Finding the New Sales Person

 

Finding the  Right Sales Person

By John Joyce 

 

It was agreed by the  vice- president of sales and marketing, and the sales manager that there was a need for a new sales person. One of the territories. Europe,  was doing well. Too well, according to Bob Brigs the sales manager. They were   going to split it.  Reduce the work load of the present sales person, and of course reduce their earnings as they were on a sliding commission. Last year the sales person earned more than Bob Brigs. They were gathered in vice president’s office, Mark Davis. Sports photographs adorned the walls. Photographs of Mark winning races cycling kayaking and snow shoeing. Head of Human Resources,  L.V.Sugget,  sat in the corner making notes and promised to produce four or five strong candidates for this position. Mark added that an application engineer to assist the salesforce would be something to consider.

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Hartley Electronics designed  and manufactured oscillators and data loggers. Oscillators were  used in  radio communications systems and data loggers gathered information from  different electrical inputs. The data logger side of the   business was a result   of an acquisition  of  a company in which Bob Brigs had been its sales manager. There were two distinct cultures at Hartley Electronics. The oscillator side of the business was doing very well but the sales of data loggers were not doing so well. There was a   not invented here syndrome towards the data logger products but that might change with a new product that engineering was working on plus a new sales thrust spearheaded   by Bob Brigs.

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Respighi’s  Fountains of  Rome played on the radio while  Paul Tulley and his wife Anne Marie ate breakfast. Anne Marie mentioned that her Romanian tennis teacher, Lena had heard  from one of her relatives there was an opening  in  sales at Hartley Electronics. The news baffled Paul. He recalled there had been rumours of a new sales position,  but now he was getting a Marshall McLuhan  type message with via the oral medium, but what to do with the message? Anne Marie encouraged  Paul to apply making the case that it was prudent  to go for interviews  now and again. Paul had been recruited  in his final years of university, so it would be a new experience going for an interview. Anne Marie  with her Cape Breton accent reminded Paul that much of the success of her physiotherapy clinic, especially in the early days was due to salesmanship and customer relations. Paul liked being an engineer but had seen that the path to top management was via sales.

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Dave Hartley was the president of Hartley Electronics: Ralph Hartley his Dad  had  founded the company. Ralph had worked at the National Physics Laboratory in Teddington,  South West London,  England. The story goes he worked  with Alan Turing, of enigma fame,  on an embryonic  computer, which became known as the Turing Machine. Alan Turing was more of a mathematician and Ralph was a circuit designer with keen interest in radio. The  Hartley Oscillator was named after him. Alan Turing left for Manchester University to advance the Turing Machine and work on a field of a molecular biology  called morphogenesis. About the same time Ralph  emigrated  to Canada with protracted  stops in Montreal, and Ottawa. He   arrived in Vancouver where he  started Hartley Electronics with three partners. The partners had been forgotten. Banished or poisoned  as per a Shakespearian  play. The company  espoused its history and was keen to preserve and promote it. There was much folklore mixed with its history and that was fine. 

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            Located in a building   affectionally known as building 43, the engineering department was easy to find with  its Yagis antenna on its roof. An odour of coffee brewing and maybe a hint of sports clothes, greeted visitors. The department had no  engineering manager. None of the engineers or mathematicians wanted to be the manager and saw no need for one. L.V.Sugget had tried  but gave up. Mark now and again had meetings with a few of the engineers with plans for the company’s next generation of products. It was known in certain quarters of the company   that the engineers  designed what they wanted and, reluctantly, gave them, almost finished, to production to build. They knew what the customer should want and ignored any suggestions from sales and marketing types. "Throw more money at the problem." was their mantra. All of this worked well and was unlikely to change as the engineering department was considered to be the top in the industry with several patents and numerous   technical papers. 

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Hartley Electronics had an unusual corporate structure but the gossip grape vine was excellent. The dated   company‘s flow chart showed that  the vice-president of sales and marketing and the sales manager had equal footing but reported to different bosses. To   a reclusive   director of finance and an operational manager who had  recently joined the company. Everyone knew what the sales manager did, he purported to   manage the sales people or rather review their expense accounts and extol them   to sell more by employing latest  sales theories. In reality the sales people delt with the same established customers. They   claimed there were no new customers to be found  and if there were it was up to marketing to locate them. 

