SALES MANAGER ACTIVITY

[BENJAMIN4165]

It has come to my attention that one of our Managers "seems" to be taken kickbacks from a particular salesperson for house deals and favors, (his sales have more than doubled and he spends a lot of time in this Managers' office daily, and this Manager is giving him a lot more than usual attention, while neglecting others)it is a delicate situation and I would like to see it stopped for the sake of the sales force morale as well as for the integrity of our dealership, the problem is: How do you stop something he denies vehemently is going on and he the Manager has being with our company for years and I would not like to lose him. Any diplomatic suggestions?
Thanks.

[texaslp]

I couldn't tell from your explanation if the slsp is denying it or the mgr or both. I think I would meet with both of them, tell them this has been brought to your attention, and you hope that it is not true since this would be a serious problem for both of them.

I would also put a policy in writing about the issue and state that it is grounds for termination and if such activity is suspected the dealership will investigate.

I think I would talk individually with the mgr about the morale problem regarding this issue and make it clear that he has to do something about that.

If you don't see any change, you can interview your customers in a way that will indicate if the mgr is giving all the house deals to this slsperson. You won't be able to prove the kickbacks if neither confesses(or brags to a fellow employee).

[BENJAMIN4165]

Thank you, good suggestions.

Ben

[morley01]

I think you need to interview all parties involved, including the customers. If you see a pattern that indicates kick backs I would immediately terminate the sales manager . This person is responsible for your most valuable asset,and is exposed to a lot of people that can be influenced by his or her behavior. Termination will send a very clear message to your staff that unethical behavior will not be tollerated. If this person contnues working for you a precedence for tolerance will have been set, making the next ethically questionable situation more difficult to resolve. Any manager is a key player and needs to be trusted as a leader.

[zekensted]

If both guys are good, valued employees, then letting them know how things "look" to you and others should be motivation to change behavior. If they are not as good as you think, behavior will not change and you will have to make an unpleasant decision.

[zekensted]

If both guys are good, valued employees, then letting them know how things "look" to you and others should be motivation to change behavior. If they are not as good as you think, behavior will not change and you will have to make an unpleasant decision.

[pjdevereaux2003]

All managers play favorites with house deals from time to time. That may be unfair, but it is usually not accompanied by kickbacks. Saw a similar situation up close - married manager "seemed" to be having an affair (only Ray Charles or Stevie Wonder couldn't see what was going on)with a much younger subordinate. Long lunches, weekends away, obvious favoritism. Owners let it pass. It only got worse and destroyed morale in their department. Failure to address it said that such behavior was OK as long as the numbers were there.

Your manager may have been good in the past, but that was then, not now. You can meet with them both and interview your customers, etc. etc. but in the end, you will end up firing them both because they both lack ethics. You can't prove it this time but they're not on trial. Just decide to "move in a different direction" with their jobs. Otherwise, next time they each individually or together will do something even worse that you can prove and you will end up paying for - like them stealing a goodly sum of your hard earned money.

Fire them both now. That says that even the appearance of impropriety results in termination in your store or department. A good message to send that makes your dealership a good place to work for all employees, not just a favored few.

As for your manager,

[texaslp]

You know these people better than anyone and can decide if this is a one-time aberration or a typical practice for these people. Sometimes good people can be tempted and convince themselves that what they are doing is really not wrong and they just need a wakeup call to get back on track.

[texaslp]

By the way, how are things there? I'm from Slidell and worked 10 years for Bill Watson Ford.

[BENJAMIN4165]

pjdevereaux2003, I like your thinking!, I would do just that except that we have no proof that this is actually going on, just very strong suspicions, also I do not want to be sued for wrongful termination, by either party.
Ben