Sales Hasn't Changed THAT Much.

As a District Manager managing a business unit, one of the biggest reasons I love my job is that I get to play in all the areas of discipline – accounting, sales, customer service…. never a dull moment. I was reminded of this yesterday as I drove around Prescott, Arizona, trying to figure out a particular account.

I was primarily looking for inventory – but was struggling because I knew so little about what I was going to need the inventory for. I was caught in what I have started referring to as the “Oakwood Chicken or Egg”. This phrase being well represented by the following situation:

AE (Acct Exec): Hi DM! Hey, can you find me some inventory for this RFP?
DM (Dist Mgr): Sure! How many? How often? How Long?
AE: It’s a lot! But don’t know real specifically until we win the RFP.
DM: (Pause) K – So what am I looking for?
AE: Currently you only have one option around there – and we need to present more than one option.
DM: (Pause – I’m thinking I’m thinking!) K – So where are they staying now?
AE: The Best Western Prescotonian.
DM: Why? Where do they work?
AE: Not sure.

OK – so to Prescott I go. With Kim Floyd’s help – since she lives up there and she is very helpful – we struck out with a couple goals – and more questions surfacing as we went along. Where do they work? Do they travel anywhere else, like the air force base? (Because it is weird that they are staying a dozen miles away at the Best Western when there are numerous new budget motels a couple miles from their work place.) What other apartment options can we dig up? (Because there’s not much to choose from.) And what is that building out in the middle of that plain that doesn’t seem to have a road going to it?

Well, first things first. To Lockheed Martin we go. Kim knows where the building is. (Thanks Kim!) Since I can think of no cover story that will get us any better information, I make a plan to go with the truth. And I head for the main entrance to ask some basic questions about their travelers. Immediately I am foiled by a highly secured locked-down facility. They didn’t even answer the intercom. I just have a few simple questions no one would mind answering – and I promise not to talk to tell the Chinese military anything I learn.

So what now? Old trick - go around back and look for smokers. Eureka! Three smokers in the parking lot!!

DM: (Leaning out my car window) Hi! We’re with Oakwood, a temporary housing company and we’ve been invited to help Lockheed try to come up with housing options. Is it OK if we ask a couple questions?
Smoker #1: Sure.
DM: I understand right now there are people staying at the Best Western.
Smoker #2: That would be us.
DM: (Ha! Paydirt!! I didn’t say that aloud – but I could feel it bouncing around the car.) How did you end up there?
Smoker #3: I don’t know; that’s where they put us.
DM: Do you ever have to go to any other work location?
Smoker #2: Not anymore. This is it.
Kim: How long are you here for?
Smoker #1: 90 days.
Kim: Best Western for 90 days?
Smoker #2: They have, like, mini-fridges in the room.
And so it went for a few minutes…. And before driving away, the most important question…
DM: Does anybody have any idea what that big building over there in the middle of nowhere is?
Smoker #1: It’s a University.
Smoker #2: I heard it’s a prison.
Smoker #3: No idea.

Well – at least we found out where they were staying, for how long, and that they only travel to this particular facility.

DM: We need a map – there’s got to be a road to that place.
Kim: We’ve already driven all the way around it.
DM: Yeah, but there are cars out there.
Kim: There’s got to be some new apartments by the new arena.
DM: Oh yeah! Apartments!!

To the arena we go!

DM: You were right – look! Two new complexes!! Hi! We’re with Oakwood Corporate Housing. We take leases and set up apartments for our clients.
PM (Property Manager): We are low income housing.
DM: Darn! HUD housing. (Not out loud, of course)
Kim: May I please use your rest room? This moron has been driving me around in big circles trying to kill me and looking for a road that doesn’t seem to exist. (Or more polite words to that effect.)
PM: We aren’t HUD housing, but we use HUD guidelines.
DM: Oh. So you only rent to low income tenants but receive no HUD funding? I have some general business advice for your owner if they’re interested. (OK – I didn’t say that either - I let it go)
PM: The new building across the street is ours too – also low income, and only seniors.
DM: (0 for 2)

And so the inventory hunt went. Until ....

DM: Hi! I’m John and this is my colleague Kim and we are with Oakwood Corporate Housing. We take leases and set up apartments for our clients.
PM: Well where have you been? We have apartments and would love for you to take leases.
DM: (Excellent!) This is a nice property. How old are you here?
Leasing Agent: That’s kind of a personal question.

Everyone’s a comedian.

But in the end, the day was successful on a couple fronts:

• Identified key account detail
• Identified key logistical data
• Identified new inventory
  
  Oh yeah, that big building was a University. And there was a road.
  
  
  
  
  

A Tale of Two Coffee Shops

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way -

My new residence is located almost exactly between two coffee shops. They are about 1 mile from each other, but culturally, on opposite sides of the world.

If I walk northeast ½ mile I arrive at Le Grande Orange. www.lagrandeorangepizzeria.com Le Grande Orange is about the swankiest little coffee shop/market/pizzeria you’re ever gonna’ see. And the people who patronize this establishment are beautiful – as are the people who work there. Well dressed and groomed, it is a great place to see and be seen. Morning dress code is workout-type cloths - the kind that cost more than my work cloths. Great music, cool greeting cards, gormet morning sandwiches. Very pleasant.

If, however, I walk southwest from my home about ½ mile I arrive at Mama Java’s. www.mamajavascoffeehouse.com The people who visit Mama Java’s are an eclectic group. The bookish girl in the corner reading poetry. The chatty middle aged gentleman who has gray hair in a ponytail, dancing eyes, and jeans with holes in them. On Fridays and Saturdays they always have live music in the evening – mostly of the folk-bent. It is not where the beautiful people hang out. It is, however, where the interesting people hang out.

I am, of course, drawn to both of these worlds. It makes me realize that in so many ways life never changes after junior high. It starts in junior and senior high - the social push-me-pull-you between various groups - friends in the band, friends who were jocks, and friends who were not very popular but were highly intelligent. And it is socially disturbing how most people don’t want to mix their groups.

Here in Phoenix, Arcadia is where the popular people have set down their roots. There is a social pressure to conform, keep up, drive the right cars, hang out with the right people, etc. There is a thinly disguised disdain for other areas of town and the people in them. Of course, Le Grande Orange is in Arcadia. Mama Java’s is on Indian School road and west of 40th street – outside of Arcadia. And I am halfway between them.

I’ve been entrenched in Arcadia for years - and uncomfortable about it the whole time. My residence is a weigh-station to another world; and it is not easy to transition from one to the other. At Le Grande Orange, I’ll run into people I know. I haven’t run into anyone I know yet at Mama Java’s. But I’m looking forward to that. So far I still feel out of place. No – that’s not accurate – I feel like I abandoned the place years ago. More of a “going home” and people are curious because I look vaguely familiar. As if I might belong there. Or I might not.

So, as I walk out the front door in the morning, I have my choice of which world to begin my day. How much do I hang on to my old world? How much do I want to hang on to my old world?

For now, anyway, I need them both. And, it is a far, far better thing that I do, than… OK, a little dramatic. But you get the idea.