No Place in the Sun (22 page)

‘So you speak Spanish fluently.’

‘Of course, and before you ask, I did understand everything that your developer friend said to you that day on the site.’

Tom thought for a minute, was there something he had said to Marco that she wasn’t meant to hear?

She laughed at his discomfort.

‘Stop worrying; you didn’t say anything out of order. Just teasing you.’

‘So, what business were you in?’

‘I run a very successful translations company, we provide translators for everything from the courts to the customs, and we translate technical manuals for some of the big electronic companies. I do ok.’

‘So why do you want to go into the property business?’

‘Lots of easy money to be made, I mean, eight percent?’

Tom reddened at the memory. Harry had negotiated an amazing deal with Marco, and now this woman was going to quote it all over Spain and try to make it an industry norm. Why did he have to blurt out the figure that night in Marbella?

‘That’s an extreme situation, you won’t get that everywhere.’

‘That’s what you think. How much do you think I’m getting in Montana Fea?’

‘Don’t tell me, you’re getting eight?’

‘No, I’m not. I’m getting more.’

Tom was surprised; this woman must be quite a negotiator. ‘How much more?’

‘Twelve and a half, but it’s almost all added on top, I agreed to sell at their asking price plus ten percent. Twelve and a half in total.’

‘But what if someone goes out to Spain and sees them on sale at the lower price?’

‘Can’t happen, I have guaranteed to sell them all for them, sole agency, all local arrangements cancelled.’

Tom swirled the wine around in his glass. ‘That’s quite a margin, but then you are selling a cheaper product than we are, so it balances out I suppose. If you sell a lot of them you’ll certainly make a lot of money.’

‘That’s why I’m in the business, Tom, to make a lot of money. Why are you in the business, Tom?’

‘Same reason, I don’t know anyone who works for any other reason.’

‘Then how would you like to make a lot more money than you’re making now?’

‘I wondered when that was coming, Tania.’

‘Well, are you interested? How much would you want to work for me? I need a good sales manager to run the show; you are the most experienced around, and you have the track record.’

She waved the empty bottle at the waiter. ‘More wine please, another bottle of the same.’

Tom sat back and looked at his host across the table. Under the outward shell of a somewhat ditzy woman was a core of toughness, this was somebody who tended to get what she wanted. It was a difficult call, Harry was a decent guy to work for but he had a conscience and was fussy not only about what he sold but how he sold it. Harry didn’t have the killer instinct that was now facing him across the table. His boss had gone nearly as far as he wanted to go in any case, he had made the one big killing that would ensure a comfortable retirement, and from now on he would be getting more and more careful, and Tom’s earnings would be getting less and less.

‘I’m pretty comfortable where I am at the moment, Tania; why would I want to move to a start-up company?’

‘For money, Tom. How much would you want to move?’

‘Like I said, I’m happy working for Harry, but I’m curious as to how much you were thinking of offering.’

‘It’s up to you to know how much you’re worth, Tom, and then I’ll see if I can rise to that.’

‘Look, Tania, cut the games. I know that this is a head-hunt, how much are you putting on the table?’

She leaned forward and looked him straight in the eye. ‘Tom, I intend to make Scorpio the biggest overseas property agency in the country in a matter of months, and I intend to have a bottom line of between five and ten million in year one. I’m not offering you a salary; I’ll give you twenty percent of net profits, but there will be conditions.’

‘What kind of conditions?’

‘Mostly to do with work rate, I’ll expect you to work seven days a week and not bitch about it. You’ll have to train salesmen, I’ll recruit young guys with ambition and pay them commission only and you will show them how to close sales quickly and in a way that won’t come unstuck. And of course you’ll only get paid when I get paid, I’m not carrying anyone.’

The deal was marginally better than what Harry was paying, but the question on Tom’s mind was whether Tania Sherry would shift more volume than Harry and become the market leader; he had a feeling that she might just do that. There was also the issue of her complete lack of scruples. Harry was always holding back from making a real killing because he wanted every customer to get a good property and make some money from it; Tom was more inclined towards maximising the take from the business.

‘Make it thirty percent and you have a deal.’

‘No chance, Tom; I have the start-up costs, and the risk is all mine too. No, twenty or nothing.’

‘Nothing it is so.’ Tom decided to play hardball; twenty wasn’t too bad, but twenty five would be a good deal. He raised his glass in salute. ‘Thanks for considering me anyway.’

She poured wine in the two glasses. ‘Don’t play hard to get, I can give you twenty five percent, but that’s it, there’s no more there.Deal?’

‘Deal.’ He took her outstretched hand and they shook on it.

‘Welcome aboard, Tom, now let’s celebrate.’ She took a long swallow from her wine and refilled the glasses again.

The wine flowed and they discussed the future. Despite his outward calm, Tom was excited at the prospect of having a free hand with selling. Without Harry’s moderating influence he could sell a lot more property, he knew that. Harry had always warned him not to promise the possibility of big rental returns on holiday property, mainly because these returns were largely mythical. Now however he could attract a lot more business from investors who believed that their home in Spain could generate an income. This was going to be good; he had a good feeling about it.

The only problem was his new boss; he would have to find some way to keep her away from the drink. Tania was now well lubricated and was slurring her words. She had ordered more wine, and when the waiter showed her the label she began to get abusive.

‘Up here, my face is up here.’ She jabbed a finger in the general direction of her forehead.

‘Yes, of course it is, madam.’

‘Then stop staring at my fucking tits.’

The headwaiter rushed over, alarmed by the raised voices. ‘What seems to be the matter, madam?’

‘Your man here, he’s staring at my tits.’

‘I’m sure that’s not the case, madam.’

