his territory and gave away some of his best accounts. By now, this situation
was eating away at him like an emotional cancer.
His relationship with his boss was one of hide-and-seek. Trevor would
try to seek him out to tell him how he felt about the situation, and his boss
would find clandestine means of avoiding him. So Trevor decided to send
an e-mail to air out his feelings. He told his boss how he felt the company
had screwed him over and taken away his motivation. He talked about the
great opportunities he had turned down elsewhere. He closed by saying he
felt like things needed to change for him to be happy. He was confident the
company needed him because of the great relationships he had built—that
fact alone gave him permission, in his mind, to send this message.
He had been relishing the thought of writing and sending this e-mail
for weeks. The very idea had become a reservoir of energy for him. He
pounded the send button, leaned back in his chair, and almost immediately
felt a sense of dread come over him. He had trouble sleeping all weekend
and into the next week as he waited for some response—but none came.
Trevor’s boss read the e-mail and then forwarded the e-mail to his boss,
who promptly asked him to come in and talk about Trevor. He told Trevor’s
manager that he thought Trevor was a malcontent, a loose cannon, and an
ingrate, seeing as he was making twice as much money now as he had be-
fore he came to this company. He instructed Trevor’s boss to start looking
for a replacement as he expected any day to find out that Trevor had gone
to the competition. Thus, the snowball started rolling.
Within a month (of eerie silence for Trevor), his company came and
offered him a “new” position with less pay and a different territory. They
said that they were making changes with the sales structure in his division.
By this time, the markets had started their meltdown, and other companies
had put a freeze on hiring. Trevor eventually took a job for two-thirds the
pay with another firm. End of story.
THE PRICE WE PAY
Trevor’s situation indicates a lack of emotional intelligence (one to
which we are all susceptible at times) that initiated a downward spiral of
events.
•His lack of resilience within the context of changing conditions at
his company caused him to get trapped in a bitter state of mind, in
which all he could think about were the negatives of the situation.
•His need to vent his feelings made him an undesirable to his boss
who worked hard to avoid him.72 SELLING WITH EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE