PPB November 2019

From Fiesta To Siesta Chris Hodge Senior Vice President of Sales Innovation Line Ventura, California In the early ’90s, I scheduled an appointment with an El Paso, Texas, distributor whose U.S. office turned out to be an abandoned warehouse on the shady side of town. To my surprise, a very attractive and immaculately dressed woman greeted me in halting English. She told me our meeting would be held at their main office outside of Juarez, Mexico. She radioed her compadres and 30 minutes later, an old, worn minivan pulled up. The driver instructed me to load my catalogs and samples in the minivan and off we went. An hour later, we arrived at the company’s Mexico office. Our meeting began with lunch and I had planned to begin my presentation immediately afterwards. Shockingly, the owner informed me they were going to take a siesta first. I waited in their office for about two hours for the sales team to awaken and then proceeded to give them an hour-long presentation that was interpreted in Spanish. At this point, I was thinking they were going to load me up in the minivan and take me back to El Paso, but they said they wanted to stay in Mexico for dinner. Little did I know, dinner would involve a night of heavy drinking and karaoke in some of the shadiest parts of Juarez. This was before cell phones, so I knew I was stuck. I had no way of returning across the border until they were ready to drive me back. I ended up sleeping in the minivan overnight while they continued to party all night long. The next day I assumed I was going to be driven back to El Paso. I was wrong. They took me to meet with another sales office even further into Mexico. I was still in the same outfit I had worn into their office the day before. I didn’t even have a toothbrush! Another long day of lunch, siestas and a product presentation led into another night of barhopping. Thoughts of human trafficking began to weigh heavily on my mind as I kept thinking that no one even knew where I was and there was no way to contact anyone to let them know all my personal belongings were still in my hotel room in El Paso. I spent a second night in the minivan. After a 48-hour debacle, they finally drove me back to the warehouse in El Paso. I had missed my other scheduled appointments in El Paso, but I jumped out of the minivan, kissed the ground, checked out of my hotel and took an early flight home. Cruel Shoes Sharon Wohlleber Multi-line Representative Integrity Sales Houston, Texas I was grumbling to my husband about having to pack for back- to-back sales meetings and the fact that shoes took up so much space in my bag, when he quietly reminded me that most people would welcome the chance to travel internationally. I was headed to Toronto the next morning for a supplier sales meeting and to Utah a few days later. Rolling my eyes just a little, I thanked him for his wisdom and finished my packing. My flight to Toronto was cancelled but I made it onto another airline, arriving to my destination tired and hungry sometime after midnight. A few days later, I arrived at the airport ready to continue my journey to Utah via a connecting flight in Minneapolis. I breezed through customs and made it to the boarding area, only to find my flight was delayed. The boarding area was freezing cold and I regretted packing my jacket in my suitcase. By the time the trip was over, I would regret letting that suitcase go. My delayed flight finally took off and landed in Minneapolis where I learned my flight to Utah had left already. Huh? The airline put me up at the airport hotel for the night. It was a charming place that had a restaurant, but it was closed. I had no luggage, no change of clothes, no toiletries and no jacket, and now, no supper. The attendant at the desk listened to my sad story and made a grand gesture of handing me a pouch that contained a toothbrush, a doll’s-house-size tube of toothpaste, a black comb and an eye mask. I spent the night tossing and turning, worrying that I would not make it to my Utah meeting in time—and I was right. My flight the next morning was delayed and by the time we touched down in Utah and I arrived at the meeting, it was already wrapping up. My sales partners (they had managed to get direct flights from Toronto) were surprised to see me in the same clothes and teetering heels that I had left Canada in but knew better FEATURE | Tales From The Road 22 | NOVEMBER 2019 |