This is unsurprising but important:
It’s often said that Trump is a businessman, but he’s really a salesman. I’ve worked for a couple of companies run by salesmen, and they really are the worst at dealing with the complexities of running an organization.
The sales bro culture is one where negativity just isn’t tolerated. Salespeople are relentlessly positive because the whole goal of the kind of persuasion they practice is to present only the good side of whatever they’re selling. They are constantly trying to break down objections from the mark, so denial and deflection are big tools in their toolbox. Do they lie? Does the sun shine and the wind blow? Of course they fucking lie. All the time.
So, as a software engineer dealing with salespeople, I constantly found them trying to “sell” me out of an time estimate, or talk me out of my reality-based evaluation of whatever problem we were trying to solve. It’s just reflexive with them to try to achieve their goal by convincing you that whatever you believe isn’t quite right if it’s at odds with their impression of the situation (no matter if it isn’t factual).
Salesmen are also oddly susceptible to being sold bullshit, as long as it is sold well. They really do think that salesmanship is the most important skill one can possess, so they are overly impressed with other salesmen, no matter what they are selling. When a salesman is presented with two choices, one of which is ridiculous but sold extremely well by someone versed in the language of sales, and the other is a calm factual presentation, the ridiculous one will likely win out.
They’re intellectually lazy – they believe that a good salesman can sell anything, so why bother learning the details? They are all a bit narcissistic and sociopathic – they have to believe in themselves and also not think too much about what is good for their mark in order to go from cold call to close. They’re reluctant to delegate, because in cut throat sales culture, it’s dangerous to give your power (your leads, your territory) to another salesman, because that shark will fuck you over and chew you up.
All politicians need to have to utilize some of the tools of sales, but when a politician is a dyed-in-the-wool salesman, you have a recipe for disaster when they actually have to govern. So here we have Trump, slow walking testing and an emergency declaration (news just broke that he’s going to do that today), because it’s contrary to his basic pitch of Trump as the product he wants everyone to buy.
In conclusion, coffee is for closers and you’re all fired.
lurker dean
i don’t know if the onion will ever top this.
theonion.com/health-experts-worry-coronavirus-will-overwhelm-america-1842314132?
Baud
So in Pence the Assistant Regional Manager or Assistant to the Regional Manager?
Martin
Second prize might be no medicine from China.
Trump and trumpists need to stop blaming China, calling this Wuhan virus, accusing them of a coverup etc to score political points.
Roger Moore
I assume a big part of it is that they have built their whole career on making shit up, and to live that way they have to have abandoned the idea of objective facts as a basis for decision making. People who have given up on facts are easy marks for people who lie as well as they do.
jonas
“Now let’s talk rustproofing. These Colecos will rust up on you like that…Shut up Gil, close the deal, close the deal!”
MattF
@Baud: Well, salesmen always have to go to their manager’s office when you make a counteroffer, but I don’t think that’s Pence. Ivanka, maybe.
Mike S
One of the reasons I had to get out of real estate right before the crash was the ethics of sales people who knew that people’s lives could be ruined but still pushed them into homes well beyond their means. These assholes are willing to let people die to make the sale. This is one of the reasons I know that the fake christian leadership doesn’t believe in God.
Martin
@Roger Moore: Sales is the art of selling a different reality. In order to be good at it, you need to believe the reality you are trying to sell even if that reality is utter bullshit.
So yeah, sales people are wired to suspend their reality and accept a different one – maybe in a very narrow manner, but all the same.
Politics is the same thing, FWIW.
WereBear
Major Major Major Major
Speaking of Alec Baldwin vehicles
waspuppet
Yeah but aren’t salesmen capable of being at least somewhat more personable than the average person? And isn’t listening a sales skill?
Trump just comes off as the domestic abuser he is. With a generous helping of failson (“All my friends say I’m the best boss they’ve ever worked for!”) and a touch of drug dealer.
cain
As an engineer who has gone from engineering manager to director of marketing and had a stint being in sales – I haven’t as bad as an experience. But yeah, there is definitely a big positivity vibe. I do have to do a lot of sales/marketing as an engineer because I work in communities and I’m trying to “sell” a community a lot of times or build consensus that kind of thing.
Anyways, thats not skills a marketing person has as far as I can tell. So Trump being a sales person is probably correct.
