In most companies, the CEO stays out of the day to day operations of things, but sometimes you get a good one who is actually interested in how the company works on the front lines.

What would you do if an executive manager was supposed to monitor you to learn (and NOT pull rank) while you were doing your job, but he decided to jump in and make changes to what you were doing?

That is what happened to the sales manager in this story, so as asked, he called the CEO to report it and the executive got fired on the spot.

Check it out.

“No one is above the rules, and I mean no one call me if he pulls rank”

I used to work for a marketing company that serviced small and medium-sized businesses across America.

It was a multi-billion dollar revenue company. The CEO was a true rags to riches story.

He joined the company right after he got out of jail in his early 20s for a small drug charge and worked his way up over 20 years to eventually become the CEO of the company.

This CEO sounds amazing.

The CEO strongly believed that the success of the company did not come from the brilliant and intelligent minds that he hired for his executive team, but the hard work, sweat and tears of the infield sales reps, service reps (made sure the customer services where properly installed), collection reps (chased after customers who fell behind on their payments), and sales managers.

He would often say, without sales we don’t have the revenue to pay your salaries.

Without customer service customers will drop us faster then we can bill them.

Without collection reps we’d lose too many accounts due to non-payment. And without sales managers to hold it all together we’d fall apart.

And he had a rule

I bet some of his executive team hated it, but it was good for them.

EVERY SINGLE EXECUTIVE team member would spend 1 full week of each quarter in the field with a Sales Manager, Customer Service Rep, Collections Rep, or Sales rep. In addition when they are in the field they are to SUBMIT to whoever they’ve been assigned too and they may not pull rank.

This rule applied to EVERYONE to include the CEO. I know this, cause the CEO personally road along with me for 5 days in the field. He was a legit cool guy.

He thought the rules didn’t apply to him.

So…apparently we had hired a new VP Of Marketing from a major brand that I’m sure everyone in this sub would know of. Anyway apparently the first time he went in the field the VP Of Marketing pulled rank on a sales manager and the sales manager reported this directly to the CEO.

A new quarter went by, and I got an email stating that the VP Of Marketing will be joining me in the field on such and such week. Ok cool, not the first time I had some higher up come out and ride with me.

Its not often that regular employees get a call from the CEO.

But about an hour later I got a call from my CEO:

CEO: PJ the VP Of Marketing is going in the field with you.

Me: Yes sir, I got the email.

The CEO clearly respects this guy.

CEO: PJ I picked you cause when I was in the field with you, you seemed like the kind of guy that wouldn’t be bullied or let someone run all over you.

Me: Ok, well thank you.

CEO: This VP is new to the company, and the last time he went in the field he pulled rank. I’ve told him not to pull rank again, and if he does I want you to call me as soon as you can.

PJ: I understand.

CEO: Thank you.

Some clients just want to try to negotiate for the best prices.

The VP meets me up, honestly for the first two days everything was fine. However on the 3rd day I was meeting with an existing client. This client was a difficult to please customer, he would always say we weren’t worth the money, but I knew we were cause I could see his results, and over the years this clients business had grown a lot.

Said client would beat us up over pricing I’d stand firm, give him a 3% price increase, and offer him upgrades on top he’d haggle me down to a 1.5% price increase and we’d sign the contract.

This sales manager really knows what he is doing.

Now I told the VP what would happen, that it would be a long sales call, and a difficult high tense one. But to let me handle it, I’ve dealt with the client quite a bit and was well prepared.

Now this meeting with the client lasted 2 1/2 hours but I’ll get to the point. The client wanted a discount and was threatening to go to our competitor (I knew he wouldn’t).

That’s when the VP spoke up and said “I’m the VP and I’ll personally give you a 15% discount on your current plan if you agree to sign a 1 yr contract”

What?! That is a huge discount.

The customer said “20%” the VP said “Spilt the difference 17.5% and we have a deal” they agreed I was mad as hell.

One thing to mention is that my commissions depended on me generating MORE REVENUE and this VP just messed that up for me.

I don’t know if I would be able to keep my cool.

We get in my car, and I go “You pulled rank you shouldn’t have done that.”

He said “I got the deal done.”

This VP will never admit he was wrong.

I said “Had you kept your mouth shut I’d have gotten more money, not given 20% back.”

He goes “We got the contract signed.”

Not to mention the money he is personally losing from the commission.

I said “We gave away tens of thousands of dollars that we didn’t need to”

He goes “Look I’m the VP…”

I bet his face turned white.

I then called my CEO, he saw the name pop up on my cars Bluetooth

CEO answered

CEO: PJ, how are you doing?

He got right to the point.

PJ: The VP pulled rank on me and gave my customer a 17.5% discount on his current plan right as I was about to close him for more money.

CEO: That’s not right, where is the VP?

PJ: Your on speaker, he can hear you.

CEO: Excellent, hey VP.

VP: Yes sir.

At least he is hearing him out I guess.

CEO: Tell me what happened.

VP: Told his side of the story, which he admitted the truth but also admitted to pulling rank and giving the customer a discount.

Wow! He was not having any of it.

CEO: Ok, thanks for your honesty. Your fired.

VP: Excuse me?

CEO: Your fired, you have a 1 yr probation clause, your done. You don’t pull rank when in the field.

Oh, the CEO certainly can do this.

VP: You can’t do this

CEO: I just did, you are to get on a plane come back to your office and clean it out. PJ take Mr. VP back to his hotel and drop him off.

PJ: Sure, no problem.

The most awkward car ride in history.

And for the next 20 minutes I had an awkward car ride back to my former VPs hotel.

Later in an all hands on meeting, the CEO made sure to talk about how if an executive is in the field and pulls rank its a friable offense for the executive and he wants all the sales reps, sales managers, customer service reps, and collection reps to know that.

A CEO like this is a rare thing indeed, but based on this story alone, it sounds like his company is doing extremely well.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about it.

Me too!

This comment is spot on.

I agree with this commenter.

Yeah, very cool.

That VP really thought he knew best.

CEOs like this are few and far between, unfortunately.

That shouldn’t be the case.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.