Chapter 6

It was obvious to Mark that Beth was serious about wanting to learn how to golf. Besides taking group golfing lessons, she was spending time at the golf driving range. She had Mark taking videos of her swinging the golf club and was comparing those videos to the professional women golfers she sees on television. Beth was trying to mimic the swings of the professionals. He would notice her watching YouTube golf videos for tips on improving her game.

Beth was blessed with athletic ability. In what would be considered a short time, her golf index was eighteen. Mark thought she would be able to lower the index the more she played. He also knew he enjoyed golfing with her not only because of her enthusiasm but also because of her good looks. The tight shorts or the skorts she wore were eye-catchers as they highlighted her nice bottom and legs.

Mark was continuing in his efforts to set up military exchanges to sell Bifty shoes. He received a phone call that surprised him and made that endeavor much easier.

The phone call was from the Deputy Assistant of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy. The Deputy said she had been talking with Cal Bryant who mentioned Mark and his efforts in selling Bifty shoes. The General said to her that it was a “good deal” for the post exchanges to do this. She asked Mark if he could send her more information.

Mark said he already had the information she was looking for. If she would give him her email address he would send it to her. She gave him her email address and he sent her what she wanted. That evening he told Beth about the phone call and said the General had not forgotten about them.

It was a few days later that Mark received a copy of an email the Deputy Assistant had sent out to all military post-exchange managers. Contained in her email was the email with all of its attachments Mark had sent her along with her comments. She said the managers should consider selling Bifty Shoes for several reasons, but she was not mandating that they should do this. It was up to them individually to decide if they wanted to do this which would enhance the profitability of their operation.

Mark could see that she didn’t limit her email just to the US exchanges but sent it to all the post exchanges worldwide.

He quickly saw that her doing this could cause problems since he wasn’t authorized to sell the shoes in all these places. Mark phoned Bud Palmer his sales manager, and after exchanging some pleasantries as to when Mark was coming back, Mark explained about this email that had been sent to all military exchanges. Bud asked Mark a few questions and said he would get back to him.

That same night Mark received a phone call back from Bud who said he had discussed Mark’s situation with Myles Owens the owner of the Bifty Shoe company.

Bud said, “Myles told me that you do not need to worry about getting the permission of the various sales managers as he is giving you the permission to do this selling worldwide. Myles also said that you are no longer a salesman but you are now a sales manager and he gave you your code to put on the agreement form these locations submit. You will also continue to receive commissions from all the locations you have previously established. Myles is a fair-minded guy and he appreciates and rewards success.”

“Oh, and if you get any contact from exchanges located in Europe or overseas, you can tell them he will shortly be establishing a distribution warehouse in Europe. While we presently cannot send these military exchanges a shoe display, the company will send them a large wall poster showing a display and some shoes. They can order as the other locations order and we will send the shoes to the military customer via their APO.”

Mark thanked Bud for doing this. He also couldn’t wait to tell Beth about his promotion to sales manager. At the same time, he needed to prepare for what he hoped would happen when these exchange managers would contact him.

What he was hoping would happen did happen and made for a busy few weeks. The exchange managers either started calling him or contacting him by email. Some of them were those managers who previously wouldn’t give him the time of the day when he phoned them. Mark virtually phoned each manager and answered any questions they had about doing this selling. He gave them the code to put on the form and told them how to submit it.