“No matter what type of meeting you attend—know who everyone is and why they are there.” This was especially helpful at a jobsite/complaint meeting that I attended in my early days as a brick
manufacturers Sales Representative. This happened to be a residential new construction project and as I pulled up to the house I could see a man and woman together off to the left and three gentlemen standing off to the right. As I walked up to the group one of the men from the group on the right stepped out ahead of the rest and introduced himself with lawyer but has no professional interest in being here except that he was a family friend.

He kindly offered me his card which I would not take. Then I asked who the other two were. One was the mason and the other was the builder. I explained that if the lawyer stays I would not be able to meet with them but could reschedule a meeting in a couple of weeks when I would return with our lawyers. You could probably imagine the back and forth discussion then and yes it was ugly.
In close, they all had a private meeting for a couple minutes. The lawyer left and we had our meeting to a happy close, but that is another story. The moral of this story is to always know who everyone is in each meeting you attend...you may be surprised at what you find!

-Donnie Foster

Donnie’s Real Stories From The Field Masonry Cosmetics’ Territory Map, March 2009. New Contractors in Alabama, Idaho, and Louisiana great enthusiasm by name only. My first impression was that he was overly friendly and his dress was unusual, he was wearing farmer overalls and a large straw hat, like he should be picking strawberries or planting potatoes. The next two gentlemen introduced themselves again by name only, nothing stood out except one had a powerful handshake that I suspected was the mason. Last was the couple who introduced themselves as the homeowners and immediately went into how unhappy they were with the brick and wanted all 30,000 brick tore down and replaced right now. I stopped everything at that point and wanted to start first by asking everyone’s title and reason why they were here and collect all the business cards that I could. Before I could finish our friendly dressed farmer looking guy jumped out in front andlawyer but has no professional interest in being here except that he was a family friend. He kindly offered me his card which I would not take. Then I asked who the other two were. One was the mason and
the other was the builder. I explained that if the lawyer stays I would not be able to meet with them but could reschedule a meeting in a couple of weeks when I would return with our lawyers. You could probably imagine the back and forth discussion then and yes it was ugly. In close, they all had a private meeting for a couple minutes. The lawyer left and we had our meeting to a happy close, but that is another story. The moral of this story is to always know who everyone is in each meeting you attend...you may be
surprised at what you find! said that professionally he was a