Chapter 2

Ben had just ended a virtual phone call with Todd and was thinking about what he had said. Todd told him that he was going to be emailing him a new report that he thought Ben would find interesting. About five minutes later Ben had the email and was looking at this report.

This report was on each of the salespeople Ben had who were working for him. It didn’t take long to find what Todd had mentioned that Ben would find interesting since it stood out. The salesmen in both Michigan and Wisconsin had put their oars in the boat and were content with the commissions they were receiving from the shoes purchased at their established retail outlet stores plus the direct online sales. There was little to no growth activity as to any new locations they established in the past few months. That was not good for the growth Ben wanted to have in the business.

It was obvious that Bob Marcy in Michigan and Tom Chapman in Wisconsin were content and Ben didn’t like them being that way. That caused Ben to text Bob indicating that he wanted to do a virtual phone call with him at ten and to make himself available. He made the same request to Tom to do a call with him at one.

Ben did both calls and they followed a similar pattern. He pointed out to them that it was apparent they were satisfied to reap the commissions from the purchases being done at their established retail stores and they weren’t adding any new locations. He told them that was unacceptable and he couldn’t have his business operate that way with it having zero growth of new locations.

Tom Chapman in defense of his performance said, “You said my compensation is unlimited and that is true. The thing you omitted to say is that my expenses can also be unlimited. By that I mean the farther I travel from home to establish new locations requires that I pay for lodging and food which comes out of my pocket because I am an independent contractor. Because of those expenses, I am not going to be going to Spooner or the Dells areas. I have concentrated my efforts on Milwaukee and the adjoining area. If you want the middle and northern part of this State covered you need to add more salespeople to cover those areas.”

While Ben had told Tom and Bob the whole State was their territory, he understood what Tom said and why they were content with their serving the greater metropolitan areas of Detroit and Milwaukee only, and not the whole State. Ben was a little disappointed that neither of them understood that the expense of adding more retail outlets would pay long-term dividends to them doing it. Because of that Ben decided he needed and would be adding salespeople in those States to service the total State. He could see what Tom said meant that Ben needed to adjust his business model by adding more salespeople.

Ending the call he phoned Todd and thanked him for this report and told him what he said to Tom and Bob along with how Tom responded. He asked Todd to overnight express to him the folder they had on resumes that had been received from applicants looking for sales jobs.

Upon receiving that folder Ben reviewed the applications and resumes. He did some virtual job interviews and hired Terri Keller who lived in Madison, Wisconsin, and Marty Adams who lived in Lansing, Michigan. Both of these people had prior sales experience with athletic shoe manufacturers that had seen better days and were now going downhill. In telling them when they were interviewed, he discussed many things including that their salary was commission based and was unlimited. The whole State was their territory and it would be their efforts that would govern the amount of their compensation.

He finished his hiring efforts by telling Todd who he had hired and asked him to tell Jane to send information to them to come to the office for training on the product and procedures as well as booking them into a hotel near the office. He told Todd to prepare this report every month which would enable him to see if additional salespeople should be added in other states. Illinois already had a total of two salespeople and now he was thinking he may need to increase that number.

Ben felt pretty good about himself in hopefully solving a problem by hiring these two additional salespeople and possibly more in the future. He wanted to celebrate his doing it and thought taking Loren out to dinner was one way to do it. He phoned her and she was available. Ben told her he would pick her up at six.

Loren looked good in wearing a white silk blouse and dark skirt. The high-heeled shoes displayed her great legs. The makeup she was wearing showed her to be an attractive lady. He gave her a choice of either the club or Quincy’s for dinner. She said she would prefer the club as this was the night for the seafood buffet and she wanted to pig out on the lobster. She remarked with a sly look she gave Ben that he should indulge himself with the raw oysters. Her telling him to do that told Ben that all systems were a go.

There was a good turnout for the buffet at the club. They met Dan and Evelyn Walsh in walking into the club and agreed to sit with them for the meal. It was a nice time they all had in doing the dining. Dan had a twenty-five-foot boat at a nearby marina and told of some of his recent fishing exploits. He invited both Ben and Loren to go fishing this following Wednesday but the invitation was contingent on there being good weather. They said they would let Dan know and thanked him for the invite.

With the meal over, both couples went to the lounge for an after-dinner drink. When they had finished their drinks Loren suggested that should leave.

There wasn’t any discussion as to where they would now be going. Ben drove directly to his home as opposed to going to Loren’s condo without receiving any objection from her. Going there afforded them more privacy than going to her condo.

Once inside Ben’s home, there was a little kissing and groping, but without words needing to be said they went to the bedroom and started undressing. Ben enjoyed watching Loren undress. There was just something sexy when she reached behind herself and unsnapped her bra. It seemed to him that it was a woman’s way of saying she was permitting a man to have sex with her. He thought a man’s erect shaft pointing at a woman was a man’s way of saying he wanted to make love to a woman. It was an equal exchange of signs acknowledging their thoughts and wants.