My friend Dan runs a restaurant equipment company. As you can imagine, they’ve gone through some tough times recently and he has had to lay off several people in his firm.
But his heart really broke when he had to lay off Marvin, a 26-year employee who had battled prostate cancer and other illness over the last few years. But there was just no place in the company for Marvin anymore. A few days after he let Marvin go, he got a phone call—Marvin asking to schedule some time with him sometime in the next couple of days. Dan agreed, and Marvin came in with a proposition.
Let Me Make Cold Calls
At that meeting, Marvin talked about his tremendous commitment to the company and how he loved the business and knew a lot of customers. He wanted to cold call past clients, inactive clients and new prospects to see if they were interested in buying equipment. But there was a catch.
Marvin didn’t want any money for it; all he wanted was the commission that came from the sales if he made any.
Now think about this. Marvin is a guy who’s never been in sales, never made one cold call, never went on one appointment, but willing to work for performance only.
Sitting around tonight complaining about the economy and how you’re going to have to bail out the at-leasters, think about Marvin. If we had three million Marvins, we just might not have the unemployment problem.
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Shame on Dan the restaurant equipment company owner for not being creative enough to come up with that alternative on his own (Marvin’s suggestion that he work on 100% straight commission). If we had three million less Dan’s, we just might not have the unemployment problem.
I’d bet that Dan the owner hasn’t considered across the board pay cuts of 20-40% rather than cut select individuals while keeping others at 100% of salary. What is it with American business owners that they think layoffs are the answer–before across the board pay cuts?