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Pawns, Patrons, and Patsies
115
Jack got the promotion into the regional manager position, and was
now Ron’s boss. A methodical, focused, and detail-oriented person,
Jack spent considerable time reviewing each salesperson’s performance
record and then planned to meet personally with each member
of the sales team to establish objectives, meeting schedules, and
new performance measures.
Ron had also done his homework: his friends in personnel gave
him the lowdown on Jack’s performance record (stellar); his friends
in accounting gave him insight into Jack’s spending habits (which
paled against his own); and even his peers in Jack’s old region gave
him insights into his personal style and family details. As Jack moved
through the region meeting individually with the salespeople, Ron
followed up with calls to his colleagues to find out what Jack was saying.
When Jack arrived for his meeting with him, Ron was ready.
While the others complied with the new procedures willingly,
those who knew him waited to see how Ron would respond. Ron’s
reputation in the company as a “raconteur” had always been a cause
of concern among the sales management committee. He had learned
from his old boss Joe, an old-school “belly-to-belly” salesperson, how
to gain customers and close deals using personal influence and personal
charisma, but this style was growing less effective with the Internet’s
arrival and a new breed of sophisticated, hard-driving
competitors. Sam, the VP, had inherited the Ron and Joe team a few
years earlier. Knowing that Joe was close to retirement age, he tolerated
his style, but he never liked the fact that Joe protected Ron, covering
for him when he missed targets and approving expenditures
that exceeded corporate guidelines. With Joe gone, Ron’s style was
fair game, and Jack was going to take care of the problem.
Jack and Ron met for a lunch meeting in Ron’s territory. Ron
started with the sweet approach, trying to butter Jack up with a congratulatory
bottle of wine, small talk about Jack’s kids’ soccer games,
and stacks of positive performance reviews, miscellaneous charts,
and letters of thanks from big customers (and long-term friends).