‘Can’t take his eyes off my tits. Jesus, now you’re staring at them as well, are you all fucking perverts in this place?’ Her voice was now quite loud and conversation had stopped at the other tables.

‘Madam, Sir, maybe you would like to settle the bill now, perhaps more wine might not be a good idea.’ The headwaiter was being a diplomatic as possible.

She threw a gold credit card at the hapless waiter. ‘Take your fucking money, you fucking pervert.’

‘Let’s get out if here when he comes back with the card.’ Tom didn’t want to get in the middle of a row.

‘I’ll go when I’m fucking ready.’ She turned around to look at the people at the next table. The man seated opposite was unlucky enough to catch her eye. ‘What are you all looking at; did you never see a woman with a proper body?’ The woman nearest to her giggled nervously; Tom knew what was coming next but he could do nothing about it.

‘You never saw anyone with a decent figure, not at that table anyway. Bunch of titless fucking wonders.’

Tom grabbed her arm and led her towards the door, where the waiters were holding their coats. The headwaiter never lost his polite smile. ‘Thank you for coming tonight, I hope we’ll see you again.’

‘Up here, up here, my fucking face is up here.’

Tom managed to drag her out the door and into a taxi at the rank outside. This was going to be a tough job in more ways than one, he wondered if it was going to be worth it.

Harry sat and shook his head over and over. ‘Whatever about leaving me, going to work for that double-crossing bitch, are you mad?’

‘I’m sorry, Harry; I just got an offer that was too good to pass up.’

‘But you’ll be working for someone that can’t be trusted; you know that already, how do you know that she’ll even pay you?’

‘I’ll take my chances on that.’

‘And what about Sunspots, how are we going to manage the sales with our key salesman missing? You’re dropping me in the shit here, Tom, I expected better after all we’ve been through together.’

‘I’m sorry about the short notice, Harry, but part of the deal was that I come on board immediately. I’m not leaving you stuck though.’

‘Looks like it to me.’

‘No, I spoke to Walter last night, he is willing to come to work full time with you; he enjoys this game a lot more than the local stuff that he does during the week anyway, and he’s well able to fit into my shoes here.’

‘I appreciate that; Walter is a great guy, reliable too.’ Harry couldn’t resist the barb. ‘Ok, Tom, I’ll make up what’s owed and pay you at the end of the month. I don’t want us to fall out over this, mad and all as I am with you.’

‘Thanks, Harry, and I’m sorry about the way this has ended, but I really got a big opportunity with Tania Sherry and I’d be foolish to pass it over.’

‘Ok, don’t worry about it; I suppose that if I was your age I’d want to make a killing. Can you do me a favour though; can you do the editorials to go with the ads in the Sunday papers?’

‘Did them last night, oh ye of little faith.’

Harry laughed as he took the pages from Tom. ‘That illiterate jackass Murtagh will have to start earning his wages from now on; he’ll have to go back to school and learn to write his own column.’

Tom sipped from his coffee. ‘I’m sorry to be leaving, Harry; it was great working here but I need to go with this one, like you say yourself this business won’t last for ever and I need to make hay while the sun shines.’

‘You’re right, Tom, I’m in retirement mode I suppose and you’re looking to expand and go big time. I hope you made the right choice with that crazy bitch though.’

‘I’m twenty seven years old, Harry; I can handle her, I’m a big boy now.’

‘Now pay some serious attention, guys.’ Tom looked at the two fresh-faced salesmen who sat across from him in his office. ‘You think you can sell property just because you sold a couple of houses a week in your last jobs. This is a whole new ball game, you’ll be expected to close up to twenty sales a day each at busy times, a whole new way of working that you have no concept of at this point.’

‘Twenty? In one day?’ The young man sounded incredulous. ‘How could a person do that, I mean you usually have to put half a day into any customer to sell them a house.’

‘This is different, its high volume, high pressure stuff, and you can make a lot of money if you work your asses off. If you don’t perform, not only will you be earning small money but you’ll be earning it somewhere else.’

‘So how do we do it, I mean what are the logistics of it?’ The other man seemed eager.

‘Simple process, I’ll do a presentation every hour, ten to fifteen minutes of hard sell on the project, dressed up as an information exercise on Spanish property. Then you get behind your desks and sell like crazy. No more than fifteen minutes per customer from pitch to close; any more and they are timewasters, tyre kickers, lose them.’

‘And will you be selling too?’

‘Damn right I will, probably selling two to every one of yours, but once you get the feel of it you’ll start to put lots of sales on the meter. Now, are we ready to make some money, guys?’

The two were excited now; Tom was talking about the kind of money that they had only dreamed of up to this.

‘Ok, you’ve studied the project, but study it again. Learn every house type and learn the site layout, no point in looking up stuff when the customer is sitting across from you. Have it all in your heads, ok?’

They nodded.

‘I’ve put your names on a couple of houses on the master sheet; if anyone needs a push, tell them that you’ve bought those ones. That’s what closes sales, if they think that the salesman has faith in his product they are a lot happier. My own name is on the one just inside the gate; better not tell them that one isn’t for sale, its going to be the security office.’

They laughed at Tom’s little joke.

If they’re flagging, remind them that they can earn a lot of money from renting the house out when they aren’t using it themselves. You have the spreadsheets showing the different rates for the different times of the year?’

‘We have, but what’s the real deal on rentals?’

‘You won’t be telling them any lies in one way. I mean if they work on it and advertise, they could conceivably get rentals all year round for a house in Spain. Of course it won’t drop out of the sky, and it would be a best case scenario, but no point in giving a negative view of things.’

The quiet one interrupted. ‘What happens when they don’t find tenants? Are they going to come back at us?’