Today was kinda rough.
I had car issues two days ago, so I took my car in to get worked on first thing this morning. I didn't leave the dealership I took my car to until a little after 10AM. Normally, I start the day before 8AM so I kinda lost two and a half hours there.
When I left that place I was kinda frazzled. I knew I had lost nearly 1/6 of my day already and had no work stats to show for it. That and the fact that I was just sitting around tiredly trying to study really started my morning off poorly. So, I had some trouble getting my head back in the ball game -- as they say. I have trouble with that normally, but this morning situation exacerbated the issue.
The second thing that got to me was doing all day "gravy" on the entire last month's area. I visited the town that I was in the first week or so of the summer, and I was haunted by all of the old emotions that I was feeling those first few days. Memories of emotions, lunches, people, calls home, the time I wanted to quit, etc. flooded back to me with the sight of certain buildings, landmarks, and geographical features.
I got through the day though, and God threw two customers my way. So, all is good now. Tomorrow will rock again. I like going through new territory.
On a more positive (in a way -- it is negative in the company's eyes) note I talked to some interesting people today. I am really not supposed to have longer conversations with people when I am working in the bookfield, but I do sometimes anyway. I find that to be one of the most rewarding parts of the job (and life) anyway, so why not?
--oh yeah, because I am supposedly here to work and make a killing -- yada yada yada.
A number of people in our Org have quit in the last three weeks. We were told that roughly 1/3 of the people we leave sales school with will quit in the first three weeks. I was nearly one of those people.
I didn't quit because Joy and my parents talked me out of it. I am now glad that they did. Even though this sucks a good deal of the time -- I am learning a lot and I will be really, really happy when it is all over. I might even come out and do it all over again next year. Also, I am really bad at nearly everything that goes into selling. This program is an intensive program that works hard with individuals to get them to succeed. I receive tons of invaluable attention from other students and managers who are working hard to make sure that I improve every week and every day. That is worth more than my time, and the fact that I will be paid in the process is just amazing.
Anyway, here are the names of the people who are still in the org. As you'll be able to see it has gotten down to about a 1:1 ratio of student managers to first year dealers. That is kinda cool in the weekly meetings because it makes personal conferencing a whole lot faster. However, we started out with around 30 people and at the Border War 20 people were still in the org. Pretty crazy stuff.
First Years
David M.
Marcus G.
Ketan G.
Andrew T.
Dhimitraq D.
Galileo
Jocelyn W.
Rasa
Kevin S.
Andrew Gordon (starting this week -- he is in High School)
Second Years
Peter Martinello
Clerison Del Castillo
Mike Yandre
Mike "TomCat"
Nick Rodriquez
Daniella M.
Jen Blanco
Marie Gilbert
Kiran G.
Dahnell Clervil
In Southwestern there are these things called Border Wars. They are basically a competition set up in such a way so that people contribute to the program and feel more like a team. This Border war was held against three different "org"s and we all drove to Memphis, TN for it. That was a four hour drive for me and my two roommates, but luckily I am a first year and I got to sleep on the way.
Our Org, Rubberband, ended up in second place -- so we didn't get pied. The first place org gets to throw a pie in the face of every member of the last place org -- regardless of whether you had your best week ever or what. There were so many people in the last place org that some people from our org got to pie people too. I threw pie! Wooo!
I ended up getting the highest number of hours worked for a first year during recognition. I was going for that, because I know that I don't really have everything in place just yet -- so I wanted to show that I am willing to put in a first-rate effort and at least give this program all that I've got.
Now that Border War is over we are going back into a more laid-back schedule again. That doesn't really mean much other than about 15 more minutes of sleep a night and normal work stats.
I think that this Border War thing was smart. It pushed us really hard to the point of nearly breaking (some people did seem to break -- quit) and then after a week when we go back to "normal" bookmen mode it actually feels like things got easier suddenly. So, now we are still going to work over 80 hours / week but it will feel suddenly easier.
I zeroed out again Thursday, so today I spent the day in Huntsville, AL following Mike Yandre. It was a pretty fun day. My first day in the rain. We only had one customer all day, which I guess should make me feel better about zeroing out.
It's midnight. I need to sleep now. I'll have to write more about this later.
UPDATE: 12/31/2004
Here it is just over seven months later and I still remember quite a bit about this day. I ran across this entry today because I am clearing comment spam out and closing comments on my entries again.
I remember running around in the rain. Letting Mike drive my Jeep for a bit. I also remember talking to a lady with this huge Box Tops for Education display that I admired. The whole day was exhausting and we stayed out for a long time trying to sell. I am thinking that this is the first time I sold with Mike, but I am not sure. Both times we nerely zeroed out when selling together, which is odd. It made me feel like I was somehow bad luck at the time, but then I later felt that Mike might have just picked a less promising area of Hunstville or had a bad day himself. I really don't know what happened though, because it is odd to sell absolutely nothing in a day.
Since this is the day that I got home around midnight, I am guessing that it is also the day that we stayed out well past 9:30PM because the last house we knocked on at 9:30 was the house of a salesman. He had a little kid and was considering buying the books. He didn't that night though, and I am betting that Mike went back to finalize the sale on another day.
I also remember going to Huntsville with Marcus on this day. The whole hour or so drive there I was wondering which one of us would be following Marie and which would follow Mike Yandre. I had reasons for wanting to follow both of them and reasons why I didn't want to follow them, so in the hour of thinking about it I got to a point where I didn't really care which person I followed for the day. Now that the summer is over I wish I had followed Marie, because I got to follow Yandre again later in the summer, but never got the chance to see how Marie sells. At the end of the day I was pretty happy that I followed Yandre though, because I got a little bit closer to him. However, any friendship that was developing there snapped when I got his truck into my second car accident.
Everyone says and thinks that salespeople are liars. They're right! Some salespeople are, indeed, liars. One crazy thing I've learned in the last few weeks of being a salesperson is that people confronted by a salesperson are often liars too.
I think I've been lied to more in this one month of May 2004 than I have in any given year of my life. I'm obviously not sure of this, but it is a strong intuition that I have that I think is worth expressing.
Friends, please -- make sure that I do not pick up on this practice.
I wrote an e-mail to Jessica the other night trying to help her out with a situation she was going through and wrote line that she really liked. I think now that if she liked it so much I might as well share it with everyone else.
'Don't let the fog of your human understanding keep you from walking boldly down whatever path you think is God's path for you.'
Whenever something absolutely mind-blowing happens when I follow a student manager for the day I get a laugh or maybe even a profound dumbfounded expression followed up by the saying, "the bookfield by Southwestern."
Now I am starting to say that myself at times, because it is kind of funny.
I've been here in Alabama just over two weeks so far and I have already seen a whole new world of things that I'd never expect to see. I see poverty that is on par with the poverty I have seen in the third-world contries that I visited during my family's mission trips. I have seen trailers that run the gamut from essentially condemnable to some that are nicer than the inside of my house.
Trailers here seem to be more of a permanent thing than I'd ever think of them as being. People build wood, stone and concrete attachments to their trailers and keep them for not months or years, but decades. Trailers are often found right next to amazingly beautiful, big brick houses. Sometimes they are even in the back yard of a house -- because the family finally moved into the house stage, built a house on their property and never hauled the old trailer away. It is all surreal to me, and I think I am even getting used to it.
...to be continued.
In the main body I have clipped a large portion of an e-mail that I sent to Jessica. I think that it is worth keeping in my blog, because it conveyed some of what was going on with me earlier this week. Also, I want to keep it as a reminder of how I felt and a goal that I have.
I am doing better this week -- emotionally at least. One major
improvement for me was getting out my sermons that I had on tapes. They help me do this thing that I've been told to do over and over again -- STOP THINKING.
Now, instead of letting my mind wander all over the place I am either
working or listening to the sermons. It has really made my days a lot
better.
I think that your summer next year will not be nearly as hard as mine in
some ways, because I am going to be keeping close track of all the things
that I found difficult about the program and I plan to let people know ahead
of time about what they are. SW doesn't do this normally, because they feel
people will back out if fully informed. I think that is somewhat true, but
mostly BS. Lots of people will be more willing to do this program if they
know for sure that they've received full disclosure. I am that way. I think
you are too. So, I am planning on disclosing everything I can about this
program.
The first thing I plan to disclose is that the program likes its secrets a
lot and is often not honest when asked direct questions. Sometimes it is
even not honest when no questions are even asked. I find that sort of
dishonesty vexing, but I am getting somewhat used to it and intend on not
letting it affect my character. I'd rather do poorly in the program than let
my character change in a way that is further from God.
I followed Clerison again yesterday. The kid is weird. I have to say I liked him better before following him yesterday -- mainly because he did a few things that crossed the line with me. That situation was disussed and reconciled, but it will take some time and some more positive interaction to get it out of my head.
I also lucked into this "pony." A pony is a buyer who wants everything. That's not the exact definition -- there is no exact definition -- but this guy was a pony and he was wanting it all. This frustrated Clerison. He gave me maybe five to ten houses that day, and this was one of them. I didn't do my intro for this guy. I didn't even ask him his name. I didn't tell him I was from Florida. etc etc. I messed up in many ways and still got the sale. I am lucky, blessed, whatever you want to call it -- and that pisses people off.
I am grateful for my blessings.
Today was my second Saturday in the bookfield. Saturdays are the best days to sell a lot of books because everyone is home at some point in the day, and catching up with families is one of the trickiest parts of selling these things.
