My new Type A tightly wrapped manager is riding with me all day Wednesday!

[travelover]

Reminds me of watching my mailman being followed one day on his walking route by a supervisor. Slowly walking, no cutting across lawns like usual, every move slow and robotic - it was a stitch watching him jerk this guy around.

 

[Bamaman]

I like the responses you've received. Everyone has been in your position before in business.

The question is whether you tell Type A what he wants to hear, or tell him the truth?
He doesn't want to be told the truth.

Take him out for a great lunch and expensive dinner on the expense account And take him to a hand picked client or two who love you. Present him with middle to high sales projections, and go about enjoying your day and the short time you have left.

 

[38Chevy454]

I had a sort of similar experience at megacorp. It was beginning of the year and everybody had to fill out their performance appraisal with goals and actions for the year. I was approx 6 months out from retiring, so I turned mine in with the same general corp BS that everyone had to have, and the only contribution from me stating "Retire in approx 6 months". I think my boss got the hint

 

[Luck_Club]

You were expecting your "new" manager (who is making his mark) to perhaps call you and say hey we're going out Wednesday for beer & brats?

YES

 

[Luck_Club]

Just did the annual forecast last week. Working with my inside team mate I could hear the you missed this you missed that.

Couldn't help laughing. I spent 5 minutes while drinking scotch the other night filling in the number 5-10% up. Same as I've done for 20 years but with much less stress.

 

[marko]

Having been a VP of sales for years I can relate to the new boss.

Most of my sales guys were multi-millionaires but often slightly unhinged. I had a few who were nice guys but real psychos; guys with no brakes at all. One guy I was riding with deliberately rear-ended someone just for fun. Another picked me up at the airport with a dead deer he had run over sitting in the back seat...but the deer wasn't really dead and came back to life! I could write a book.

I'd play that role if I could: How cool would it be to very quietly--almost whisper --to him the first three minutes he gets into your car that: "I'm not going to do your stupid forecast; you do it. And if you pull rank on me, I'm going to drop you off at the first Holiday Inn I see." Could be great fun.

 

[audreyh1]

I remember the time we had 90% market share in our niche. Then we were asked to increase sales by 2-fold (or was it 5-fold). I just laughed and told the CEO it wasn't going to happen. And it didn't happen.

But the OP should use this opportunity to learn from the new manager. The OP should get the new manager to tell him how all the other reps and their sales territories are doing and what the best practices are and what really works. I suspect the OP won't have to talk much at all except for a few well-placed questions.

Good advice.

 

[Floridatennisplayer]

Hello everyone....just finishing a glass of Pinot Noir. Might pour another.

Reading your great and amazing comments while emailing him our schedule for Wednesday. Doing a morning fruit and veggie tray in the break room of my favorite endocrinologist office. The rest of the day is bla...with all of my providers off on Wednesday.

If he’s friendly, I’ll be super friendly. If he’s a jerk, hummm, I might go postal!

Tomorrow I shall hang around the house and do my analysis......anal...ysis.

 

[Luck_Club]

Having been a VP of sales for years I can relate to the new boss.

Another picked me up at the airport with a dead deer he had run over sitting in the back seat...but the deer wasn't really dead and came back to life!

Tommy Boy!

You want a "guarantee"? Not on the box...

 

[HFWR]

I recall telling a boss to stop attempting to "develop me." I was sick of his buzzword bingo.

After thirty-one “performance reviews”, my answer to “Where do you see yourself in five years?” was “The f*** out of here!”...

 

[jazz4cash]

Tell him if you can’t triple sales by year end he’ll have your resignation in Q1.

Seriously I had to do this and I lined up two good clients that understood what I needed and were happy to cooperate. The boss came down with a bad back and couldn’t make the calls I had lined up.

 

[gauss]

“My name is XXX and I will be in the field with you all day on Wednesday. We will review your sales numbers. I want to see your action plan for finishing the year strong and a complete territory analysis."

Perhaps, in the most dead pan voice that you can muster, tell the new boss:
"I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."

Perhaps followed up at some point by:

"This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it."

Obviously not a serious suggestion, but fun to fantasize about.

edit: After reading Marko's post above (#31), about the off-kilter sales guys , maybe this wouldn't be so far fetched. LOL

 

[target2019]

Is there any chance you can install gopro and play us back the best moments?

 

[marko]

If he's much younger than you, I'd add the word "Sonny" to the comments above. As in "I'm not going to do that, sonny".

 

[eytonxav]

Rather than let him get to you, I'd just smile, humor him and nod your head until your ready to say bye bye.

 

[Mdlerth]

Mister Wet Blanket

I'm enjoying all the mischievous responses on this thread, but please do NOT act on the silly ones.

A year from now whatever the new micromanager does or says won't matter. What will matter is that you remained professional all the way to the end.

One of the first threads I responded to when I joined this forum was started by a member who wanted to go out with a bang. She desperately craved giving her jerk boss a public performance review on her last day. Ultimately she thought better of it, and departed quietly. She reported here afterward that she was glad to have left as a class act.

