2 What should Ali Sloan do? What would you do if you were in her place? Explain. The rapid growth of InPace Solutions occurred in no small part because of sales manager Ken Bodine and the skills of the savvy young sales team he had assembled. Bodine prided himself on finding and hiring top graduates from two major business schools in the state. In addition to the top salaries offered by InPace, the graduates were attracted by Bodine’s energy, innovative thinking and can-do attitude. He was the embodiment of InPace culture: moving fast and ahead of the knowledge curve in high-tech. InPace’s sales force consistently stunned the competition with their high performance level. Among other things, InPace had the reputation for aggressive business intelligence.

Competitors found both amusing and frustrating the company’s ability to outmanoeuvre others and capture accounts. Bodine enjoyed the air of mystery surrounding the InPace organisation. Awareness that some competitor sat on the verge of a big sale always stirred Bodine’s passion for sales and ignited his desire to ‘one-up these guys’ and grab the sale out from under them. ‘If this was a poker game,’ one board member mused, ‘ InPace would win every hand. It’s like Bodine as well as his staff possess the uncanny ability to know the cards your company is holding. He keeps a straight face, a low profile throughout the game, and then suddenly he lays his cards on the table and you’re sunk.

Here at InPace, we all love it.’ A former military intelligence officer, Bodine brought that ‘sneaky’ air into the InPace culture, adding a bit of excitement to the day-to-day business of sales. ‘With a great product, great staff, and great business intelligence,’ Bodine was fond of saying,

‘you can dominate the market.’ He wanted everyone – customers, competitors and the media – to see InPace everywhere. ‘Every time the competition holds a staff meeting,’ he said, ‘the first question should be, “What’s InPace doing?”’ The sales staff was a mirror image of Bodine – younger, but with the same air of invincibility, and very competitive with one another. This, too, Bodine encouraged. A chess player, he enjoyed observing and encouraging the competition within his own sales staff. And seeing the thrill it brought ‘the boss’, ambitious salespeople worked vigorously to prove their competitive worth.