LuciaMia
Wouldnt surprise me at all if Trump somehow tries to insinuate that Covid-19 is some kind of biologic weapon.
waspuppet
@WereBear: Also, evidently, The New York Times’ philosophy (applies to covering Trump statements only).
patrick II
@Martin:
We also should look at what vital functions we are allowing to be monopolized offshore. Individual companies saving money on cheap labor may not always be as important as the national interest (sorry to go all socialist here). Don’t talk bad about us or we will hurt you is not a good position to be in when there is a pandemic.
Major Major Major Major
I’ve also worked for salesmen before, in a variety of capacities. Terrible managers, easy to sell bullshit to, will constantly ignore actual expertise… totally agree.
senyordave
The only thing Trump cares about on a constant basis is the stock market. His plan has always been to run on the huge market increase, and take credit for it. Nothing else matters.
John Revolta
There’s a quote from some famous Hollywood flack from the ’40s, don’t remember which one……..
“Did I love the picture? What kind of a question is that? I’m the publicist! Of COURSE I love the picture!!”
jonas
@Mike S: Reminds me of the great scene in The Big Short where Mark Baum and the other partners from FrontPoint are in Florida talking to the skeezy mortgage brokers who are going on about pushing immigrants and exotic dancers into ARMs they know they can’t afford.
Mark takes his associates aside: “I don’t get it…why are they confessing?” “They’re not confessing,” Danny replies. “They’re bragging.”
catclub
The amusing thing about Alex Azar is that he is apparently in a feud with another high level
bureaucrat and is no longer on speaking terms with the other one. Nothing like letting your person spat pre-empt dealing with a pandemic.
A Ghost to Most
Give salesman a little credit, though I almost never do. At least they are selling something, unlike preachers.
topclimber
Positivity is something a salesperson needs for sure–how do you handle so much rejection otherwise?
Relentless bullsh-ing of prospects is a different matter. Works fine in the grifter line, not so hot when you make repeat sales and they remember your lies. And if you BS yourself as well, you are unlikely to make the right decisions as to which prospects to prioritize and what products to push.
So, yeah, news flash–Trump fits the definition of the worst kind of salesperson. Hell, he has redefined it for the ages.
Miss Bianca
That’s a shrewd, if depressing, take, mistermix.
BobS
@catclub: Trump has built the administration in his image.
rp
Good post. It ties neatly into Fantasyland by Kurt Andersen if any of you have read it. (and Quiet by Susan Cain to a lesser extent).
Punchy
I’m often amazed at how much Trump blames Obama for everything and anything, and Obama has the gravitas and professionalism to let it slide. I’d think at some point, a man trashed as often and absurdly as Obama is (and will be for the next ~7 months) will at some point fire his rhetorical cannon back at El Douchebag and the offer him to take it outside.
A man can only take so much bullshit, lies, and character slights, right?
Jerry
Salesman, you say? I’ll show you a SALESMAN
GrueBleen
Do salespersons lie ? Of course they do.
Sales bros don’t lie, you have to deliberately tell an untruth for it to be a lie whereas sales bros believe every word they utter … for just exactly as long as it takes to utter them.
Gravenstone
@Martin: Oh good. What chance the “tariffs” hammer gets lofted again if China carries through on the threat? Let’s sink the world economy on top of killing a not insignificant percentage of people by actively prolonging the conditions of the pandemic. Because no one on Team Trump can see past their noses to consider even the mid-range implications of their latest spite move.
JMG
“Nobody’s easier to bullshit than a bullshit artist.” – Damon Runyon
BobS
@Punchy: I think Trump does himself a lot of damage- particularly now- with his insults of Obama. People remember Obama’s even demeanor and the aura of competence he projected (that Biden flashed some of yesterday), and can’t help to compare it to the Trump shitshow.
bluehill
@Punchy: I think Trump is making Obama’s case far better than anything Obama could say.
catclub
@BobS:
According to the people who gave interviews to axios,
Seema Verma is the problem.
Gravenstone
@LuciaMia: Why not? The Iranians are making noises to that effect. And of course China is testing out the ‘this really came from the US” argument as another counter to the irresponsible racism being appended to the pandemic.
patrick II
I was on an elevator in one of those large glass buildings filled with legal and accounting firms. An older, well-dressed gentleman got on the elevator with me. It was quiet as we went up, and then out of nowhere he said: “The stock market is down”. I replied that it had gone up 100 points this morning, and he gave a small half-grin. Then I added “But Trump is giving a speech this afternoon”, which brought back his rather dour demeanor. Sorry guy, but you probably voted for him.
