No policy defined those phrases.
Employees interpreted them.
The result was predictable.
The regional director remembered what the Black CEO had said.
If your answer is simply firing one man, you'll learn nothing.
He finally understood.
Three days after the incident, he called her.
She was in Charlotte reviewing a hotel transportation contract.
Her assistant said she had fifteen minutes.
The regional director got eleven.
“I wanted to update you.”
“You don't owe me an update.”
“I know.”
“Then why call?”
“Because you were right.”
The CEO looked out at traffic through a hotel conference-room window.
“About?”
“The problem being larger than the salesman.”
She said nothing.
The regional director explained.
Not details that violated employee privacy.
Enough.
Informal customer screening.
Fear around the top salesman.
Management tolerance.
Lead assignment.
The lack of data about people who walked away before becoming customers.
The CEO listened.
Then asked:
“What do you want from me?”
The question caught him.
“I don't know.”
“Then why are you calling?”
He thought.
“Maybe because I wanted you to know we're taking it seriously.”
She considered.
“Are you?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know?”
He stopped.
The CEO continued.
“Because you're investigating?”
“Yes.”
“That's the beginning.”
He nodded though she could not see.
“What would taking it seriously look like to you?”
She smiled faintly.
“You're asking the person who just moved eight million dollars away from your company.”
“Yes.”
“That might bias the answer.”
“Probably.”
The CEO appreciated the honesty.
She sat.
“All right.”
“Start with the people who left.”
“What?”
“You're interviewing employees.”
“Yes.”
“Talk to customers who didn't buy.”
“We are.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“You're reading reviews.”
The regional director went quiet.
“How do you know?”
“Because that's what companies do.”
She continued.
“Find abandoned quotes.”
“Cancelled appointments.”
“People who requested vehicles online and never returned.”
“People who test drove and bought elsewhere.”
“Ask why.”
The regional director wrote.
“Anything else?”
“Stop paying salespeople as though the only thing that matters is closing the most profitable person standing in front of them.”
He frowned.
“Commission is the business model.”
“I didn't say eliminate commission.”
“Then?”
“What gets rewarded gets repeated.”
She paused.
“If someone can increase earnings by ignoring customers they think are low probability, you have created an incentive to profile.”
He wrote again.
She continued.
“Measure contact quality.”
“Follow-up.”
“Complaint patterns.”
“Lead equity.”
“Manager overrides.”
“Not just gross profit.”
The regional director laughed softly.
“What?”
“You said you didn't want to help.”
“I said the answer might be biased.”
“Different.”
She checked the time.
“One more thing.”
“Yes?”
“Don't make every employee sit through a two-hour bias video and call the work finished.”
He almost laughed again.
“We were considering training.”
“Training is fine.”
“Training without incentives, authority, and measurement is theater.”
The regional director wrote that sentence exactly.
Before hanging up, he asked: