David's Blog

First Day Selling

Today was my first day selling and it was more eventful than I plan to describe here. As far as stats and sales school goes it was a dismal failure. Luckily, I made two sales though, so the day wasn't a complete waste. I just look forward to following my manager tomorrow and seeing how this stuff is really done. I think I may be a little slower than most at this sales stuff -- so I may need to follow more than once. I'm OK with that.

I want to quickly list off why this day was a 'failure' as far as stats and sales school goes so I remember this later.
--I started at 7:45AM. That was better than on the right track because I don't have to start until 7:59AM.
--I took a break around 8:15 to go to the Jackson County Courthouse. That took nearly two hours, and I just got a solicitor and peddler's permit. I also found out why I can get an Alabama ID and called my Mom and got her to send me a notorized copy of my birth certificate and my passport.
--I skipped houses, but they had large dogs so that was allowed.
--I skipped houses. No excuse.
--I roamed around just making maps during lunch time, because it seemed like everyone was off somewhere. I got tired of knocking.
--I stopped for almost 15 minutes and wrote Joy a letter in my car. I was hurting at that point and wanted a release (3:08 -- 3:22PM.)
--I didn't follow the script at all when I did my demos.
--I told people more than I was supposed to tell them. I was "too honest"
--I told a bunch of people "I'm selling something" right up front. That was fun, because I'd do it before they'd get a chance to even ask angrily. I disarmed a few people that way, and I am thinking of doing it more often. I'm probably not supposed to though.
--I told someone something that I knew would end the conversation just so I could get out of an akward situation. (A guy wearing a hand towel as if it were a bath towel and nothing more.)
--I said, "alright" and backed down when people told me they weren't interested.
--I botched about five potential sales.
--I ended early. (It was dark and I had no more appointments. I tried knocking like during the day, but that was quite unappreciated.
--I didn't do 30 demonstrations.
I'm was also unconfident and emotionally unstable between the hours of 11:30AM and 5:30PM.

That covers it pretty well I think. Now I want to talk about some of the other, more positive things that happened -- like my sales maybe.

I had two strong sales. They were nearly back to back. The first was to a lady who had actually told me she wasn't interested at first. I asked her to let me show her the books anyway, because I needed 30 demos. She consented and ended up showing her husband the books too. They both liked them and bought one. Her name was Lisa Justice. Her daughter is a cute little 2nd grade red-head named Vanessa.
My next sale was after two more interesting refusals. Her name was Lisa Drake. She has a three-year-old son named Jonah. He took to me immediately and was super hyper and stuff when I was there. He was constantly playing with me and stuff, which impressed his mom. He is supposedly shy, but he sure was hyper and into me shortly after I walked into the room and pulled out his book.
His mom was a teacher, she said she already had books like mine, Jonah even agreed with her and went and got his books, but when he saw mine... sale! It was really fun. I got to play with a fun little kid for a while and make him and his mom happy at the same time. How cool is that? I wish this whole job was like that all summer long.

Posted by David at May 11, 2004 10:54 PM