No one knew what Mark did  but to listen him the company revolved around   him. He was a graduate engineer from Simon Frazer University but according to the engineers his technical days were long gone.

Dave Hartley  the founder’s son  was presently in Split Croatia, at the World Cup. The  Croatia soccer team was doing well in the  matches. It seemed that in reality Dave Hartley spent his time as a sales person  for the company and left the running of the company to the reclusive director of finance. The rumor was  that, Dave Harley had  aspirations on politics.

Bob Brigs was overweight and wore badly fitted suits. He joined the Hartley Electronics  when his former company had been bought by Hartley Electronics. It was not clear if he had any formal technical training. Bob was well liked and was proud of his business trophies that he displayed on his desk. He had firm ideas on what kind of salesmen he needed to hire. It was well know that Bob Bigs had little time for engineers. He felt they all  hid behind technocrack. He did not feel comfortable being  in their presence and   felt they should have little or no contact with costumers. Bob claimed it was not necessary to be technical to sell technical products and it was sales skills that counted with peppered buzz words. Bob already knew who he wanted to hire but he had to improve the employment package. The person was out side the company and according to Bob had a proven track record. 

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Paul’s phone call to Bob  was greeted with vagueness  and he was directed to contact human resources. Doubts set in. Had Anne-Marie the correct information?

L.V. Suggett   was the Human Resources Manager. He seemed to have appeared one morning out of nowhere,  even though that morning was now about two years ago. The story goes he  came from the technical manual group. Criticized for incomplete documentation and poor online access. The group in turn   blamed the engineers for not providing the information on time. L.V. Suggett was attempting to structure Hartley Electronics into a modern company with formal procedures and policies.  He had grown his department into four people in two years and   was looking to add a fifth by the next quarter. L.V. Suggett let it be know that he  regularly attended  human recourses workshops and was up to date with   the latest Human Resource ideas.

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It was a sunny day. A great day to get on the gravel bike or ski at Silver Star near Vernon in the Okanagan. At  last, Paul managed to contact with L.V. Sugget. who seemed to be put out by Paul’s inquiry and pointed out that the company had formal procedures for posting all positions. He was not at liberty to discuss any. L.V. Suggett continued his dirge by  advising Paul that  should not listen to rumors and  direct his energies to his engineering projects. Paul thought  L.V. Suggett  could ruin anyone’s sunny day.

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Three days later the radio was playing  Elgar’s  Cello concerto. Anne Marie mentioned  she had booked the Christmas ski trip to Silver Star and managed to get the same room as last year. She reminded Paul he should  not   be put off, and might want to contact Mark Davis  since they both were in the sports world.

            Senior management were housed in the Red Building. Named because of its red bricks. Later that day Paul walked into the foyer of the Red Building. He noticed a satellite dish and  a biconical antenna  on the roof. He had only been in this building once. That was during a tour of the company for the newly hired engineering graduates. It seemed to have an odorless smell A place of power. Ralph  Hartley’s radio call sign VA1FBSl  hung on the wall along with photographs of, Alan Turing,   Nikola  Tesla,  and Guglielmo Marconi. By contrast Building 43 had posters of Bo Diddley, Howing Wolf , and Little Water.

Mark Davis had invited Paul for an informal chat. The meeting went well, although a bit odd thought  Paul when he reported to Anne Marie that evening. Mark spent most of the time selling Paul on the merits of being   a technical sales person. “Seeing the whole picture,” “becoming a business person.” A training   ground for an entrepreneur. They both noticed they were wearing the same sports watch. There was some talk about stand up board  paddling and  bicycles. They both had recently purchased  gravel bicycles for off road  ventures. Paul asked what happens next and when?  Mark said Human Resources would set up a formal interview, probably next week.

