"People come out here to buy cars all the time," Levine says.

"They do," Allan swears. "They absolutely do."

Next, Allan introduces me to Steve Brown, the owner of a furniture-and-­interior-­design studio in South Florida who's outfitted the model units of a bevy of high-rise condo buildings. He doesn't usually sell at retail, but he'll sell to Allan's clients at the trade discount usually offered to interior designers. "Steve knows when I call he won't make a fat profit, but these customers come back again and again," Allan says. "I'll call up and say, 'Here's the brand name; here's what the customer wants. Can you make a buck off it?' And he'll tell me right off the bat, yes or no."

"Somebody like Allan who comes to you all the time with business - we can afford to work a little shorter with him than we do with our regular clients," Brown says.

"And Brown is a high-end line," Allan puts in. "He's been open since the 1970s. All these big condos that go up in Florida, they have model everything, and Steve does them all."

"See, consumers today have a lot more power than they did years ago, because they have more choices," Brown says. "Allan's helping them take advantage of that power, and it's been working for him. It works for us, too, because it's another sale for us."

It is halfway through this conversation that I recognize Allan's gift. He's able to schmooze two people at the same time, even when those two people are on the opposite ends of a negotiating table. He schmoozes them both so well that they each walk away from the table grinning. He's not so much a negotiator but a mediator. A matchmaker, even. I wonder whether he's ever considered negotiating divorce settlements.