The Power of Persuasion...

...and the vacation days you can squeeze out of your friend's boss...

I read a lot of sales books... It comes with the territory! In saying this, not only have these books paid off in my career and my relationships, but the lessons I have learned about "selling" and "persuading" have started to come to good use in my social life as well.

As you know from my previous post, my friends and I have an exciting river trip planned for the weekend. It's been planned for a while and has been much anticipated. (It's hard to get all of us together for an entire weekend so this is really a rare occassion!)

Well, earlier today, I received an email from my BFF, Kristen. You see, she is one of the only people who had no planned on staying at the river through Monday and therefore, had not taken off Monday. Be in corpo, you learn to be respectful and give plenty of notice of the days you would like to take off. Since she had not asked for Monday off, she was a little skeptical about asking her new boss to have the day off at such short notice. So she put it in my hands. She requested for me to email her boss and request that he let Kristen have Monday off. Below is my email to Mr. Boss Man, trying to convince him why he should let his employee have a day off:

From: Stephanie Joffrion
Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 2:50 PM
To: Robertson, K
Cc: Grube, Kristen
Subject: Kristen's Vacation

Dear Mr. Robertson,

I am writing you in the hopes that you will give my dear friend, and your dedicated employee, Kristen Grube, a day off on Monday June 28, 2010.

Why, you ask, does Kristen deserve a vacation?

• Kristen is very honest. She really wants the day off and if you do not allow her to take off…I wouldn’t be surprised if she called in “sick” on Monday morning.

• I'm pretty sure you need a break from her. In case you haven’t noticed, she’s a lot to handle.

• And last, she’s single. I have high hopes of exposing her to all the single men at the river. She needs a man. (Let’s be honest here.)
  

This is all the persuasion I have. It’s pretty simple. She needs a VACAY!

Thank you for your time.

Stephanie Joffrion

Vitamin Consultant

Physician's Preference

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I nervously awaited his response. I've never met this guy a day in my life so I was starting to wonder how much of an impact I could acutally have on him and his decision to give Kristen the day off...until I received this:
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From: Robertson, K
Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 2:59 PM
To: Stephanie Joffrion
Cc: Grube, Kristen
Subject: RE: Kristen's Vacation

Dear Stephanie,

Thank you very much for your mail. Kristen is indeed a lucky young lady to have such a friend as yourself. In reply to your request, please find my response below... (He copied and pasted my plead letter and wrote his responses in red)

Dear Mr. Robertson,

I am writing you in the hopes that you will give my dear friend, and your dedicated employee, Kristen Grube, a day off on Monday June 28, 2010.

Why, you ask, does Kristen deserve a vacation?

• Kristen is very honest. Mmmmm. If she really wanted a day off and you would not allow her to take off…I wouldn’t be surprised if she called in “sick” on Monday morning. That I do agree upon and have noticed a trend developing, (especially after a heavy weekend on Washington)

• I’m pretty sure you need a break from her. In case you haven’t noticed, she’s a lot to handle. 110% agree…..it has only been two weeks and I am already exhausted!

• And last, she’s single. I have high hopes of exposing her to all the single men at the river. She needs a man. (Let’s be honest here.) Exposing…..??? Ooh, you mean showing her off! Well, agreed, she certainly needs something, but is it fair to subject all those poor unsuspecting souls to Kristen???? Hell YES!

This is all the persuasion I have. It’s pretty simple. She needs a VACAY! Agreed……vacation granted, ;o)

Thank you for your time. Your welcome and have a great weekend. I am sure you girls will.

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And that, my friends, is how you get your BFF out of work for a day. (Not to mention, Boss Man seems pretty cool himself!) I'm not saying I'm good an convincing, but I do have to give myself a little credit. This isn't something I do on a daily basis. If you find yourself in need of a vacation, and you too don't have the juevos to ask you boss, feel free to contact me. The first plead letter is complimentary. After that, I just might have to start charging!

XOXO

Stephanie