In the months following the Vegas conference, I sold the
exclusive rights to the Web site to studios in the Hartford, Providence, Fort
Lauderdale, Sarasota, Austin, St. Louis, Cleveland, Virginia Beach, Mobile,
Charleston, and Salt Lake City DMAs, and closed 2 DMAs each in Dallas, Boston,
New York, L.A. and Chicago. I also
closed deals in 16 smaller markets and got new commitments from the
overwhelming majority of the clients that I’d closed on the Web site prior to
the conference. That was a huge relief
to me. I had counted on the income from
those commissions to help me through the transitional period while I worked new
prospects in DMAs that had not been represented in Las Vegas. My job was made all the easier by the fact
that Keith had agreed to let me be the only salesperson to work the US market
for the Web site. Bosco had convinced
him that I knew more than anyone else on the subject and the initial results
did a lot to bear that out, at least that’s what Keith told me one afternoon in
early May. I had found myself
daydreaming of fishing during a particularly lengthy marketing meeting that had
included the entire sales staff, Alan, Bosco, Richard Glick, and a free-lance
graphic designer that someone or another had hired. Sasha and I had planned to meet in Sarasota
for a week of hunting snook and coupled with the fact that the temperature in
New York that day had topped 70 degrees, it was all I could do to look even
remotely engaged while we discussed the relative merits of changing the color
of the lettering at the top of the landing page of the company’s main Web
site. The meeting finally came to a
close without any major incident and I walked briskly down the hall to get to
the stairway before anyone could catch me.
It was Tuesday. All I had to do
was lay low for 3 more days and I would be off for Florida.
“Michael!”
I turned around to see Keith jogging to catch up with
me. I stopped and waited for him,
realizing that while I often did ignore plenty of people at the office, it was
probably unwise to treat the owner to my normally wanton disregard for good
manners. My dear mother had tried to
raise me right, even if I often didn’t act accordingly. But on this occasion, I did her proud. I even smiled vaguely at Keith as he approached.
“I wonder if you could join me in my office for a few
minutes. There’s something I need to
talk over with you.”
“Sure, right now?”
“Yes, if you could.”
Keith looked down the hallway and then lowered his voice.
“Michael, you’re the only salesman in this company who gets
paid a commission on the media he sells.
All of the other salesmen here sell the TV and radio spots as part of
their salaried positions. They get their
commissions on the units and other goods, but nothing on the media. Bosco said you’d be worth the extra expense
though and nothing I’ve seen so far contradicts that. I’m very happy, Michael! I really am.”
“Thanks, Keith. That
means a lot to me.”
“I mean it, Michael.
This is going extremely well.”
I followed Keith to the elevator; thinking to myself that
what made this charming situation somewhat ominous was that Keith had felt the
need to continue the discussion in the privacy of his office. One eternal truth I knew was that everything
someone tells you before he or she says the word “but” is meaningless. The real truth is revealed in whatever
catastrophic news is disclosed after that qualifier has been issued. Apparently that was not going to take place
in the hallway. Keith pushed the button and when the car arrived, he greeted
George, who saluted us as he hit the button for the 5th floor. George promptly fell back to sleep and I
suppose Keith and I could have picked up our conversation again, but Keith put
a finger to his lips and nodded at George.
I nodded to indicate that I understood and the three of us ascended in
silence.
Bosco was already seated on the couch positioned along the
wall in Keith’s office when we arrived.
He smiled casually as he looked up from a file folder filled with
papers. I walked over and sat down on
the other end of the couch while Keith pulled a chair from in front of his desk
and set it in front of us before sitting down on it. He laced his fingers together in front of him
and leaned forward to address me.
“I’ve asked Bosco to sit in with us.”
“Sure,” I replied.
“Good!”
Keith straightened up in his chair, his fingers nervously
wriggling together.
“Bosco put together a report of the sales of the Web site
during the past year and I was really struck by how much growth we’ve seen in
the income stream from it since you took over the primary responsibility for
that project. We have more of our top-tier clients advertising on our Web site
than ever before. In fact, you have
surpassed even our most optimistic projections with what you’ve brought in,
Michael. It’s really impressive. Having said that, I need to make some changes.”
I tried to show no emotion at all. It was worse than a “But”. When the boss man uses the word “changes”, it
often means that someone in the room is about to get fired and I was pretty
sure that Bosco’s position was secure enough.
I concentrated on my breathing and waited for Keith to pick up
again. He stood up from his chair and
wandered over to his desk. He leaned
against the front of it and looked intently at me.
“Michael, I need you to take on some different
responsibilities here at SlipNot. Now,
you’re still going to be selling the Web site and the micro camera, as well as
the TV and radio creative materials.
You’re going to be the only salesman in the country that will be selling
advertising media full time. You seem to
get what motivates our clients to buy this from us and that’s a real
talent. Les and his crew are great at
what they do, but they don’t know how to sell the media and I’d like you to
take that on from here on out. I also
need to change the territory you sell to.
You’ve had the luxury of cherry picking markets from all over the
country so far and you’ve been extremely effective. But I want to see if you can work that magic
on some of the smaller markets, the ‘Podunks’, if you get my meaning. We know that there’s a huge untapped market
there. I need you to get us into those
DMAs.”
“How about my existing accounts?” I asked.
“I’m going to turn them over to Les and he’ll distribute them
among the rest of the sales staff.
They’ll take care of them from now on. I will also need you to spend
some time training them on how to handle these accounts. Les is going to supervise all of this, so
your first job is going to be to bring him up to speed."
"Hold it," I interrupted. "You're giving Les my accounts in New
York?"
"And in Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Miami,
Philadelphia, and San Francisco."
"I'll still get my commissions, right?"
"No."
"But I just closed a lot of those."
Keith turned to Bosco and nodded. Bosco looked over at me. I could see that he
wasn't entirely happy. It hit me
then. Keith had come up with this little
plan and it was going to be Bosco's job to close me on it. I don't remember which of them pissed me off
more. At that moment, I knew that Bosco was going to act as Keith's apologist
and I was furious with him.
"Michael? At
least listen to Keith," Bosco said earnestly.
The next episode of SlipNot will be published on October 13th.
If you'd like to read SlipNot in its entirety, GO HERE.
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