Tony,
It took a little time, but I finally spoke to Mark Sammon on the telephone this week. Just for the sake of triviata, I am located in Canton, Ohio and Mark is near Cleveland an hour or so away. I extended an offer for lunch sometime in the future. For whatever it's worth, here are my impressions:
I was somewhat surprised that Mark speaks with quiet confidence, very little of the "rah rah rah" tone I might have expected from a v.p. of sales. I mean no criticism toward sales types, but they are normally far more optimistic and exuberant than normal humans. I have a stable full of them, and every one is making the "sale of the century" every day. Mark doesn't project himself that way. As a matter of fact, he demonstrated constraint and an understanding of budget limitations, qualities which are also uncharacteristic of folks in sales. He told me that his guys are not going after the "killer" sales, but are content to place 50, 100 or 200 units at a time. For the time being, that is. When I asked why, he said that he is concentrating on moderate, incremental sales growth so as not to create additional cash flow problems. In other words, we don't bite off more than we can chew. Big bites will come later, as we can afford to ramp up production to fill large orders. This is admirable. As I mentioned in another post, Mark was fairly mum about current sales. Unquestionably there are orders in the pipeline, but he simply doesn't like to "hype" anything until the units are installed and working, at which time the dollars will speak. Again, admirable.
Your comments about Mark were right on the money. I suspect he CAN motivate the dead, with his depth of first hand experience in casinos and bingo, his matter of fact tone and his confidence about AGTI.
I mentioned your compliments to him. He expressed gratitude and asked where you heard him speak?
Hardrocker |
