Looking for happy Apple sales employees

Maybe I need to say this about once a month, just so people get the story straight.  I had eighteen really wonderful years at Apple, and a couple that got really bad.  The eighteen years had plenty of challenges, but what set them apart from the last couple was that I had managers who were either very good or just let me get on with my job of selling Apple products.

I do not care what company you are with, you end either liking or disliking your job mostly because of your boss.  Many people do not realize it, but your boss also has everything to do with how you are viewed in your company.  If you get a boss who is determined to have his buddies viewed favorably, and you are not one of his buddies, you will likely end up feeling that you might have gotten a raw deal.

That is corporate life at Apple and lots of other places.  I actually try not to be bitter about Apple since I no longer work there, and for the most part really enjoy their products.  Yet, irrespective of what Apple may or may not have done to me,  I face the dilemma of what to do about a company that is treating people poorly whom I know and respect.  In the last year five Apple sales employees, that I know well, have been forced from the company.  None of them were happy with their exits, but once you get the target on your back, there is little that you can do other than ride it out until you are no longer an Apple employee.  These were all people who believed in Apple products, understood how to use them, and who were very successful in their careers.  As often happens in large and small companies, someone decided they did not like them, and they had the power to get rid of them.  It is just a simple fact whether it is right or wrong.

I keep using Apple products in spite of knowing for a fact that they have fired  a number of people that I respect greatly. There are still a tremendous number of good employees at Apple.

The corporate world is not a very pretty world. If you are wired into the world of technology management, you probably can come up with some example of older employees being forced out.  Most people know about it, but there is little than the individuals who lost their jobs can do about it.  Turning to the government just does not work with this administration.

The reality is that we live in a society where corporations have tremendous power over our lives. Our jobs and benefits are at the mercy of corporations.   Being without a job or medical benefits is not much fun these days, but corporations often make that decision for us.   As there are fewer and fewer corporations, it is harder for individuals, either customers or employees to be heard.

I cannot remember who first told me the theory of the hand in a bucket of water.  I know I heard the theory in reference to employees in a large corporation.  It goes like this.  The loss of an individual employee is similar to pulling your hand out a bucket of water.  The water fills in the void just as other employees fill in the void for a no longer there colleague.   

I think we are close to the point of customers being like that also.  What is one dissatisfied customer to Volvo, Maytag-Home Depot, or Circuit City?  There are plenty of new customers out there.  It may well be easier to get a new one instead of satisfying the old one.  That is certainly the case with employees.

A company such as Apple is a dream place to work as long as you are working for a good manager.  Apple gets so many resumes that I once calculated that it was impossible for the HR people to spend more than one second on reading each one.  Finding someone new to do the job of that more expensive older person you just got rid of, is pretty easy if you are a high flying company like Apple.  Most potential Apple employees do not even consider that they might not enjoy the company.  Yet it is a possibility just like it is in almost every other company.

I am really glad that I had the opportunity to work for Apple.  I enjoyed selling everything from Apple //es to Xserves.  I was proud of the innovation that Apple brought to the table and how Apple's technology could often be a life changing experience for customers. Time at Apple also helped me develop and perfect my sales theories in a live laboratory.  I know that I and my sales teams made a a positive difference in the customer's perception of Apple since I have heard that from numerous customers.  Some have even gone to the point of saying they wouldn't be using Macs if it were not for me or the people who worked for me.

I also returned the customers' respect by believing as many long time Apple employees do that Apple customers are special and deserve to be treated that way.

There is actually a lot of work in bringing someone over from the dark side to the Mac so perhaps that's why old time Apple sales people really care about their customers.

As so often happens when a company grows, expectations change.  Many Apple executives either rightly or wrongly believed that old time Apple sales people did not know how to sell and that what was needed at Apple was a new breed of sales people.  They wanted ones that did not really care what they were selling, only that they were selling something and making lots of money. 

Unfortunately this new breed of Apple sales person often could barely use a Mac much less explain one, but they new how to take an order and more importantly how to successfully keep upper management happy by carefully filling out their sales force automation tools.

I am a little old school in that I believe customer relationships are important, but I hardly blink an eye these days when Apple shows another Apple sales person the door or when an Apple customer has a bad experience.  That is just the way it is in corporations these days.  Who you know is far more important than how good you are at doing your job.  Who you know also often determines what happens if you are a customer with a broken product.  Knowing the right person can make all the difference.

Does this impact Apple products? I really am not sure.  There are lots of things that I would like to see improved with Apple products, but I actually think most of the problem is AADD or "Apple Attention Deficit Disorder" and probably only marginally related to questionable management tactics.

When Apple focuses on a product wonderful things happen.  I was never fortunate enough to work in product development so I cannot say what management style is there, but I suspect it is far different from the one in the world of Apple sales.  As I have said many times before, Steve loves product development and has little use for sales.  The management problems in the sales side of Apple flow from that. 

Perhaps that is why it is hard to find a happy Apple sales person or at least one who understands the products and is happy at the same time.  If you find one of those old Apple employees, give them a little respect, they may have become dinosaurs in the iPodization of Apple.

As for me, I am getting by fine without Apple and loving life in Coastal NC, and I still manage to sell a few Macs for the company, though you have to careful in doing that since you can nominate yourself as lifelong support person to a converted Windows person.

I am thankful for the products that Apple has created, the opportunity that I had to work there, and some of the things that I do which I probably would never have done had I not worked at Apple.  That still does not mean that I am going to rewrite history and dump loads of compliments on the five Apple sales managers I had over the last couple of years.  They were not good managers, nothing I can say will ever fix that.

If you do not think that I am getting mellow in my old age, check out this post from a year ago, "The first lesson in corporate behavior."  I rest my case.

Comments

[pauldwaite]

...you have to careful in doing that since you can nominate yourself as lifelong support person to a converted Windows person.

I seem to be nominated as lifelong computer support person to almost everyone I know, and almost all of them are on Windows and don't install software updates. If all of them switched to Macs, I'd happily support them for life. At least I'd have half a clue what I was doing for once.

[alice]

ug, apple sales people are awful! I really love the products, but I cannot stand the sales people. Each time I seek any information, I have some youngster suggestive upselling me! When I resist, I am treated rudely. This youngster doesn't even seem to know what I am talking about! I am tired of it. Do these people work on commission? Do they have quotas? Were they hired yesterday? It's unbelievable! I am an extremely unsatified customer, and it is not the product that did it.