Tiger BufordYour Orthopedic Industry Expert (free today)

An incredible story of a "life or death" Sales tactic.

20 Apr 2025 · 3 min

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2:38

In this first‑person monologue, the speaker recounts a pivotal business deal that felt like a matter of life or death. After leaving the Army, he borrowed $50,000 to launch Alabama’s first CPM (continuous passive monitoring) rental company in Birmingham, quickly securing the major contract with the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). When UAB announced a new bidding process, a slick competitor from Jackson, Mississippi appeared. To gain an edge, the speaker hired a private detective to coax the rival into revealing his intended bid. Armed with that intelligence, he underbid the competitor by a quarter, won the contract, paid off his loan, and later sold the business. He reflects that while the tactic succeeded, it was ethically dubious, noting that no one threatened him physically and that he has never repeated the maneuver.

Chapters

Tell me about a deal you made that was life and death for you. That, you know, like that Fed, like FedEx going to Vegas to bet the payroll. Tell me about a deal that was so critical that you had to have it. I will tell you about a deal. I, a couple of deals that I made that basically were life or death to me. When I got outta the Army, I moved to UAB Birmingham. I was there about a year and, um, I borrowed $50,000 from Central Bank to start my first business, and it was a CPM rental business. It was the first one in Alabama, and I didn't know jack about it. I just knew these CPMs seemed like they were pretty cool, and doctors liked them, and the rental market looked good. So I basically, after about a year, I had all the business in town, including the contract at UAB and everything else. And then UAB decided to put it out on bid. I didn't even know what that meant. Next thing I know, some silk suit-wearing guy from Jackson, Mississippi's there. You know, they're, they're pretty slick, and he's trying to outbid me, underbid me, and everything else. And so what I did was I hired a private detective to take him to dinner, and I told the private detective to tell him that you want to buy his company and that you're getting into the medical business. I just kind of coached him and try to figure out a way to talk about why he's in town and if there— what, what he's doing there. Well, the idiot told the detective everything, including what he was going to bid. And so a couple days later, they're opening the bids, and I, I underbid him by a quarter. And he was all of a sudden, I remember, I never forget it. It was on a side street there by UAB where the like supply or where the bid was being opened. All of a sudden, the two double doors like burst open like a bomb. Boom. And this guy comes walking out. I've never seen anybody so red, so mad in my life. He knew that he got, he got screwed. And nobody showed up to kill me at night, so it worked. It worked, and I got the bid. So, and I never did anything like that before and never did anything like that since. Uh, it wasn't exactly illegal, but I'm not sure in hindsight it was the most ethical thing one could ever do. I don't know, who knows. But it was, it does answer the question. That was a deal that I really felt like I had to have, and I did get the deal, and I paid off the loan, and I sold the business. And I was done with it.