My Friend Frank | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: My Friend Frank | Previous Challenge Entry
By Rick Gregory
02/19/25
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“Oh man, I’m so sorry to hear about the way JB (one of our suppliers) snaked away that deal you were trying to work out with your client.” Frank, one of the guys who manages some of my work, was consoling me while he and I were at lunch just after I’d learned that JB went secretly behind my back to sell directly to my client, bypassing me completely! I was complaining to Frank, “I can’t figure out how he even heard I was dealing with them.” Frank responded, “I guess when big commissions are involved, people do crazy things. It seems that the trend with Manufacturer’s Reps these days, is to find any opportunity to sell direct, rather than go through the conventional path of selling through their dealers. That way, they can sell at a higher price, ensuring a bigger commission for themselves. On a deal this big, that could have meant a several thousand dollar “raise” for JB if he could keep from selling to you at a discounted price so you could then sell to the client. Turns out he can sell to them at the same price you would have charged them — but he receives a significantly higher commission. Who wouldn’t take advantage of a higher payout? If he can sell to them for $28 per yard on the 10,000 yard order, that becomes a $280,000 sale at 6.5% - or $18,200 in commissions. If he sold to you at his 2.5% commission price, it would be a $215,000 sale with a $5,375 commission. He makes almost $13,000 more by going around you!”

After Frank left (and forgot to pay his half of the bill), I couldn’t help chewing on his statement, “Who wouldn’t take advantage of a higher payout?” I was thinking that there are lots of people who wouldn’t betray a confidence and jeopardize a business relationship over a single big transaction. I know quite a number of those people, having been a manufacturer’s rep myself for over 10 years. Many of my colleagues and I had multiple opportunities to “sell direct” but chose not to because of the ethics involved. We weren’t willing to compromise an ongoing business relationship for the occasional “higher payout.” I also wondered how Frank knew that JB was selling at the same price I was going to charge.

When I contacted the client and asked how they made the decision to buy their carpet directly from the manufacturer, they said JB told them it was in their best interest to deal directly with him. He told them they’d get the same price as they would have paid to our company — but that there would be “no middle man” when it came to warranties and claims if anything might be required. Sadly, that was nowhere near the truth. The material the client bought still had to be installed. If there was a manufacturing defect, the end user (the client) would likely not recognize the issue in time to make a claim. JB’s company required every incident to be processed through one of their dealers, like me. This client would never deal directly with JB again, and would find the dealers like me, who had been lied to and cheated, unwilling to advocate for them. I truly hoped it wasn’t a lesson they learned the hard way.

A few weeks later, I was meeting another colleague at the same restaurant where Frank and I lunched and where he consoled me over the shabby treatment I’d received at JB’s hands. Imagine my surprise when I saw JB handing Frank an envelope, and then both of them laughing and high-fiving one another! That’s when it dawned on me that Frank was the only other person who knew the names of my clients, the price I was charging, and had access to their contact information through our computer systems. My “friend” Frank set me up to fail and lived out his own prophecy of people doing crazy things for money.

When I shared this experience with my boss, he asked if I had hard evidence, which I didn’t. He refused to even ask Frank. Guess who never managed another of my projects? Guess who left the company and never looked back?

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