Assignment

Using your good problem-solving skills, think about how to advise your employees. Then write a 150-word negative announcement that will change their behavior but also maintain their goodwill and their drive to succeed.

You are a Regional Sales Manager for Metropolitan Financial Services, which advises businesses of all types on credit-card use and policies, investments, payroll, debt management, and other money-related issues. Just now you were "called on the carpet" by your boss, the Regional Manager, for excessive expenditures for wining and dining clients. She says that your seven-person sales force spent over $15,000 last quarter-over $2,000 per person-taking representatives of companies, hospitals, and other organizations to lunch and dinner, either to thank them for their business or attract them as customers.

Sure, landing even one good contract with a large organization can mean thousands of dollars for Metropolitan, and representatives of a financial services company cannot afford to look "cheap." But you have to agree that things have gotten out of hand.

Your boss says that many of the receipts are for the most expensive restaurants in the area, and for such extravagant purchases as $200 bottles of wine. This has got to stop! There are plenty of perfectly elegant ways to say "thank you" or to appeal to a client besides spending money extravagantly.

Using your good problem-solving skills, think about how to advise your employees. Then write the negative announcement that will change their behavior but also maintain their goodwill and their drive to succeed.

Outlines:

• Start with a buffer that sets up the explanation of the bad news.
• Present the justification.
• Cover the bad news positively but clearly.
• Help resolve any problem the bad news creates.
• End with forward-looking, friendly words.