Episode 123 : The sale

Act I: The Managing Director (MD), The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and the Sales Manager (SM) are standing by the coffee machine.

CEO: The future doesn't look bright and, truth be told, we are not impressed by your track performance this year.

MD nods.

At that moment, there is a polite cough. Sales Manager Two (SM2) indicates he would like to speak for a few moments, update his status and leave.

SM2 completes in five minutes. SM realises his coffee cup is almost empty and moves to refill. CEO and MD turn to leave. As if realising, CEO turns to SM.

CEO: Just because SM2 interrupted us doesn't mean this conversation is over. We are meeting the conference room in ten minutes to discuss this.

SM curses under his breath.

Act II: At the conference room.

CEO: So...?

SM: Well, I tried telling you before. I am not impressed with the product's performance. The design was good, not flawless. And the implementation did not take place like it should have. The flaws we noticed during implementation forced a re-design of some modules. That extended the development cycle by a few years. And when we put the system into rigorous testing, we found it lacked scalability in some areas. The system is self-adaptive in some places, but progress is slow.

MD: We are aware. But as the Sales Manager, you should know how to highlight the good points of the product.

SM: I find myself unable to talk glowingly of the product when I am not that impressed with it. Besides, it doesn't have all the features that prospective customers desire in a product like this.

CEO: Like what?

SM: Robustness, for instance. Or return of investment. Or reliability. Clients today are more demanding than they were in the last decade. Blame it on modernisation. By the time we come up with a specification that we think will satisfy everyone, a new set of requirements come up.

CEO: Do you know about SM2? He is looking for a sale, but he lacks support. And here we are willing to give you support, but you prefer working on it yourself. You should have gotten at least a few prospective customers by now. Do you have any positive ones in mind?

SM pauses and goes through all "prospective customers" he has met through so far. He recalls a few he dealt with recently, and wonders if he should use them to buy some time.

SM: No, none at the moment.

MD: We are contemplating a change in the sales team. Put a different person in charge and see how it goes.

SM: I don't see how it will make a difference...

CEO (interrupts): If we start now, in a year or so we should be able to wrap this up.

MD (to CEO): A year or so?! I want this wrapped up in six months!

SM is taken aback.

CEO and MD exchange a few lines in hushed whispers. SM strains his ears but cannot make any sense from what he hears.

CEO: Alright, we shall discuss this later.

As SM leaves the room, he gets the feeling he managed to buy himself some time. How much, he did not know.