I was less than two minutes into my sales presentation when the business owner sitting behind his desk gruffly said, “Get out of here.” I figured someone must have walked into his office, and he didn’t want us to be interrupted. I turned around to see who it was. There was no one.

He then said, “I’m talking to you, salesman; get your @#%*&, and get out of here!”

I suffered a moment of cognitive dissonance. This wasn’t making sense. He had given me the appointment over the phone; I had driven nearly an hour to get there and even paid for parking. I said, “But, I haven’t even shown you the benefits of the program yet.”

Then he screamed, “Get out of here now, or I’ll throw you out!”

He was a big guy who looked like a TV mobster, and with his heavy Brooklyn accent, I believed he’d break my legs. I scooped up my presentation notebook and silently left. Welcome to New York.

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