Chapter 25: Maya Steps Up
Elena had asked Maya to come in early, and Maya spent the whole drive rehearsing ways to say she hadn't done anything wrong.
"Close the door," Elena said when Maya arrived, and Maya's stomach dropped.
"Am I in trouble?"
Elena smiled. "Sit down, Maya." Maya sat, her hands folding themselves in her lap like she was back in school.
Elena slid a folder across the desk. "Eleven months. Twenty-two cars last quarter. The highest CSI average on the floor, and customers ask for you by name." She leaned forward. "I'd like to offer you the sales manager position."
Maya stared at her. "The what?"
"The sales manager position. The floor needs a leader who sells the way we want people to sell."
"I'm twenty-six," Maya said. "Eleven months."
"And you know more about respect than most people learn in eleven years." Elena pushed the folder closer. "The pay raise is in there. So is the job description. You'd start Monday."
Maya opened the folder and closed it without reading a word. "Can I think about it?"
"Take the weekend," Elena said. "But Maya, I didn't offer this to be nice. I offered it because the floor needs you."
She thought about it all weekend. Her father said, "If they offered, they already decided you can do it." On Sunday night she called Elena and said yes before she could talk herself out of it.
Monday morning, Elena made the announcement. "Maya Chen is our new sales manager, effective immediately. She'll also be redesigning our respect training."
The applause was genuine. Denise clapped hardest from behind the reception desk, and Maya caught her eye and mouthed, "Help me." Denise mouthed back, "Always."
After the huddle, Maya stood alone on the floor for a moment, holding her new keys. Her first task was the training redesign, and she had no idea where to start, so she did what she always did. She asked people.
She found Frank Delgado in service, wiping his hands on a rag. "Frank, what would you put in a respect training?"
Frank laughed. "Most trainings fail because they treat people like problems. Show them a customer who was treated badly and ask how it felt."
"Like Edith Larson," Frank said. "Have her come in and talk. Nobody forgets a real person telling you what it felt like to be dismissed."
Maya wrote that down. Denise said, "Teach them to notice. Half the battle is noticing the person in the corner nobody's greeting." Two of the younger consultants admitted they were terrified of approaching customers who didn't look like buyers. "We need practice," one said. "Not lectures. Practice."
By Friday she had a design. No slides. Real stories, role play, and one rule borrowed from Walter: every person who walks through the door gets greeted within two minutes, no exceptions.
Her first team huddle as manager was the following Monday. She stood where Elena used to stand, nine faces watching her, and her mouth went dry.
"I'm not going to pretend I have this figured out," she said. "Eleven months ago I was the new girl who couldn't close a bicycle. This isn't going to be me telling you what to do. This is us figuring it out together."
Greg, one of the senior consultants, raised his hand. "What's the one thing you'd change about how we sell?"
Maya thought about the quiet man at the turntable, Chad's smirk, Edith Larson's dignified voice on the phone.
"Stop deciding who can buy before they open their mouth," she said. "Greet everyone. Listen first. Let them tell you what they need."
Greg nodded slowly. "Fair enough."
After the huddle, Maya stopped near the row of desks by the window. One of them was empty. The nameplate was gone, but she could still see the faint outline where it had been. Chad's desk.
She stood there a moment. She felt no triumph, which surprised her. She felt something closer to sadness. The floor felt different without him. Lighter.
"You're staring," Denise said, appearing beside her with two coffees. She handed one to Maya.
"Just thinking. A year ago I was terrified of this floor. Now I'm running it."
"You were never terrified of the floor," Denise said, her proud smile back. "You were terrified of becoming like him. And you didn't."
Maya laughed, a little wet around the edges. "Is this the part where you tell me you knew all along?"
"This is the part where I tell you the coffee's getting cold." Denise nodded toward the showroom doors, where a young couple hovered by the entrance. "And those two have been standing there ninety seconds."
Maya checked her watch, smiled, and walked toward them with her hand extended. "Good morning, folks," she said. "I'm Maya. Welcome to Sterling Motors."
Chapter 26: The Competitor's Lot