The Goal

247

"Remember our dear friend Bucky Burnside?" says Jons. "How could I forget good ole Bucky," I say. "Is he still com- plaining about us?"

"No, not anymore," says Jons. "At the moment, in fact, we don't even have a single active contract with Burnside's people. That's the reason I'm calling. For the first time in months, they've expressed interest in buying something from us again."

"What are they interested in?"

"Model 12's," he says. "They need a thousand units."

"Terrific!"

"Maybe not," says Jons. "They need the whole order by the end of the month."

"That's only about two weeks away," I say.

"I know," says Jons. "The sales rep on this already checked with the warehouse. Turns out we've only got about fifty of the Model 12's in stock."

He's telling me, of course, we'll have to manufacture the other 950 by the end of the month if we want the business.

"Well... Johnny, look, I know I told you I wanted busi- ness, and you've pulled in some nice contracts since I talked to you," I say. "But a thousand Model 12's in two weeks is asking a lot."

He says, "Al, to tell you the truth, I didn't really think we could do anything with this one when I called. But I thought I'd let you know about it, just in case you knew something I didn't. After all, a thousand units means a little over a million dollars in sales to us."

"Yes, I realize that," I say. "Look, what's going on that they need these things so fast?"

He tells me he did some digging and found out that the order had originally gone to our number-one competitor, who makes a product similar to the Model 12. The competitor had had the order on its books for about five months. But they hadn't filled it yet, and this week it became clear they would not be able to meet the due date.

"My guess is that Burnside turned to us, because they've heard about us offering such fast turn-around to everyone else," he says. "Frankly, I think they're desperate. And, hell, if there is any way we can pull this off, it'd sure be a good way for us to save face with them."