

            I knew my cohort would chicken out so I printed out the unlimited/unlimited policy information.  We went in and sure enough, she presented the smaller policies.  The client had a look of disappointment on his face and it felt like he was choosing the lesser of the three evils put in front of him.  “There is one more option I want to show you.  In my opinion this is the highest bang for your buck in a policy like this.”  I explained how the unlimited/unlimited policy worked while my “specialist” shook in her boots.  I finished up going over the policy and said, “Was I correct in thinking that the kind of value you were looking for in a policy?”

            Immediately after I finished my sentence he looked at his wife and smiled.  “This means we’re taken care of until we die and the kids don’t have to take care of us unless they want to.  That’s what we talked about right?”  She had tears in her eyes and held his hand and nodded.  He looked back at me and said “Yup…lets write it up”.

            With my first long term care sale I was the salesman of the month in our region.  It was my ONLY long term care sale in my time there, but still.  It was a huge victory for a rookie agent.

            The lesson I learned was to sell based on the value of a product, not the price.  The more value you build in something the harder it is to say “no” to.  Admittedly, I got lucky with this instance by having someone who could afford the policy, but the premise is the same. 

            As I went on from the insurance world I found myself doing everything I could to add value to what I was selling.  Occasionally I would lose a customer or client in a price battle.  But they were typically difficult people who weren’t worth the extra time and effort to appease for no money.  The people who bought from me bought the value I showed them and subsequently brought me more business.  That’s right, I charged them more than my competitors and they brought me more people to sell to.  The experience and the value they found in me was worth the price they had to pay.

            I’ve found myself buying things with the same mentality.  If its worth it, I’m going to pay more for it.  Ironically when I buy a cheap(er) version of the big ticket item I’m looking at I’m always disappointed.  But knowing I’m buying a lower value proposition makes it easier to accept the negative aspects and move on.

The power of doing the right thing

            So last week I wrote a story about my old manager in the car business.  I had some good feedback from people who read the article and they expressed condolences for having worked with someone like that.  While it’s a bit comical to have that reaction it helped me “purge” the experience from my mind.

            Rather than sharing the horrible negatives of the experience with one manager I decided to not only share more stories about the “evil boss” but examples of the “good boss” who also worked at the same location.  Much like the yin yang in every bit of negative there needs to be positive.

            One night early in my career I was working with an airman from Texas.  He was interested in trading in his two wheel drive FJ cruiser (yes they exist) and buying a truck for the Nebraska winters.  After giving him plenty of grief about his “poser” FJ with knobby tires and winch we were having a good time.

            We had two trucks on the lot that met his criteria.  Ironically they were parked next to each other and the one was a dark blue and the other was black.  There was an $8000 price difference between the two as one had much higher miles.  That more expensive truck was out of the budget we were looking at but it was the truck he wanted.

            At this time most of the sales staff and managers had left for the night.  It was getting late and we were down to minimal staff waiting for me to close this deal.  My “non-evil” manager was cutting to the chase but staying within the procedures set fourth by the dealership.  We were having fun joking around while he crunched numbers to keep our moods positive.  I always enjoyed working deals with him because he gave you the information and then double checked to make sure you understood what it meant.

            After several hours of working the numbers we were close to making the deal.  We were within $100 of the figures working out and getting the deal closed.  I pulled the CarFax to show that the vehicle hadn’t been in a wreck.  It was then we noticed something somewhat shocking.

            The truck we had been working numbers on was the more expensive VIN trucks VIN number.  The tricky part was we had been using the financials of the cheaper truck the whole time.  This was a huge error that had slipped through the cracks.  The airman was blown away, as was I, and the thought of potentially starting over was hanging in the air.

            I brought the mistake to the attention of my manager.  When you’re the last people in a dealership you can get away with some things you normally wouldn’t do.  In this case the loud bellowing “YAWP” from my manger went mostly un noticed.  After some chewing on his toothpick he simply said, “well…lets do this.”

