The "landlord" at work sent two contractors up to replace the cracked window above my podmate's desk. As Dennis and I are currently window- and siding-shopping, I asked one of the gentlemen whether they also did residential work, and when he replied that they did, requested a business card. "Do you have any business cards?" he asked his workmate. I didn't catch the entire reply, but it was definitely negative--both in fact and in attitude. Something along the lines of "D'ya actually think they'd give cards to me?"
And that was the last of it. The pair carted the original window and their tool-sets out of the pod, and I still have no idea which company's name is on their paychecks. Unless the quote we've seen so far is at the tip-top of the price range, we're not talking chump change, even for our little house. Yet two employees didn't think it important enough to scribble contact information on a piece of paper.
True, an anecdote is merely an anecdote, a single data point. But given the number of contractors in the area, the statistical likelihood remains that a local business lost a potential sale. All because someone doesn't understand that, regardless of job title, all employees are salespeople. (It's an idea I'm borrowing from Harvey Mackay, by the bye, but just as true now as it was when we first dipped our flippers into the shark tank.)
