No, I’m not talking about Trump. Selling Power has an article titled How to Handle the Devil without Getting Burned. We’ve blogged often about the most insufferable salesperson we have encountered in our years of working with sales departments. Now that I have read this quick article, I have found the perfect description of him.
Often there’s a rep who is good, who knows he is good, and who repeatedly lets others know about it. This is a person who is arrogant, abrasive, and obnoxious with co-workers, and who sometimes bullies those beneath him or her on the totem pole, says Graham Scott. Yet when the person is a top performer, and when the complaints against him or her are about hurt feelings rather than outright abuse, dealing with the rep can be tough.
The sales rep we encountered was the top seller (by far) at a medium-sized company here in the Twin Cities. He was always cocky, quick-tempered and self-focused. His selling style was that of Dominance which only accentuated things.
The turning point in his career at this company was his education. He went to night school and earned his M.B.A. from a local college. After this, the sales rep started demeaning coworkers in meetings, demanding a significant increase in pay and even went so far as to drop the F bomb on the President of the company! The one vindication he needed in his own mind was the advanced degree. After that, insufferably arrogant became an understatement.
Almost forgot – he was fired.