            He walked back into the room with my airman nervously texting away on his phone.  My manager sat down and with a heavy head said, “Well…we screwed up and have been working the wrong truck this whole time.  I’m a man of my word so if you want this truck for that price I’ll sell it for that…tonight only…so we can wrap this up and get out of here.  What do you say?”  with that he held out his giant catcher mitt sized hand to shake.  (He’s a friend to this day so I can’t write a glowing article about his positive attributes without giving him some grief)

            The airman, who wanted the black truck from the start, lit up and smiled ear to ear.  “Deal” and with that we hastily wrapped up everything so we could all get the hell out of there.

            The truck was a major loss in terms of profitability for the dealership.  I made the bare minimum you can make on a car deal.  I felt like I had failed the dealership in some way.  But my “non-evil” boss sensed my feeling off.  “You can’t win them all…and sometimes you need to do the right thing no matter what it costs you.”

            It was then I knew it was possible to have integrity in the auto world.  An industry full of “misfit toys” and a history of being despicable still had some bastions of hope and moral fiber.

            The airman not only loved the truck but he came back to buy his dream car from me later that year.  We ordered it from the factory with every nut and bold with his name on it.  To this day it was the only glass roofed Mustang GT I’ve ever seen in Omaha.  Its also “Gotta Have it Green” so its not to hard to miss on the streets.  If you don’t know what that color is imagine hooking up a lime to 100 watts of power and covering it with baby oil.  It’s a color that stands out from miles away and looks alive when you’re close.

            While these deals weren’t the deals I was going to retire on they did set a few things in motion.  Firstly, I found an example of what I wanted to become in the auto industry.  Luckily for me he was willing to mentor me when my “assigned” mentors did little to help me grow.  The Mustang was the first USAA purchase in the dealership.  Within a few months of his purchase we became the USAA dealership closest to the large Air Force Base down the interstate.  The volume of cars we sold to USAA members at home and even deployed more than made up for the loss on the truck.

            Both guys are still good friends to this day.  I’m constantly referring buyers to my “non-evil” boss who is running on of the highest rated dealerships in the Midwest.  When asked what his secret was by one of the owners his response was so simple it was genius, “do the right thing, every time”.  While I can’t refer much to the airman I still enjoy seeing photos of his mustang as it has morphed into “Hulk”.

Bipolar manager who loved to hate

            Of all the managers I’ve ever had, the all time worst manager I’ve had almost killed me.  I know you may think that’s a figure of speech but I mean it in a literal sense.  The managerial style of this man was so far out of whack that I began to respond to it physically, and my health declined.

            It all started off well, nothing out of the ordinary and I kind of enjoyed the way we interacted.  As time went on and the “honeymoon” phase of being the new hire wore off the reality set in.  As time went on it grew worse and worse and there wasn’t much we, as a sales staff, could do.

            There are so many examples of how terrible this guy was that I could write a whole series of stories about him in this blog.  Having just written that I may have to do that as part of my ongoing process of moving on from this nightmare.

            In the car business, as a salesman,  you have to bring your deals to the sales manager when you’re working them.  The process starts with filling out a worksheet on your customer.  Once you’ve got all the pertinent information you take it to your manager and they go to work.

            “Oh my god…what do you want?” he would say.  “You’re ruining my life…why are you up here again?!?”  Once you handed him the worksheet his demeanor would change.  “Ok…cool…well lets work and get you a car deal.”  He would pencil the details on the sheet and hand it back.  “Here you go, you got this you can do it.”  And then you’d walk back to your customer.

            Ninety percent of America realizes the first offer from a dealership is designed to put you on the ceiling.  Its so far from what  you asked if anyone took the first pencil you knew there was a bigger problem waiting down the line.  You did what we were trained to do and get an offer, sometimes with a check in hand.

            “How’d you do?” he would say as he read the paper you handed him with the new offer.  “Oh my god…this is pathetic!  That’s the best offer you can get from this customer?!?  Do you want me to get a real salesman to go over and fill out the order form?”  Sometimes he would grab a salesman working another deal and “jokingly” ask if he could step in and close the deal. 

