I work in a sales related occupation. A good friend of mine "stole" a sale from me. What should I do?

I know some of you must have dealt with this before. I have too, but not with someone who i thought was my friend...

I've been ignoring him and I know he's noticed the change in my behavior, but I am kinda mad about it

I was involved in pharmaceutical sales once, and when it happened to me, I gathered all my data first before approaching the person and talking to my boss about it. We settled it calmly and rationally. I think the key is having your facts and evidence straight, staying calm and don't immediately point an accusing finger. There may be a possibility that he wasn't aware of "stealing" the sale from you. :)

Sounds like a good friend. (sarcasm)
What are you planning on doing? Just spread a little rumor about him or wait outside and "Nancy Kerrigan" him?...lol

I agree

I do not think he was aware, and the way it happened and the circumstances are understandable ( to a point)

I am just feelin it cuz he's a friend...

but I like ur answer - it's spot on redlace

ha ha

I did mention to our boss

Ima wait to see if he's a repeater

cuz as Red pointed out, there's a chance he didn't realize...

Yeah, that might be the sensible idea...the way I read the first post I thought that he knew what he was doing at the time.

Thanks and I sincerely wish you luck. It's always hard when a friend is the one who we think made an offense against us, but as a friend, let's give them the benefit of the doubt. But keeping a meticulous record book will always be a good thing especially when you're involved in sales. It's one thing I've learned when I was in it. :)

absolutely true because there will be people who step on toes accidentally, and then those that do and don't care, but having good records helps keep those incidences to a minimum regardless

there's a chance he did

but more than likely he realized later - either way, I guess my concern is that he didn't do anything to mediate it - or apologize, or come to me and say "hey, I didn't realize..."

I have accidentally done this and I have given the sale back as soon as I realized...so that would be my expectation...

Superglue in a good place like the phone she uses! if done right she put the phone to her 3ear and wa'la! Comic revenge. A tarantula in a desk drawer also says "Thank you."

Tell him how you feel and how the situation has changed your view of him personally & professionally, take the high road, keep focus and go get those SALES!!!!!!

Try to invite him to drink coffee ...and in the right situation .... Tell him your feelings.
Quietly, confidently, and I am sure, He will be yours lol.

that is an idea that has occurred to me. But I really feel that it is management's responsibility to discuss it with him. I don't really want to dredge it up at this point as it was over a week ago now. Besides he'll probably just make a lot of stupid excuses. This is why management handles these things.

I do not want him to be "mine." And, I 'm not sure what you meant by that, but I do not like the insinuation that there are personal feelings involved. He is a friend, but a "work" friend (or was). Nothing more.

I just want him to follow the rules of our company regarding sales territory - again, enforcement of those is a management responsibility (that I'm not paid or authorized to assume)

I think redlace's action of taking the issue to management is the best solution and the one I will continue to use.

You know, we start out with a certain level
of trust in the people around us.
Then as proximity and time march on, and they
do things that give us pause, the trust is
replaced with wariness, a survival trait probably.

I always mourn the loss of trust.
I hope it resolves well, for you :-)

I worked for a while in a home center where it was largely commission based sales and hated it. A woman there who I thought was a work friend stole a few sales from me and the men were viscous. The men would literally elbow you out of the way and since I didn't want to involve the customer on any level of this I would just back off and let them take the customer. My manager said I needed to be more aggressive and never talked to the guys about it. It was a bad situation all the way around and I was glad to get out of there.

I hope your situation resolves in a satisfactory manner and that you are able then to repair your work friendship.

well said, and I hope so too because he and I both are very nice people - I consider it resolved as long as it does not continue

because of the nature of our work, it is possible that he did not realize....at the time...I am hoping that is the case & giving benefit of the doubt hence

I hope so too - I am new in town and my work friends are about the only people who I know around here so I value them

I have also several times backed out of situations because I did not want to involve customers in internal disputes (can we say "tacky")

but I always took the issues to management and at times, insisted that management carve out fair solutions

where I work now, my boss seems to have a good way of dealing with things in an easy going way - so I think it's pretty much water under the dam at this point


but thanks to everyone for all of the ideas

hot pickle forks to the eyeballs works for me

Maybe it was a misunderstanding on their part. It could be an opportunity for improvment.

you are quite right, and I think ultimately that will be the result