Calouste
@A Ghost to Most: Lots of preachers sell a feeling of superiority.
sdhays
@Gravenstone: It’s occurred to me a while ago that the agricultural products that China agreed to buy as part of the “deal” probably won’t be met, especially now.
Gravenstone
@Punchy: Obama, being ever the adult in the room knows too well that were he to rise to Trump’s baiting, it would only devolve into a full on pig muck. Where Trump is only too comfortable being.
Raoul
@Martin: Yeah, but utterly clueless old man Wilbur Ross says that (eventually, after the chaos and die-off) US manufacturing can come roaring back as we get really, really isolated from China.
I’m exaggerating slightly, but that was apparently his gist. It’s insanely reckless and detached from any sense of obligation to American lives now.
BobS
@catclub: It was clear a long time ago that Trump overstuffed his clown car with similarly incompetent (and petty) people- but when he invokes Obama, a hell of a lot more people than us here think to themselves ‘goddamit, I wish Obama was at the helm right now’- and maybe even think Biden might be the next best thing.
Paul T
You can bet Azar is on the phone every minute with people screaming “its not my fault! It wasn’t me!”
From 2012 to 2017, Azar was President of the U.S. division of Eli Lilly and Company, a major pharmaceutical drug company, and was a member of the board of directors of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, a pharmaceutical lobby.
This will forever scar his resume, and eventually when he passes away…..this fiasco will follow him to his grave.
Spanky
“Jesus Christ!”
“What is it, KellyAnne?”
“It’s two fifteen and I can’t find the Adderall!”
schrodingers_cat
@LuciaMia: Tom Cotton has been at it since yesterday.
gene108
Have to be willing to have 10 doors slammed in your face, with the belief that the 11th, 12th, 13th, etc. door will be the deal that closes.
It’s a mindset I don’t have, but fascinating to watch.
MattF
@Gravenstone: Obama did mock Trump once, at that correspondant’s dinner… and Trump will never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never,never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never,never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never,never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never forgive him for that.
bluehill
@catclub:
Martin
@cain: Engineering sales is a different animal, in my experience. That’s not usually a make a sale and walk away kind of situation. It generally involves a lot more interaction between engineers outside of the sales role, so whatever bullshit you are inclined to pitch to make the sale will unravel very quickly once the engineers start talking.
And sales engineers actually know their shit. They usually know that product/service/system inside and out.
Raoul
@Punchy: He does it in his low-key ways (and yes, Trump tweeted his outrage within six hours).
Roger Moore
@Martin:
That’s one kind of sales. There’s another kind of sales that is built around establishing a professional relationship with the customer, and in that kind of sales honesty is usually the best policy. In my professional life, I’ve encountered both kinds of sales people.
The pushy, try to sell you a different reality kind of salesperson jumps from company to company and rarely sells us a second instrument. They often started out in a completely different industry but have jumped to scientific instrument sales because they wore out their welcome in their previous job. They don’t know squat about the technical stuff and think they can bamboozle us. The kind who are interested in a professional relationship will often stay at the same company for decades, and frequently started out in a technical position at the same company before moving into sales. They know their stuff, and they’ll accept gracefully if we go with a competitor, since they know they’ll get another chance at a sale in a year or three as long as they don’t burn their bridges.
Note that this distinction applies in lots of industries that involve sales, not just big ticket items. For example, good restaurant waitstaff know their livelihood depends on repeat business, so they try to get to know their regular customers.
Martin
@Gravenstone: Well, the shoe is on the other foot right now. China is in a valid position to reciprocate against the travel ban since infections in the US are growing vastly faster than in China. And all they have to do is add cargo to that and we’re done for.
trollhattan
The Italy experiment is not proceeding well.
LongHairedWeirdo
I saw an article pointing out that Trump isn’t really a salesman (i.e., in general) but a *real estate developer* – the guy who says “all you people, we need more money, for this highly successful building/etc.” They’ll put up pennies on the dollar, and when they need to convince people they’re absolutely, positively, committed, they’ll bump their bid up by another few pennies (remember, they’re also taking a salary out of the development fund, so they’re just returning some of the cash back to the enterprise).
