I have read a lot of reviews about Peter and Thomas Salzano of Norvergence. I worked there for over a year: first as an inside sales rep, then as a provisioning coordinator, and finally I was part of a team of people putting together the leasing agreements to be sold to finance institutions.
Scott Bufton was the Senior Vice President of the Call Center, and responsible for managing the inside sales department and in essence, managed the outside sales managers' success as well in closing the deals.
The first thing that needs to be clear is that the inside sales force was kept in the dark about the Matrix box, how it worked, or how Norvergence paid for it and how much they finally sold it for.
The inside sales reps were offered $30k to $40k base salary a year plus large commissions to set up appointments for the outside sales managers, referred to as "screening managers."
The thing about Scott Bufton is he played the role of a succesful excecutive very well. He was good looking, although husky in a fashionable way, blonde, blue-eyed, dressed for success - He was the face that Thomas and Peter Salzano wanted to represent the company... Scott looked like the all American man next door with wife and kids, etc.
Thomas and Peter Salzano never came down to the inside sales department to walk around and see how things were going. They trusted Scott Bufton entirely.
On the first day that I began working at Norvergence, about eighty of us were in a training room learning the scripts and being taught the rebuttals, etc. Then Doug, the trainer, introduced us to Scott Bufton. I recall it all very clearly.
Doug: "The vice President of the Call Center Beverly Thomas was going to meet you; but I have a special treat for you. The Senior Vice President of the company, Scott Bufton, is here, and he will be making us the greatest honor of speaking to you for a few minutes."
Scott: "Okay. You are all here to make sales. If you can't do that, you can go find another f-ing job. You will be trained for three days and if you can't close a deal within your first three days on the sales floor, you will be f-ing fired. You think I don't have better things to do than to waste my time in this room with you f-ing people?"
Two seats away from me sat a african-american girl who said something under her breath.
Scott: "Did you f-ing say something???" (His face was red with anger or something)
Girl: "I just said that I think the way you curse is very unprofessional."
Scott: "You think you can come here and tell me what is and what isn't professional??? I am an important man. What are you? Get the f* out of here, leave, you have shown you don't care about this job. You can cry, it doesn't make a f-ing difference to me." (She was crying).
At this point the girl was crying. She left.
Scott: "Any other moron wants to say something? I expect better from you. But if you don't make sales, you are f-ing out!"
Then he walked out.
As you can see, everyone was extremely intimidated by him.
A couple of weeks before Norvergence collapsed Scott Bufton was fired by Peter Salzano. This was shock to all of us. Because, even though Scott was rude and arrogant, the sales strategy was succesful. Mind you, none of the sales reps knew they were lying to customers. However, Scott Bufton must have known it all, and he ran the sales department.
Anyway, I was told that Scott was fired because a female employee was found with him in his office. The female was nice to me so I will call her by her initials M.R.M.R. Started out at the company as the person you could go to to dispute for losing your attendance bonus for coming in late to work. On or around February when a large portion of the inside sales force was fired, M.R. Became a director of some kind for the company. No doubt due to her relationship with Scott Bufton. When Peter fired Scott he also fired M.R. She was later seen working as a model in a New York car show.
I hear that Scott couldn't deny his involvement with M.R. Because they found e-mails they wrote to each other which revealed everything.
Anyway, Scott Bufton was a married man. He had kids too.in fact, one time someone on the sales floor had thrown a fart bomb somewhere and the whole place started smelling like rotten eggs. Scott took groups of us into the conference room and said: "You sons of b*s, one of you stank up the place out there. I want to know who it is. Right now you are keeping me from going home to be with my wife and kids. They are much more important people than you ever will become. You are all insignificant people. I am telling you, if no one confesses within 5 minutes, and I miss 5 minutes with my family, you will all pay." In the end I dont think the person who stank the place was ever found.
Even though Scott was extremely rude and disrespectful to us, when his son got sick with cancer or something, we each gave money to the collection that was made by management. Actually, how could we not donate? Each person who gave money was put on a list made by management along with the amount that was given. A lot of people gave $10 to $20 each without hesitation. Imagine, there were about 1200 inside sales reps all together at that time. I felt bad for the kid, of course, but I felt we were pressured to give money to Scott Bufton.
Anyway, I am amazed Scott Bufton was never brought to trial or no inquiries were made about him. After all, he ran the company's sales forces. Yes, Peter and Thomas signed off on all of Scott's ideas, but it is important to note that Scott ran the sales departments.
I did not write any of this because I dislike Scott Bufton.in fact, he was never directly rude to me. I "believe" all the things I have written are as I "remember" them or as I "remember hearing" about them too.
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