Case Study: Seller Holding Business Owner Hostage?

questionmark Bizarre (and very true) dilemma.

An Engage Selling client has a sales rep who is a good performer but also causes a lot of trouble. She is very difficult to manage and causes chaos in the office daily. Today she announced to the owner of the business that she was having an intimate relationship with their biggest customer simply to protect her job. She sensed that the owner is tired of her antics and is thinking about firing her.

The customer produces $700,000 for our client. The total revenue for the Engage client is $3 million business. Roughly 1/4 of their total sales.

The sales rep figures she can’t be fired because the owner can’t afford to lose the business. What would you do if you were the owner?

One response to “Case Study: Seller Holding Business Owner Hostage?

  1. Tricky but not uncommon. This happens where sales are routed and won through references.

    Best way to handle this is – get a similar 2nd client.

    Or, build a pool of 10 clients who can make around 1/10th of this client – this shouldn’t be challenging.

    Or, talk to the client and engage directly – clients love money talk, rather than bed talks. Propose better stronger business prospect and lineups for the future.

    Or, hire more intelligent, sophisticated, lady of class – whom your client will notice.

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