Their goal, the article explained, wasn’t about building something – it was about making money, and, sure, a successful development project pays more, but even an unsuccessful one gets you paid.
Of course, then he discovered the stock market, and found he could sell lots of stock to a lot of rubes (professional investors were more cautious), and then, he could pay off, er, I mean, *transfer*, debts to the corporation, removing his liabilities, and ensuring he’d get paid, even when the rubes took it in the teeth.
I mean, look at this; he swears he’ll make coal miners rich (as if they were ever well paid!) , to no one’s surprise (except the incompetent), coal is still bleeding money and jobs – but he said he’d do it, and all his lackeys insist he does it, and the poor sorry bastards who trusted him get to think they were victims of the deep state, or liberals, or something.
The point the article made was, real estate developers don’t even have to sell a proven product, they just sell a vision. In politics, Republicans are constantly selling a vision, that has been proven false, repeatedly, and they just keep selling it.
The trouble that the Republicans don’t seem to comprehend is, they’ve thrown in with corrupt schemes and blatant illegalities for so long, they really can’t jump ship. What are they going to say, now? “Yeah, Trump really is incompetent, but we didn’t remove him from office for a criminal, corrupt, scheme, because we didn’t realize the Presidency requires competence, and we didn’t want to risk losing our jobs for the good of the country”? It won’t play well in Peoria.
SiubhanDuinne
Trumpian denial of deadly pandemic + Trumpian bureaucratic fuckery and incompetence = The Masque of the Red Tape.
Raoul
@LuciaMia:
Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) has a whole thread up this morning on how the Christianist cult (he’s an ex-evangelist with insights into the mindset) is already propagating these themes. It’s how they make sense of their dear leader’s failings. It’s toxic and dangerous, of course!
Poe Larity
If it wasn’t for great salesmen, I would not have that Corona-free time-share for my quarentine.
Matt McIrvin
@Major Major Major Major: OMG it’s a cinematic universe.
Booger
@jonas: That is such an amazing movie. It’s like watching a financial car crash in slo-mo.
Gin & Tonic
@LuciaMia: Reminds me of the good old days on this here blog when our old friend BiP (back when the “P” stood for Pacifica) was promoting theories about the origins of HIV.
Matt McIrvin
@Punchy: That’s a Biden thing, not an Obama thing.
patrick II
@Raoul:
It is a repeat of the beginning of the Great Depression, where the old capitalists were ok with the “weaknesses” being wrought out of the “system” even if it meant unemployment starvation and death for the poor.
LuciaMia
Tom Cotton’s been wanting to go to war with SOMEBODY since he got into Congress.
Feathers
I’m recalling John Rogers* frequent reminder that your average member of Congress has the brains of the second smartest used car salesman in their district.
* of 27% crazification factor, Ayn Rand and LOTR, as well as Leverage.
Mnemosyne
@Paul T:
There is an old HBO movie from 1985 called Head Office that is not a very good movie overall, but is 100 percent prescient about the corporate culture that created the assholes we’re stuck with right now.
Rick Moranis has a cameo as the head of marketing/PR who’s being blamed for an ongoing PR nightmare who has the classic line, “I didn’t make that decision, I approved that decision! Don’t you know the difference between a decision and an approval?”
He also goes through the 10 lines on hold that are on his phone and says to each one, “It’s not my fault, I’ll call you back. It’s not my fault, I’ll call you back. It’s not my fault. (click) It’s not my fault. (click) It’s not my fault.”
geg6
@Gin & Tonic:
OMG, don’t remind me.
Mnemosyne
@bluehill:
Ladies and gentlemen, that’s the person in charge of making decisions about Medicare and Medicaid. Yay!
sdhays
@LongHairedWeirdo: It plays just fine in the cornfields surrounding Peoria, though.
Gravenstone
@LuciaMia: You know, Cotton could have stayed in the Army if he wanted war that much. After all, we don’t seem to have a shortage of them ongoing these past couple of decades…
Mnemosyne
@Gin & Tonic:
He was all Russian propaganda, all the time.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Martin: I still remember the salesman at the phone store when cell phones were making the switch from analog to digital. “It turns your call into 1s and 0s so it’s completely impossible to intercept or decode!”
I also remember when I was looking for my first adult bike, and I was looking for what I now know is called a road bike. The store was full of bikes with huge fat tires and an upright riding position.
“Don’t you have the kind with the narrow tires that you ride in the leaning forward position?”
