Sales & Relationships

When I was working as the VP of business development we focused pretty heavily on utilizing our entire workforce 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. One particular salesman we had was a tall skinny sheepish fella. He was a really quiet guy, ok with computers and people. Nothing was outstanding about the guy but nothing was bad. One day 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 told him to follow up with me the next day at our sales meeting and that we would pass it off to our painter. The next day the owner and I showed up to the meeting a little early. I let him know that this guy was going to fill us in on the painting project and that it happened yesterday. Other than that I was totally in the dark. 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. We were about to wrap up when he walked in. This guy came in, sat down 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 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 filing 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. And as far as I know he wasn’t on anyone's radar. He was notorious for just driving in big circles around the area saying he was busy, mostly to the grocery store and back to his house. 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 and he leaned backwards and crossed his arms. 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. Leaned forward and said 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. 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 roundabouts 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 all in for just the material was 9K. We had a spreadsheet, available to all employees for average costs. That way when we built out bids we had the base cost the same across the board. 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 didnt work there for too much longer. But the situation still existed. We had to find a way to smooth over this situation. We also had to find a way to tack on an extra 15k plus 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 pool area where they were having issues. We spent about an hour there and then I left. We generated a bid for just over 300k 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 three 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.