School of Journalism
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA                            Charles Warner

                              JUSTIN FREEDMAN

              The New Sales Manager From Outside the Company

     Justin Freedman was buying a drink at a nearby watering hole
with five of his salespeople after his first day on the job.
Telecom, Inc., the nation's sixth largest TV group operator, had
just brought Justin into town to take over as General Sales
Manager for their independent TV station in a major market. He
had replaced Matt Boyer, who had resigned to become the sales
manager at a cable system in a nearby market.
     Nick Katz threw down a glass of beer, glared at Justin and
said, "You'd better be good. I pitched for your job and didn't
get it. I'm the top biller and I was really upset when they
brought in someone from outside the market. If you don't improve
things, I'm outta here." 
     "I'd hate to lose you," Justin said, "what should I change?"
     "Why should I tell you? If you fail, I might get another
shot at the job," Nick replied with a slight, crooked smile.
"I'll see you tomorrow, boss," Nick said as he strode out of the
bar, still with the crooked smile on his face. Justin couldn't
tell if it was a mocking smile, a challenging smile, or the type
of smile that comes after a friendly jest.
     "Well, how do you all think I could improve things?" Justin said
to the four salespeople who remained.
     Jenny was the first to reply. "First of all, get rid of
those damned call reports we have to fill out every day. Then
have meetings at a decent time--sales meetings at 8:00 a.m. three
days a week are ridiculous," she said.
     Justin asked, "what do you do in the sales meetings?"
     "On Monday we go over monitors of all of the television
stations. Matt assigned the accounts to salespeople and asked for
a written report by the end of the week. We'd go over collections
also. Matt would ask us about specific accounts," Jenny responded
openly.
     "We'd also go over projections. Salespeople gave their
weekly projection and then we'd tell Matt what specific accounts
we'd close that week," another salesperson added.
     "How do like that system," Justin asked.
     Two of the salespeople said they didn't mind it--that it let
them know where they stood in billing.
     But Jenny didn't agree, "The projections are a waste of time. No
salesperson ever hits his or her projections. We spent time doing these
stupid weekly projections, and then Matt would raise them--'give them
stretch,' he'd say. So we made up numbers and tried to predict
what account might possibly come in with some money. It was
always a giant guessing game. If we didn't hit our numbers, Matt
would beat us up in the meetings for missing them. If we went
over them, he'd beat us up for not knowing our accounts well
enough. All he cared about was hitting his number. He'd take any
business at any rate to make budget. He'd come around the sales
stalls at the end of every day and ask how much we sold and would
write down the number, not the account."
     "What's wrong with that," asked Justin.
     "I make my car payments by selling well, not guessing well,"
said Jenny. "Matt used the projections just as a whip to get us
to sell more," she continued. "He didn't really believe we could
make the budgets the company sent down."
     "Why not," Justin asked. 
     Bill, one of the other salespeople chimed in, warming up to
the subject. "Because this market is in an economic downturn and
the other television stations are selling at gut-bucket, low rates
because they're running scared and cable has hurt us. What's
more, we had a really ineffective promotion campaign last year
that didn't help us in the sweeps. How can the company expect us
to sell ten percent more if our ratings don't go up at least ten
percent? That's why Matt quit. He knew corporate expected too
much."
     "Did Matt tell the company he thought the budgets were
unrealistic?" Justin questioned.
     "No way! Matt wasn't stupid. He told them what they wanted
to hear. That's the way you have to deal with corporate around
here. You'll see," Bill responded.
     "That's crap," Jenny blasted, "they didn't like Matt because
he couldn't manage his way out of a paper bag. Both Nick and I
are good salespeople and we went over our budgets."
     John chimed in and said calmly but firmly, "That's because
you have a good list because you played up to Matt, and Nick was
lucky enough to have been hired first. He was given a great list
that was never changed."
     "Account lists are never changed around here and you know that you
and Nick had the best lists when Matt came, and he never changed
them," John proclaimed.
     "Bull! I've written more new business than anyone," Jenny
steamed.
     "Sure, you did it only because you wanted the double commission on
new business and because your list is so big," John responded.
     "We're getting nowhere," said Jenny. "I'll see you at the
stupid 8:00 a.m. sales meeting in the morning." She threw out the
words as she left, tossing them at nobody in particular. 
     John got up to leave and said to Justin, "If you want to
keep Nick, you'd better fire Jenny. They hate each other. Matt
pitted them against each other to see who could bill the most.
Nick won because of his list, and Jenny can't stand it."
     The other salespeople drifted away shortly and left Justin
with a handful of drink bills and a head full of questions. He
knew Matt Boyer had been fired and that he was under no pressure
from corporate headquarters to make any quick changes. But where should he
start? 

                                AUTHOR'S NOTE

     While the incidents in this case are not factual, they do
represent a composite of actual events and common operating
practices. This case was prepared to use as a teaching tool.

                                ASSIGNMENT

     You are Justin Freedman. Before you show up at the scheduled
8:00 a.m. sales meeting the next morning, you have to ask
yourself several questions and plan to take some action.


1.   Was an informal meeting at a bar a good idea? 
     a.   Would it have been better to call a formal sales
          meeting and tell the salespeople about your standards
          and expectations?
     b.   Were the exchanges helpful or harmful -- were they
          mini-brainstorming sessions or were they merely
          negative exchanges that served little constructive
          purpose?
     c.   What should you say to Nick at the meeting the next
          morning?
     d.   Should you have stepped in and cut off the argument
          among Jenny, Bill, and John?
2.   Is there competitive conflict between Nick, the number-one
     billing salesperson, and Jenny, the number-two biller?
     a.   If so, how are you going to deal with the conflict and
          with the two people?
     b.   If not, why did John say there was a problem?
3.   From what you have learned so far, what do you see as the
     four or five biggest problems that you have to address?
4.   What two or three actions you are going to take in the
          meeting tomorrow morning?           



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