The salesman actually snorted. “Nobody makes those or rides those anymore”.
I always wondered if guys like that are trained in their bullshit or make it up.
Ivan X
@Booger: Margin Call, another great movie, is similar in that way.
Gravenstone
An unpleasant thought occurs to me after reviewing an LA Times article in Cole’s Twitter feed about the admin slow walking opening access to Medicaid to help the states pay for this pandemic response. Estimates tossed around here seem to range between 1 and 6M potential deaths in the US before this thing is brought under some semblance of control. Many of those deaths could properly be attributed to the needless delays at the federal level once news initially broke about the virus. Will those deaths be enough to get people to finally recognize and accept that Trump is simply put, the worst president to ever hold the office? Worse even than Bush jr., who only seems to hold the title due to casualties from his invasion of Iraq? The looming death count here may well eclipse those killed in the name of Bush’s vanity and Cheney’s hubris and greed.
trollhattan
@Gin & Tonic:
Those were such innocent times, when Obvious Russian was merely an amusing pinata and not a broad strategy.
Fleeting Expletive
I just got home from doing the few essential things I needed to do outside my house, where I’ve pretty much been isolating since the election, being at risk and all. Delighted that my nearest store had plenty of food and cleaning supplies and yes, toilet paper. The store itself, a good sized Dollar General, has been reset* since I was last there and it looks good. Very nice wide aisles and a reconfigured check-out area that mitigates standing close to other customers and cashiers. Many compliments given to staff for that kind of rational in-house work to make people safer and keep the shelves filled.
*Years ago I worked briefly at a pharmacy and helped the store reset–it’s a PITA and a lot of work.
Brachiator
Goddam, this is smearing with one hell of a broad brush. Yeah, I’ve known some devious asshole sales people.
But one of the best human beings I’ve ever known was also one of the best salesmen. And he sold a great product and had a great rapport with customers. I distinctly remember a customer talking to me about a possible enhancement to a product my company offered, and the guy said, “Well, D– said it would be added to the product this year, and he would not lie to me.” And the guy was right.
I learned that the best sales people either have or develop a positive attitude because they hear NO all the time. They are also often the first to hear about a customer service or management fuck up.
On a trip to a trade show, I watched him charm a flight attendant into giving him a free glass of champagne. Did he use his Sales Fu on her? Yeah, maybe, but he made her feel like she was the best flight attendant ever and he was her best and only passenger.
This guy loved the art of selling. He would go to garage sales just so he could haggle for crap. But this had unusual dividends. Once we had a company picnic at a golf course. D lent 6 of us sets of clubs and each a golf bag that he had acquired at garage sales. Crazy.
He was also consistently kind and generous and helpful. To this day, I still consider him a master.
On the other hand, the sales guy he shared an office with early on was the definition of a total asswipe.
catclub
given that their source materials have a whole lot on acting with humility, this is an achievement(!?).
terry chay
@Raoul: ”The Christianist cult ” is losing members by the droves with no way to grow because they’ve already cannibalized mainline Protestantism. Who cares what they do, they’ve been reduced to pathetic grifters who will only get the few followers they have left killed. Have you seen Jim Baker or Jerry Falwell, Jr. lately. They are donezo
catclub
@sdhays: If you believed it for more than 30 seconds, or after finding out that both sides self-verify their compliance…. you are the patsy.
Kent
I never understood how they could promise that anyway. The government no longer buys and distributes grain products in China like in the Maoist days. It is private companies and if the soybeans are cheaper from Brazil they will keep buying them from Brazil. Dropping the tariffs means American grains should be more competitive. But I don’t see how they can guarantee that. It would be like Trump making some guarantee that Americans are going to buy x-million iPhones from China next year. Maybe…but maybe not.
I’m guessing that the Trump people are too stupid to understand this. Or if they are smart enough, then they know it is just a lie they are telling to farmers to get them to vote in November and if the numbers don’t end up being there…oh well, bygones.
NotMax
“Paging Mr. Loman. Mr. Willy Loman. Please pick up the white courtesy phone.”
Jager
One of my best friends went from geat salesman to a great sales manager to a great general manager. His secret? He knew when to stop selling.
sdhays
@catclub: @Kent: I never understood how anyone took his “part 1” deal or whatever the hell they called it seriously. We started a trade war, and China won. But in Hong Kong they actually think that Dump is a strong leader who stood up to China and bent them to his will.
