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Chapter 1
The Sales Contest
My husband works for a mid-sized company as an outside salesman. This rough economy has had everybody scrambling to make their quotas. Few were coming even close.
Not unexpectedly at the last sales meeting the Vice President of Sales, George Grossman, laid it on the line. Either there was a major uptick in sales or there would have to be significant reductions in the sales force. In addition, he was revising the sales goals and would release them at the next sales meeting. My husband, as one of the more junior members of the sales team and, like most, significantly below quota, would logically be one of the first to go.
The odds of finding another job to support us weren't good. We have two young children and a mortgage as well as the normal living expenses that are part of an up and coming lifestyle.
He didn't sleep well for quite some time as he anticipated the new sales goals. As the meeting approached he became more fretful to the point of depression. The sales meeting arrived and with it Mr. Grossman's presentation of the new sales goals. His presentation put everyone in a state of shock.
For starters sales continued the slide we'd seen all year. The shockers included the release of two of the older salesmen, not to be replaced. Their quotas were to be redistributed to others in the sales force so everyone would have their quotas increased! I couldn't believe it. They increased quotas at a time when everyone was having difficulty even coming close to making their goals!
Hard as all this was to comprehend, it was nothing compared to the new sales contest. Usually sales contests had incentives which included a high end prize like a trip or top notch luggage. It was always something worth working extra hard for. This contest was entirely different. It was make your goals or else!
Grossman had shown that he was willing to fire salesmen and had increased everyone's sales goals. Now with the threat of job loss at a time when finding another was unimaginably difficult. He came up with a new sales contest. No trip, no luggage. This time the salesmen's wives were the prizes! The wife of the salesman who did the worst, percentage-wise on making his goal was to be a prize shared by the remainder of the sales force! Anyone who didn't want to participate could pick up his final check at the door. He had written them for each of the salesmen. They only had to be picked as the salesman left.
There was virtual pandemonium as each couple reacted to the unbelievable news. Not picking up your check was contractual agreement to the terms of the contest.
I reflected on when Bob was hired for his job. The company owner had come up with a wonderful product and needed salesmen to crisscross the country selling it. It was being manufactured in this god forsaken corner of the country where no good salesman would ordinarily live.
The owner had sweetened the offer of employment with a house on a beautiful new golf course he had built. The house was easily a seven figure item. The owner would hold the mortgage so there was no bank to convince to loan us the huge amount necessary to live there. We were, however, directly indebted to the owner who could foreclose at any time.
Now this. The salesmen were to be given their goals secretly and told not to share them with anyone, not even their wives. Nor were they to share their progress in any way.
At the next quarterly sales meeting everyone was to come, including wives. After dinner and the usual open bar, the performance of each salesman and the extent to which he made his sales goals would be disclosed, but only to the extent of learning who the big loser was. Actual goals and their attainment would remain a secret.
Chapter 2
The First Prize is Awarded
Bob worked his ass off that quarter. We didn't expect him to actually make quota, let alone exceed it. All we wanted was for him to do better than most of the others. What we didn't know was how well everyone else was doing. I didn't even know how well Bob was doing.
As the quarterly meeting approached, we both worried, but I think I worried more than he did. If the rules of the contest were followed, there was a real chance that I could be the wife that was presented to everyone else as a prize.
I've never been so nervous in my life. As we dressed to go, I didn't say anything about it to him. I kept a stiff upper lip, as it were, but I did put on really nice looking underwear. While I didn't want to think about my being the one passed around, I didn't want to have on shoddy underwear if that happened.
"Will all the wives stand." It was George and he was actually putting all of us on display!
He started reading from notes. He didn't call a salesman by name nor did he actually give the percent of goal, he just called the name of a wife, "Sally, you may sit." There were, of course, no women salesman.
Then "Jill, take your seat." After a bit he said, "Oh, by the way, these aren't in any order. It's just that the one left standing at the end will be the wife of the salesman who made the lowest percentage of his sales goal."
I must admit that the wives all tended to be good looking. I think it must have been a part of the hiring process to examine the wives as well as the salesmen with the goal of making sure that each salesman had a good looking wife on his arm whenever it happened that his wife joined him during client outings.
Over half the wives had been seated and I was still standing. I started to sweat. I mean really sweat. It was running down my back and my armpits were soaked. I could see this was true of others.
I looked out the window at the golf course and our homes on spacious lots surrounding it. We couldn't sell our house if we wanted to. We were stuck here.
Everyone in the room avoided eye contact. The air was close. Bob held my hand tightly. Only George looked others directly in the eye as he pronounced their fate.
"Ellen, you may sit." He was dragging it out. Bob was holding my hand so tightly it hurt, but I didn't care. I needed the support.
There were only three of us now. I was actually dizzy with fright.
"Remember, these aren't in any order." He didn't want anyone to know how close they had come to being on top or on the bottom.
"Georgeanne, take your seat."
I didn't sit. I fell into my chair. I put my head down and cried. I didn't cry loudly, but the tears gushed from my eyes for several minutes. The silence in the room made me realize that everyone was watching my reaction.
I recovered and raised my head drying my face with my napkin. When I looked at George, he smiled. Apparently he was waiting for me to recover. Suddenly I realized that he didn't want anything taking away from the next name because reading the next name would leave only one wife standing.
It was between Freddy, Sal's wife, and Caroline, Henry's wife. The four of them looked terrified.
"Well, for this last name, why don't we have the two wives come forward." I realized later that what he actually was doing was to get the wife of the loser away from her husband just in case he had a strong reaction. Certainly neither could afford to lose his job, but you never knew just what might happen when one of these two realized that his wife was going to be passed around in a few minutes.
I looked at the men who's wives had been given permission to sit. Certainly there was relief on their faces, but I thought I also saw something else, pure lecherousness. We didn't know how this was going to play out, but these guys were anticipating having sex with one of the women standing at the front of the room. How that would take place was yet to be disclosed, but whether in public or in private, standing up or lying down, each of these guys was fantasizing about the orgasm to come.
The two women stood on either side of George. He had put his note cards away. He knew which it was to be so there was no need of notes.
"I'll bet each of you has chosen pretty underwear for tonight. Let me just take a peak."
My god, I thought to myself, he's going to get a little something from both. Neither knows which is going to be pawed so neither knows whether she can tell him no.
He turned Freddy toward him and pulled the top of her dress out as he peered at her underwear. "Very nice," he murmured into the mike. "She has on a white-on-white lacy bra. I'll bet her panties match."
He then turned Caroline and pulled her dress outward. Caroline stumbled a bit as he pulled since the fabric didn't want to give much. He held her off with one hand while he forced the bodice outward so he look down her dress. "Oh, my, Caroline didn't bother with underwear." He was obviously surprised. He didn't release her. He pulled the dress out more exposing her completely to his view. I half expected him to just jerk it down.
Eventually he straightened up and said, as he kissed her cheek, "Caroline, you may sit down."
 
                             
                         
                         
                         
                         
                         
                                 
                                 
                                 
                                