A Captive Audience

On the way out of town and in a hurry, Neil hailed a taxi. “Kennedy Airport,” he instructed the driver. When he was settled in the back seat, an unusual friendly cab driver started a conversation with him.

“Nice apartment building you live in,” the driver said.

“Yes,” he replied, distractedly.

“Live there very long?”

“No.”

“I bet you must have a really small closet there,” the driver said.

“Yes,” Neil said, “quite small.”

“Have you ever heard of closet organizers?” the driver asked.

“Yes, I guess I’ve seen an ad or something in the newspapers.”

“I only drive a cab part-time,” the driver said. “My fill-time job is organizing people’s closets. I come in and put shelves and drawers and this and that in closets.”

Then the driver asked Neil if he had ever considered having his closet organized.

“Well, I don’t know,” Neil said. “I do need some extra closet space. Isn’t there another closet company out there, California something?”

“You mean California Closet Company. They’re the really big company in the business. I can do exactly what they can do but for less money.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah,” the driver said. And with this, he gave Neil a detailed explanation of what a professional closet organizer does and finished by saying, “When you call up California Closet and they come to your house to make an estimate, this is what you do: Ask them to leave you a copy of the plans. Now, they won’t want to leave you anything, but if you tell them you need it to show your girlfriend or wife, they’ll give you a copy. Then you call me, and I’ll do the same thing – but for 30 percent less money.”

“That sounds very interesting,” Neil said. “Here, let me give you my business card, and if you call me at my office, we’ll set up a meeting.”

Neil handed the driver his card and the cab nearly swerved off the road.

“Oh, my God,” the driver shouted, “You’re Neil Balter! You are the founder of California Closet. I saw you on TV and I thought you had such a good idea, I went into business myself.”

“I should have recognized you,” he continued. “Gosh, Mr. Balter, I apologize. I didn’t mean you guys were an expensive company. I didn’t mean …”

“Calm down,” Neil said. “I like your style. You’re a pretty smart fellow and you’re aggressive. I admire that. You have a captive audience in your cab, and you took advantage of it. It takes chutzpah to do what you do. Why don’t you call me, and we’ll see what we can do about having you become one of our salesmen?”

Needless to say, the driver came to work for California Closet and became one of the top salespeople.