Sales Managers meeting

 

I was sitting in my office, door shut.  Lights out, 3 computer monitors are off, window shade half shut.  Thirty minutes till my turn at the regional sales managers meeting.  Five of them, the VP of sales and the Pres.  The agenda listed for me to give an update.  That would have been easy.  The pres told me I should bring up the issues and get them on the table, this is the time to deal with them.  As I've heard recently, 'says easy, does hard', would apply.

I am quiet, on the outside at least.  The inside dialogue is lincoln tunnel traffic during rush hour nyc with lots of honking.  I'm trying to calm down.  Technique after technique.  "I must be calm when I walk in that room".  The inner voice must be settled and served, not needy.  Catching my thoughts 'right, I feel pressure to figure this out', 'I don't know what they are going to say' 'I feel scared they don't / won't like me.  I'm scared of the pain they are going to cause me.'.  Currently, I am not calm.  I'm basically shut down on the outside.  I'm fighting not to distract myself and focus on the pain.  'Deal with this, don't run away.'  I couldn't grab onto it.  Ugh.

Knock on the door.  "Uh oh".  I open it.  My face plain, expressionless, still.  It's the systems guy, he hands me a new cell phone.  'All set up, here you go.'  I look down.  A red and black box.  I momentarily was excited to get the new phone.  This isn't the phone I asked for, I said.  It's a flip phone and this is what we got, so here you go.  

I didn't appreciate that.  It sounded like he was trying to give me a phone I didn't want or order.  He said take it.  'No.'  Well it's already activated, your current phone doesn't work anymore.  I understand.  Here's both phones.  I want the one I ordered.

I was not in a fun mood.  I thought I was right, but I certainly wasn't nice.  Somehow I'm the bad guy.  He's all fun.  Not the first time he's tried to do that.

I close the door.  'back to quiet'.  I look at the clock.  Two minutes.  No more time to figure it out.  It'll be what it'll be.  'Okay let's head over.'  

I open the door, walk in and listen.  A discussion is already happening.  They clearly weren't waiting for me to come in.  I'm guarded, contained, restrained.  The battle wounds from the last 30 minutes and no clear sign of victory is weighing on me.  I notice I am definitely not settled and not happy.  I got scared.


 I am quiet.  Opening my mouth feels dangerous.  I worry more.  I can be attacked if I join the discussion.  If I stay quiet I am safe.  Their discussion winds down, like when you know the song is almost over.  My turn.  'Well this is your turn now, go ahead and please give us an update, says the VP Sales.  Oh boy.  All I wanted to do was walk out.  I had no idea what was going to come out of my mouth.  I noticed no words were coming.  And then I spoke.
 
I was excited to tell this story right now.   What happened in that meeting.  That was my plan in writing this.  But something is bothering me.  I hated that meeting.  And I don't remember exactly what I said.  I remember how I felt.  Empty.  Hurt.  Alone.  No one in there on my side.  Thoughts like I don't belong in business or certainly not in this company.  

 I can't get it out of my head.  I keep thinking, 'they don't need me anymore'.   I am listening to youtube music for writing, it's a flute sort of a japanese like style of sound.  It's making me teary eyed to think that I feel this way.  My time is up.  I'm scared to leave, but it keeps coming up that it's time for me to go.

'I've taken this as far as I can'  Wait maybe there's something else in the company that I can do?  'No', there's too much baggage, they won't go for it.  The issues here will not go away even if I change roles.  I feel like I'm walking on egg shells with these folks except when I'm meeting with clients.  I am tired of walking on egg shells.  I think I bring a ton to the table, but I'm not able to make a difference.  And that's what is bothering me.  I'm tired of the executive team meetings.  They wear me down.  I'm tired of the sales people, they wear me down.  I love the equipment, I love the solution, I love the clients, I love the selling, I love the marketing.  I love the fun of what I do.  I love being the best at what I do.

Passionate Emails

 We are trying to build up the SF branch one customer at a time.  We just signed up a new customer who is spending thousands with us but the credit department only opened the account with a $500 line of credit.  (my shoulders begin to slump and the tension arises).

So the new sales person who is bringing in the business is confused and looking for guidance from me.  What I'd like to do is fire off a clear and targeted email to the credit manager and the CFO explaining the situation.  So I begin typing.  

'All -  In regards to the new client in SF we feel we are unable to tell the client we cannot produce their work till they give us a credit card because they do not want to pay by credit card.  We'd like to keep the credit card on hold and bill it to the account.

For the future, opening accounts with a $500 credit is not purposeful.  The average project is over $500, so please consider this for future accounts.  We are scrambling to get customers for SF, please keep this in mind.  We are trying to present us as easy to work with even though we are sometimes impossible.'

Okay scratch the last part, that was just a vent.   I envisioned their response, it was going nowhere.  Too much pleading.  It would read something like

"Your group can follow the rules just like everyone else.  They can pay by credit card or we will not produce the job"
 
I wanted to avoid that pain. I left the to: address blank and didn't send.  Phew.  Next.  I'm going to the VP of sales, he'll be sensitive to this.  Draft him an email.  Need to explain from the beginning, yet keep it very short and concise.  It must have what the outcome is that I'm looking for.

Dear X

Sorry to drop this one on you but could use a little guidance.  We opened a new account but unfortunately the credit line isn't high enough for the job.  Client wants us to bill via the account and not via cc as they did on the first job.

We are trying to be easy to work with and bring in every client we can.

I would like to be able to keep a credit card on file, so we are protected and bill the job on the account what the client wants.  Credit manager is saying not like that.  He wants the job paid in full.

Again, kept the to: address blank.  Didn't send it.  Got an idea.  Called the local branch manager.  Got his thoughts.  We are on the same page.  Offered him to go up the production channel (ie to the VP Production).  I think he would agree and make the call and communicate back to credit what will work.  

I'm out of it.  No blasting emails.  Everything is following the chain of command.  I'm avoiding getting in trouble right?

Watch out for getting fired up over stuff that gets in your way.  My way is to write the email you are passionate about but always leave the to: blank.  See what other ideas come to mind.  Feels much better than hitting back.