            After some scribbling and some number crunching he would hand the paper back.  “Ok…you’ve got a car deal here you just need to get their thinking up a little from this offer.  You’re close and you can do this.”  And with that he’d send you back.

            After yet more negotiation with the customer you’d head back up to the “tower of power” for more bludgeoning from him.  “Holy catfish!  You’re doing a great job representing the customer today…you know we’d like to make some money here.”  It was at this point, by the prescribed procedural guidelines he had the option of stepping in and working with the customer himself.  Sometimes he would grab one of the newer sales managers to do it for him.  “Can you go sell this guy a car…he apparently can’t do it.  Get out of my face.” 

            So now, assuming he got off his ass and didn’t take a phone call from his wife in the middle of the deal, he’s walking in to work with your customer.  The same customer who you’ve been telling him “$10,000 down and $1500 a month is the best we can do” when they asked for zero down and $500 a month for 60 months.

            He would walk in with a big cheesy smile and a token laugh at a bad joke.  He would make small talk about anything obvious and then act like he’d never seen the numbers in his hand.  As the salesman you were required to sit there and not say a word.  Frequently, you were standing behind him looking like a moron staring at his chicken scratches.

            “So if I could get you close to that $500 a month for 60 months would you buy the car today?”  The would obviously shake their head “yes” and he’d say.  “Ok, let me go to work for you and see if we can make that happen.”  And we’d walk back up to the tower.

            “God damn it why didn’t you do _______” was usually the first thing he said.  Ironically followed by “They’re nice people though…you’ve got a car deal here…hang in there.”  If there was an attractive woman in the mix he would make a comment about having her move in with him in the small town he lived in. 

            In the final stages of the deal he would sometimes tell you to “write it up ya big softie” and you’d go write up the deal.  Other times he would take another stab at the customer to ultimately find a middle ground.  Regardless of how the deal was struck as you gathered the 15 different forms to put the deal together every time you walked within ear shot he would make a cutting remark about how worthless you were.

            This happened every time you had to work a deal with him.  It took different forms when you had to interact with him on different things as well.  Ultimately I was so enraged by the way he treated me I was drinking the 5 Hour energy sleep aide in the middle of the day to calm down. 

            There were half a dozen times where, in an argument started by him, I found myself gnashing my teeth and with a white knuckled fist repeating, “You can’t hit him…you can’t hit him.” 

            In the car business it’s a dog eat dog world, there’s no getting around this.  But the difference between horsing around and poking fun at your buddy and managerial bullying is night and day.  For one month I chose to only respond to him with “yes” or “no”.  Anything else was in as few words as possible. 

            Because I wouldn’t engage with his crap he would try it and it wouldn’t go anywhere.  It infuriated him so much he began to badger me when I was away from him.  By not engaging in the bashing and berating behavior from him and waiting to work deals with the other managers I found a loophole.

            That month was the salesman of the month and sold the most cars in my career.  I sold them to spite my manager and the hatred of this man drove me in a way that was scary.

            This was also the month I was pulled over on a test drive and got out of it when I disclosed to the officer I had my concealed carry on me.  That’s right, I carried a loaded 9mm handgun on me at the dealership from my interview until the day they banned it.  When I got back he was giving me shit about the ordeal and asked how I got out of it.  “You’re not that good of a salesman so how did you get out of the ticket?”  I smiled and told him “I told him what I was legally obligated to tell him…I have a concealed carry, its loaded, and my permit is in my wallet.”

            The look on his face was priceless when I showed him the imprint of my handgun on my shirt.  My used car manager at the time was a close friend of mine and belly laughed.  “You dumbass, he’s been packing since he started!  Trowbridge is always strapped!  You might want to lay off him in the future too you jackass!”  He did for a few weeks but went right back to it.

            I’ve run into dozens of people who worked with this man over the years.  Almost every single one of them has similar stories.  The part that really disturbed me was that he was a sponsor for AA.  Someone trying to get their life back in line had this asshole to rely on when they were fighting their demons.  It makes me sick just thinking about it.  I will always remember working with him…and I’ll always remember how NOT to manage people.