Will chuckled slightly. “I think you’d be surprised to know my background.”
“Oh? When was the last time you visited Hialeah?” Lizzie asked, feigning naivete, knowing he likely hadn’t gone in a while.
“Touché,” he said and led her into the warehouse.
Lizzie had been to the distribution center, or DC, before, so she wasn’t surprised by the layout or the large amount of inventory held within. Shewasa bit surprised to see much of the warehouse staff standing around, looking grumpy, and the warehouse manager, with his arms crossed, looking furious. Lizzie surmised that her “pallet Tetris” comment had made its way back to them.
“Well, Lizzie, I think you know everyone here. What I’d like you to do is show me how you can save us those millions.” Will stood by her—not in solidarity, but as a challenge. He was testing her.
She took a deep breath and said, “No.”
“No?” Will said as if he’d never heard the word.
“Mr. Pemberley,” Lizzie began, but Will cut her off.
“Will. Please.”
“Will,” Lizzie began again. “I will tell you my plan more or less—I will give you the time estimates and labor needed and the analysis I did—but we have no contract, no understanding, and no commitment that my work for you will be compensated accordingly. So without that—without an agreement in place—no, I will not show you how I can save you millions.”Rule one in sales: never give anything away for free.
Will looked as if he’d never heard anything so ludicrous in his life. “You don’t trust me to pay you for your work?”
“If you don’t trust me to do what I say I can do enough to put it in a contract, why should I trust you to pay me when I do?”
“Fair enough,” Will said. “But this still leaves us with the issue of I’m skeptical that you will be able to deliver these results, and you’re not exactly offering me a guarantee or giving me any proof. And these guys,”—he gestured to the warehouse staff—“they say you’re full of it.” He had a mischievous smirk.He’s enjoying this,Lizzie thought.
“Would you feel more comfortable if I showed you a solution that they may have overlooked? Shall we call it a free sample?” It was Lizzie’s turn to feel mischievous.
The warehouse staff squirmed slightly at the implication that there was something they had overlooked. “By all means,” Will said and gestured to the crowd for her to take the floor.
Lizzie had thought about wearing pink just to spite Will’s request, but she had opted for a black pair of slacks and agray polo, and she was glad she did, as she felt more utilitarian and less prissy in this group. “Ignacio,” she said, addressing the grumpy warehouse manager. “Can you explain to me how your team picks the pallets from the aisles and moves them to be staged to ship out?”
Ignacio became animated. “I don’t need to explain—I can show you.” Then he turned to the group behind him and said, “Julio, forklift!”
As one of the gentlemen went to get the forklift, Lizzie said, “Even better! Will, do you mind timing how long he takes to recover the pallet and bring it down the aisle?”
Ignacio chimed in again. “I can tell you: on average, we take 42 seconds to recover a pallet, and we do approximately 1,000 picks a day between the two forklifts.”
Lizzie smiled, nodding appreciatively as she sipped hercolada.
Julio appeared on the forklift and waited for further instructions. “Julio, can you go down to the end of the aisle and grab the pallet in B24 and bring it here?” Julio looked at Lizzie as if this were a trick question.
“Just like I do usually?”
“Yes, please,” Lizzie said.
Julio, still doubtful, looked over to Ignacio for final approval. Once Ignacio confirmed with a nod, Julio shrugged and went down the aisle.
Will kept his eye on his watch as Julio expertly drove the forklift feet under the pallet, lifted it, pulled the pallet out at a slight angle, then pulled forward and back again in a three-point turn before returning to the group with the pallet.
Lizzie looked at Will, who announced, “41 seconds.” Ignacio crossed his arms smugly.
Lizzie smiled and grabbed a roll of red duct tape out of her bag. “Awesome, Julio! Above average! Can you walk with me?”
“Okay,” Julio said, jumping off the forklift and following Lizzie down the aisle.
Once they got to the space where the pallet had been retrieved, she taped a red V at 90 degrees on the floor. “When you return the pallet, can you put it back so that the corner is like this?”
Julio looked at her oddly. “So like the corner faces the aisle?” He held his arms out to make sure he was understanding the instructions correctly.
