[Bungleau]

Danger Will Robinson... "You don't need anything" means that you're expected to be unarmed... they won't be.

Copies of the policy, procedure manuals, past reviews, documentation of the situation, your sales performance records, and such will be essential for you. Being familiar with them will be as well.

Don't think your department manager is coming unarmed. You may be amazed at how much documentation exists there. And realize that after this meeting (hell, after all you've gone through on this), there's going to be a big rift between you and your department manager. A rift that may never be healed, even when one of you leaves. And I suspect that one of you will, one way or another.

Remember... of the other two people in that room, none is on your side. HR is on the side of the company, and your department manager is on her own side. She also will likely feel like she needs to save face... both as a new department manager and as a manager who has made a decision. Sadly, few managers can admit they've made mistakes. Good leaders can.... I'll leave you with that thought.

Is there someone else (say, higher up on the sales food chain) that would be able to participate as *your* champion, or the company's champion, so to speak? Someone who would have the authority or position to tell the department manager that she is wrong?

HR people know next to nothing about sales. If you don't get a champion, you'll need to be prepared to educate him/her... what's more important? Farming the algorithm or hitting the number? Even if you're not farming it exactly, you're exceeding the number. Who's got the right to be upset with that? Careful with that, though... could be construed as an admission of guilt.

Depending on your style, be prepared to be blunt. When someone starts getting all fancy and hypothetical, try to cut back to the real issue. If someone's talking about rules being rules, and needing to be followed, ask if they want you to follow rules or hit quota. Because the rules are there to help those who *don't* know how. They're based on some kind of farming algorithm... you make X contacts, you get Y inquiries and Z sales. I know it's late in the game, but if you can calculate your own numbers... say that you make X contacts, get Y+5 inquiries, and Z+3 sales. Do they want the contacts or the sales?

BTW, good salespeople don't always make good sales managers. It's a different skill set... salespeople need to learn one (or a couple) of sales styles. Managers need to learn more than one, because other people will have different styles.

Side note: Suggested reading for you... Sales Dogs, by Blair Singer. One of the Rich Dad, Poor Dad Advisor series, it talks about the five different types of salesperson: Pit bulls (aggressive), Golden retrievers (faithful service), Poodles (upper class), Chihuahuas (know-it-alls), and Basset Hounds (personal rapport). A sales manager who tries to cast all salespeople in one mold is looking for lots of frustration.

I'd stay away from stating that reprimanding you is too costly. It isn't. Your salary, even with commissions and a nice trip to Cancun, is a drop in the bucket to Staples. It'd only be costly if every drop were that size... but if every one were, they'd have a lot more revenue to pay for it. That's the beauty of effective salespeople... they pay for themselves.

Good luck tomorrow.