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.
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