Immanentize
@sdhays: I asked this before, but was there an official announcement that we won all the trade wars?
Immanentize
@NotMax: Phone! Not the gas pipe!
Martin
@Raoul: and to patrick’s point above, you can’t move critical industry into the US just based on some Fed stimulus. Those are going to be money-losing operations in many cases, so if they are identified as national security critical, the federal government needs to directly create the economic environment for it to work, which of course is socialism.
Mnemosyne
@Gravenstone:
I mentioned in the previous thread that Iraq didn’t really hurt Bush because it all happened safely overseas where the US could conceal all of the consequences.
This is more like Hurricane Katrina — it’s happening right here on the mainland (sorry, Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands) and voters are going to personally be affected or know people who are affected. They won’t be able to wave it away or conceal it like they’ve done everything else, because it’s RIGHT HERE in everyone’s faces 24/7.
Did I mention that I’m working at home right now thanks to an edict from the Giant Evil Corporation? They’re not going to be able to hand-wave this away.
p.a.
@LongHairedWeirdo: It won’t play well in Peoria.
You, sir, are an optimist ?
ewrunning
Per Politico, Jared is now telling people he’s in charge and is soliciting advice from his fashion model sister-in-law’s father (an ER doc, who invited colleagues to submit suggestions via Facebook). I feel so much better now!
EthylEster
@Punchy: Where have you been? I’d forgotten your nym.
patrick II
@Martin:
Agreed. Which is why I mentioned going all socialist in my comment. To some degree, the economy must be managed for the good of the country and not always for the good of a corporation or individual.
sdhays
@Immanentize: We’re “winning”, to be sure. But there’s a “part 2” of the China deal that depends on Dump’s BFF Xi Jinping deciding to give Dump everything he wants (even though as far as I can tell, “we” don’t really know what “we” want other than “to win”).
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I’ve had good relationships too with sales reps who represented companies with a good product that I already was pretty sure I wanted. They don’t have to lie to get you to buy their product, and they also tend to hear you when you tell them your budget, not try to upsell you into something you can’t afford and don’t want.
But your closing line blows my generalizations about sales reps for good products out of the water.
I’ve run into some idiot sales types at trade shows. I don’t trust their answers to technical questions. But if there’s an engineer in the booth, or they give me the number of someone on the tech staff I can call and ask my questions, their company might still make the sale.
Kent
This is going to make Trump’s head explode:
politico.com/news/2020/03/13/jack-ma-coronavirus-test-kits-128522
joel hanes
@catclub:
Alex Azar is … apparently in a feud
Azar, though weak, is the good guy in that triangle.
The other two are Pence’s cronies from Indiana: Seema Verma, whose mission is to push as many people as possible off Medicaid, and who doesn’t seem to think that allowing those people to die is an unacceptable tactic, and Redfield, who has some technical competence, but is a god-bothering wingnut
joel hanes
@LongHairedWeirdo:
Trump isn’t really a salesman (i.e., in general) but a *real estate developer*
Trump is a mobbed-up real-estate developer. He graduated from New York’s native mobsters to allegiance to Russian mobsters.
The Moar You Know
@trollhattan: They were doing research on us. Targeting, looking for weaknesses, pressure points, exploitable divisions. Same kind of recon hackers do on computer systems.
Brachiator
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Great example. But again, you just can’t generalize.
I used to work for a big software company. Most of the developers and tech folk were wizards. But a few acted as though they were doing customers a favor by delivering a workable product to them.
I once got into it with a developer who dismissed a customer request, fairly easy to implement, as useless bells and whistles. I firmly reminded the guy that he wasn’t the one using the product every day in his business.
Another developer, a mostly good guy, was sent out to spend two weeks in a customer’s office. He came back amazed and chastened. I give him a world of credit for being able to look at things from a customer’s point of view.
BethanyAnne
I’ve moved from software design to sales this year, and it’s a really weird transition. I’ve begun to think of my manager as my coach now, because he only has one response – “That’s great! Now sell more!”
Mart
Walking out of a presentation I hollered at my salesman, what the fuck, you know we can’t deliver half the s hit you just promised. He responded he always agrees to everything until he gets the order.
Paul T
@Mnemosyne: Thank you…so funny!
Jack Hughes
Donald Trump is Ricky Roma.