To be fair, manufacturers and retailers have different agendas. Manufacturers want to load up retail showrooms with as much of their product as possible. With a dozen of them having the same agenda, it’s no wonder the average dealer’s showroom is an ugly mishmash of sample books and displays—a veritable retail jungle. Conversely, retailers would like to present their product under proper selling conditions.

Understandably, a reason manufacturers rarely hire me is I could never say that what they do is always 100% right. DuPont used to say I was a “loose cannon.” Yes, some elite mills hired me for sales training—Fabrica and Milliken for example—but for the most part suppliers were the establishment and I was an outlier, someone who speaks the truth, but the establishment thinks is a jerk. Well, I would rather be the truthful jerk.