How NOT to present a settlement

It was a pretty busy day at work, which was perfect for me, as it helped keep my mind off how I was so tired and hung over from the weekend. Near the end of the day my VP calls me into her office to discuss how to present a settlement offer to one of my clients.

This client is a big account for Bank of America, they're a direct mortgage banker who does a lot of good business, unfortunately for them, they originated a ton of 80%-20% loans in Arizona and Nevada and these loans took a bath when the market collapsed.

So we talked how to present this huge settlement on 10 loans to the client, my VP told me explicitly to get them on phone tomorrow no excuses. Ok, I said, should we inform our Sales team we'll be presenting a settlement, you know, since, like we've been sitting on it for 5 months? No, she said. Just set up the call.

I write up that e mail, cc the bosses and the Sales team, since it's the end of the day I go wash my plates and come back to my desk, in all I was away for 5 minutes. There are 10 e mails from the Sales team with headers such as "SERIOUSLY! No Head's Up?", and "When were you going to tell us?" along with such gems as "Call me, now!"

Luckily it was 4pm, so I log off the computer and swing by my VP's office to see if she needs anything, she looked absolutely chagrined. I couldn't get out of the office fast enough. I don't get paid enough to deal with irate Sales guys.