Jersey Boy June 2013 | Page 53

to two of these incredible nights before I fired them for incompetence! Although the agency new how to schmooze us, they failed to actually learn about our products, our customers or our competition and their work was ordinary to say the least. I wound up hiring a medium size direct marketing agency who came in and showed me how to put evidence based marketing into play. In other words, we knew how many qualified leads we needed to make one sale and we knew how to get these leads. These metrics were then tracked and measured and forecasts were based on results achieved. This knowledge was absent from the agency and in my experience most ad agencies do not operate with any evidence. This became very useful in my career and I had presented this concept to the 160 plus other professional J & J companies at one of our monthly seminars where individuals from each company would inform others of successes as well as failures. To my surprise, other J & J companies adopted my ideas as I had pioneered database marketing into J & J.
There was a distinct pecking order at our company even though we were considered a bit more entrepreneurial than other J & J professional companies. I started off in a cubicle when I was first hired and within four years I had progressed to a very large office sitting next to the president, whom I was now reporting to. I had moved up the corporate ladder quickly based on my internal marketing of showing evidence that my work was directly linked to the financial success of the company.
Work at the company was always exciting but we worked long hours including massive travel. But we had fun when we could. Practical jokes were ever present. One time we had just received a new chair that we were using for our new prostate scanning ultrasound unit. The chair had a hole in the middle that had a very long transducer attached that was inserted into a persons rectum 1 cm at a time. Early one morning I went into work and took this chair, cranked up the transducer to its maximum height which was around 10 inches and placed in behind the executive VP of sales desk. I had arranged for many staff and others to stand outside of his office and look in through the window as he arrived at 8:00am. He removed his jacket and hung it up and then just as he was going to sit down on this chair he noticed it. He yelled out and we all laughed until we cried. He knew it was me and I spoke to him about it later on. A few days later, I had my overnight bag folded outside of my office as I was waiting for my limo to take me to the airport. When the limo arrived, I took my bag and off to the airport we went. Back then as you boarded the plane, the stewardess hung the garment bag up for you. As I opened my bag in front of everyone, a giant 2 foot long condom dropped out! This was the condom used for the chair with the transducer. I laughed and laughed for the entire trip and called the VP of sales when I arrived to congratulate him on his retaliation.
Entrance to High Line Hotel, Meat Packing District NYC.
I had quite a nice entertainment budget and I would use this on key opinion leaders( cardiologists) and others. My preferred restaurant in New York City was an incredible place called La Cote Basque. Although this West 55th Street restaurant closed in 2004, the New York Times called it a high-society temple of French cuisine. Essentially the rich and famous frequented this place. Mimi would join me sometimes as I would order my preferred French wines but in magnums- Chateau Lynch-Bages Pauillac 1973. I have to admit that I was a French and Italian wine snob. I knew as about all you can know about these wines at the time as I was drinking and buying so many bottles. Mimi and I would go to La Cote Basque for special occasions like our anniversary as it was truly an experience each and every time. One day at my office the president of J & J came into my office and said that it was his birthday and asked me to arrange a dinner for the two of us as he knew that I was on top of all restaurants in the NYC area as well as at each city where we had our major conferences( Los Angeles, Dallas, etc). So I called La Cote Basque and made reservations for the 7pm sitting. We arrived 10 minutes late and the maitre de told me that we were too late and he is unable to seat us. I told him that I was a regular and slipped him $ 50 that got us an immediate seating and all went well for his birthday dinner celebration!
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