Mitch and Murry
Premiere Properties
321 Mamet Ave.
New York, NY 10023
Dear Mitch and Murry:
In follow-up to my in house observation of your sales office in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn on April 24th and 25th. First I wish to thank you for making Mr. Williamson's time available to me, I realize that he was in the middle of a very stressful situation, with the robbery that took place during my visit and the reduction in sales personnel that resulted from the robbery. I also want to thank you and Mr. Williamson for fulfilling my request of being as invisible as possible when observing the Sheepshead Bay office operation.
If I were asked to describe my report to you in a single word, my answer would be disturbing. This particular sales office observation is well past my three hundredth such project and is by far the most extreme case of misrepresentation of facts (if indeed facts were actually presented to the customer) that I have ever seen. Throughout my observation each and every one of the salesmen presented themselves to your sales leads with titles other then the position they actually held, usually as the vice-president or president of Rio Rancho Properties, Glengarry Highlands and/or other fictitious companies. At other times I observed your employees using other lies or half-truths in trying to get customers to sit down with them for a sales presentation. The resident expert in this case was Shelly Levine. Mr. Levine was particularly adept at fabricating titles, company names as well an imaginary assistant named Grace. The fact that Mr. Levine is no longer a part of your organization is not necessarily a bad thing.
From an ethical standpoint this offices sales and marketing techniques are on the extreme edge of deception. Certainly in practically all sales situations caveat emptor prevails. The buyer should be aware of all possible items involved in the purchase of a product. Savvy buyers assume that a salesman will manipulate products attributes in order to present them favorably. The deception that Mr. Aaronow, Mr. Moss, Mr. Levine, and Mr. Roma practice is well beyond manipulation of information and truly gives the salesman an unjust and unfair advantage when dealing with a customer.
I advise that you restructure your sales training to incorporate the importance of truth in everything from initial customer contact to signing the dotted line. I also recommend that salesmen who do not follow this recommendation be severely disciplined. It is my belief that your position on overlooking telephone deception was a major contributor to Mr. Levine's and Mr. Moss's theft of your new leads. Both Mr. Levine and Mr. Moss felt that the end justified the means in acquiring the leads. And you lost some very good leads to your competitor Mr. Jerry Graf in the process. I can only hope that this helps your firm realize that my recommendations are correct.
Respectfully,
Richard Carlson