Now, as long as you resolve to keep the wild ideas strictly inside your head, let's return to the whoopee cushions and exploding cigars. Nothing beats good old sophomoric fun!

 

[f35phixer]

i could not even imagine myself in SALES, OMG... if you have your date for AMF, your golden, string him along!

 

[Alvin Tostig]

I can completely relate!

I had one foot already in retirement earlier this year, when senior management of another company came calling (I know all the regional folks very well) with a great offer. I agree to come on board short-term to help them - 6 months to a year and they understood.

On my second day there, while I'm out in the field, the national guy, who I don't know, calls me to tell me he's flying in the next day to go over some groundrules and that I should pick up this case study on the printer in my office, for us to go over the next day!

Sure enough, he flies 2,000 miles into my region and locks me in in a conference room for 8 hours quizzing me on this 50 page case study that he expected me to read in its entirety. WTF!
I'm an executive in my profession, fairly well-known in my field, and this national guy is pontificating for 8 hours how great he is and that this case study is actually about him and how successful he (thinks he) is! I was treated like a college student getting quizzed on the case study on minutia that I never read, like "when Mr. Jones, met the client, what was the first thing he asked?!!

While this is going on, people in my local office who are walking past the conference room - you could see in from the outside are smirking - apparently they know this guy's reputation of being a complete blowhart!!

Anyway, I held my composure, went home, decided that since he wanted to repeat this performance on Day 2, I was not going to let it happen. So, I walk into the conference room first thing on the morning of Day 2 of his interrogation tactics, and told him I'm quitting because I've never worked with someone so pompous etc. (He doesn't know that I'm financially able to quit at any time). Now he's completely on the defensive - because if the President of my company found out, (who knows me too)he'd probably be looking like crap that they brought me in and I'm leaving on the third day.

Anyway, here's what happened. The regional office senior management team begged me to stay (they know this guy is a nutcase) and interesting enough since that day, I've had minimal to zero interaction with this "national" person. In fact, he actually asked someone else (who I respect) to deal with me directly so things are better.

So Florida Tennis Player, isn't it great to be in the driver's seat. If they would have canned me or if I quit, no big deal at this point, right?

 

[imoldernu]

patience

 

[Texas Proud]

I am a bit surprised that nobody suggested that OP not do a lot of extra work and hope he gets a severance package... might be better than working another half year...

 

[brett]

I have been on both sides of that. The latter for many years. Just part of the occupation. I thrived in it.

Most especially at quarter or year end when the revenue, profit or growth targets are soft or worse in doubt.

Take it from me, your boss is probably under a lot more pressure than you are!

Use him while you have him. Take him out to see some clients, perhaps some deals that are in play. Get him to make some customer commitments that he might otherwise make if he was not face to face with the client. Make lemonade out of that lemon.

Get a commitment from him to come back out to the field and spend time with you and with customers. After all, that is where it happens. If he is worth his salt he will enjoy getting away from the loonie bin at HO, Country, or Region and in to the field when he cannot be pestered. And just as important, try and learn even one thing or get one good suggestion from him that can improve your performanc/numbers, or job satisfaction.

He will thank you for it! He is just another sales resource in your bag of tricks.

 

[Lukeee]

Start the day with.....

“Be ready to leave at 7am. Empty your bladder before we leave cause we won’t have much time for that.... and make sure you pack a lunch because every minute counts”.

Have fun trying to out Type A your new boss. Before you go in for each visit, pass him a red tie and say it’s most effective for sales or tell her that her hair is just a bit out of place/lipstick slightly smudged.

 

[pb4uski]

After thirty-one “performance reviews”, my answer to “Where do you see yourself in five years?” was “The f*** out of here!”...

I remember when I was 50 that we had our annual meeting at The Breakers in Palm Beach (nice place BTW)... I was FI by then but had a good gig going and a great boss... we got along well and he valued my contributions.

One morning at breakfast we were just chatting and he casually asked something along the lines of what my retirement plans were... I responded along the lines of "Ah shucks, I dunno... probably somewhere between zero and five years". He just about choked on his OJ... I think he was surprised that it might be so soon.

Anyway, I never got the "Where do you see yourself in 5 years" thing ever again after that.

 

[aja8888]

We all have stories to tell here, but, OP, just remember...don't burn any bridges before you exit. Like said above, be professional all the way.

 

[Midpack]

When I was near the end of my career facing an unpleasant day, I just mentally asked myself “will this matter at all when I’m 70 and sitting on my porch watching the sunrise.” The answer is always “not at all, probably won’t even remember this.” And I felt better.

You should throw something together to prepare just out of self respect, but no need to stress or knock yourself out. Being unprofessional isn’t the answer, even if the other party is being a complete a$$hat. You want to leave with no regrets about how you conducted yourself.

Does the new buck know you’re retiring?