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Well, L.V. Sugett was not going to set up a formal interview next week. He had just returned from a three day seminar at Harrison Hot Springs. He was over whelmed with work and he wanted it know that an exhausted candidate search had not been done, in fact it had not been started. He was waiting to hear from Mark and Bob the exact job description. He was at least six weeks away from any idea of first interviews. Bob Brigs did not object to an interview with an engineer with the company as he felt he could torpedo this engineering applicant. He had his own man in mind although he had to improve the employment package   to get him. He would gain ground by supporting Mark on this first go around. He even agreed with Mark that for the first interview perhaps, human resources was not necessary to be present. The following Tuesday Paul with new suit, and haircut, was back in the Red Building’s foyer. A business lady exited the elevator. She glanced at   Paul and   smiled. Paul was pleased his shoes were polished.

Anne Marie had groomed him with questions to ask. Questions such as who makes the final decision?  Are there many candidates? When does the job start? Will there be an increase in salary? He hoped it was some time away as he was involved with a key project. In fact his mind was far away. Him and two other engineers had almost developed a new algorithm for a small oscillator. The Canadian Space Agency had expressed a keen interest with promises of orders even for the proto type. 

Johnny Raducanu  jazz music was streaming  in the back ground as Paul tried to explain to Anne Marie the events of the interview. He could not say it went well. Dysfunctional was the best word with  Bob Brigs   espousing   that a good salesman could sell anything and L.V. Suggett giving a sermon on the importance of the culture of the company. Mark said very little, except a solid technical background was important. Paul found it difficult to digest. No one wanted to discuss the company’s products. He  felt that  he was the only person in the room that knew what they made. Even with a manual he was not sure the others could turn them  on. L.V. Suggett   said the  sales person would receive a base salary plus a sliding commission. When it came to who made the decision whom to hire there was confusion; he did not receive a clear answer. They did agree that Dave Harley would have to approve the   appointment. Paul as per his sales training pod cast asked when the decision would be made. More vagueness. Mark closed the interview by saying L.V. Suggett   would make contact within a few days.

Anne Marie commented that it sounded as if the decision on who to hire had been made before going to the interview. 

Paul had not witnessed the scene   after he had left the meeting room. Silence. The three participants were like three snow ghosts at the top of a ski chair. Bob wanted his own person on the team but  saw he had been usurped by Mark. Again L.V. Suggett   could see he was having no influence on this decision. Hartley Electronics  had   not embraced the notation  of  Human Recourses. Mark’s mind was on the weekend’s Penticton Grand Fondo. His road bicycle was in the store for a tune up and he had to pick it up. Going with Paul was the expedient solution and could be reversed in the future if needed by sending Paul back to engineering. As they departed Mark mentioned that he was expecting a phone call from Dave Hartley in the   morning to go over a few items.

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It was 7:30am  the following morning. Bob was alone in his office and alone in the building. He re-read the email from Mark. 

Marica Trbojevich   Tesla will be   the new salesperson. Dave had a  meeting with Marica in Split while she was visiting family. So that is that. The boss says so. She is presently working for one of our partners in Manchester England. She will   cover Europe from a new office in Hampton Court, in South West   London. She will be a regional manager reporting directly to Dave. He wants L.V. Suggett is to make all the arrangements. Marica Trbojevich   Tesla is the niece of   Nikola Tesla a reverend name in the electrical engineering world. We might have had direct current in our homes and not alternating current if Nikola Tesla had his way. A name still goes a long way. 

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Two evenings later at dinner while Debusey’s Clair de Lune played in the background. Anne-Marie was pleased with her morning’s tennis lesson. Paul relayed to Anne-Marie the latest developments at Hartley Electronics. L.V. Suggett had explained during a  tedious  meeting that he  was to stay in engineering,   with the new title of application engineer. He would be available to assist the sales group when needed and there would   be an increase in salary. When   an opportunity arose, he would be a strong candidate to apply for a sales position. It had taken an hour for L.V. Suggett to convey this. Most of the time had been taken up with L.V. Suggett   preaching the corporate line. Anne-Marie   added that the new salesperson would be Marica Trbojevich  Tesla.  Lena met up with her last week when Marica,  made a lightening visit to the company. 

The grape vine is the medium thought Paul? “Now when will I   next wear the new suit?”  

 

2585 words        ©    John Joyce       Monday, September 11, 2023  First North  American  English Serial Rights, only being offered.
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