I managed to find four customers today. That is my best day in terms of customers so far. Perhaps I could have done better, but I started my day off with a two-hour long conversation with Joy. That is another absolute no-no to Southwestern people. I care, but I don't. I am really glad that I had that conversation and it put me in a great, empowered mood for most of the rest of the day. Sure, it hurt my effort to get 30 demos in today, but that doesn't really bother me so much at this point.
Next week I need to get this 30 demos a day thing down. It is difficult for me because I spend a great deal of time in conversation with the interesting and friendly people that I come across. I feel like this is worthwhile, because while I might not make the most money -- I will have a more enjoyable and interesting summer. Besides, I have managed to make many people's day throughout this process. I actually think I do more counseling and encouraging out in the book field than selling, which -- given my stats -- isn't saying all that much I guess.
Today is the second day in which I made more money in the bookfield than I did in the stock market with the money that I made during High School jobs and the returns I got throughout college. This is mainly due to the fact that the market was closed today and last Saturday too. I think things like that are funny.
Today I had planned to go to Langston, Alabama to sell books. I did go there. The morning started out reasonably well, but when I finally got into town I noticed that it was incredibly small, which is saying something because I am working only small towns. This town's population was listed as 200-something on the sign that I dorve by entering into the town.
This town had no gas station, store, or any other commercial building of any sort. There was no school. There were five residences with children in them. I visited them. Soemone was home at only one of them. I heard that both parents of another were deaf. I decided to just map the town and talk to as many people as I could catch to make sure that the town was just a retirement community on the Tennessee river. I left the town using a road I hadn't been on yet. It took me into Section, Alabama, which was the area I had worked the past two days.
Now, that was pretty long and boring. The point is to record what I did and to explain why I am back at my HQ -- something that I am never supposed to do. I am here because I have to go on to a new part of my territory. I didn't have a map for it in my car though, and I prefer to use the maps that I get offline. So, now I am at my HQ, and I am blogging, which is another bad thing because I should be working.
I care. I don't care.
I don't like this job much at all. It is fascinating and boring all at once. It is rewarding and taxing at the same time. I am not really the type of person that is a salesperson, which is exactly why I am doing this. So, I decided that because I cannot quit (the company would let me, but I won't and my Dad won't) I will try my best to use this opportunity to develop my discipline.
It seems as if right now I am failing miserably. Yesterday I did really well though. I did reasonably well in terms of sales (my personal best day) and really well in terms of discipline (I didn't call Joy. I stayed in the game. I worked hard.)
Today I don't have enough sleep. I am unfocused. I confused myself with a bad territory that was too small to begin with. I had thought that it would be a populated town so I went smaller. Now I am back at the HQ. I have my application for graduate school. It just arrived today. I have the opportunity to fill it out and be done with it so I don't have to worry about it anymore this summer. I can do that now. That is discipline, but it is also not, because it is taking time out of work.
I have decided that it is OK though, because it is something that needs to get done for the rest of my life and one part of a day off from work with SW isn't necessarily a big deal. What is a big deal is the fact that I lost discipline. That hurts.
Please pray that I be disciplined the rest of this summer. It is insanely hard for me to stay focused and disciplined so I need all the prayer I can get.
Let me know what y'all think too.
Today I had planned to go to Langston, Alabama to sell books. I did go there. The morning started out reasonably well, but when I finally got into town I noticed that it was incredibly small, which is saying something because I am working only small towns. This town's population was listed as 200-something on the sign that I dorve by entering into the town.
This town had no gas station, store, or any other commercial building of any sort. There was no school. There were five residences with children in them. I visited them. Soemone was home at only one of them. I heard that both parents of another were deaf. I decided to just map the town and talk to as many people as I could catch to make sure that the town was just a retirement community on the Tennessee river. I left the town using a road I hadn't been on yet. It took me into Section, Alabama, which was the area I had worked the past two days.
Now, that was pretty long and boring. The point is to record what I did and to explain why I am back at my HQ -- something that I am never supposed to do. I am here because I have to go on to a new part of my territory. I didn't have a map for it in my car though, and I prefer to use the maps that I get offline. So, now I am at my HQ, and I am blogging, which is another bad thing because I should be working.
I care. I don't care.
I don't like this job much at all. It is fascinating and boring all at once. It is rewarding and taxing at the same time. I am not really the type of person that is a salesperson, which is exactly why I am doing this. So, I decided that because I cannot quit (the company would let me, but I won't and my Dad won't) I will try my best to use this opportunity to develop my discipline.
It seems as if right now I am failing miserably. Yesterday I did really well though.
Today was a lot better than the other two days spent by myself were. After following Clerison I had more of a sense of what this can be like. Clerison would rush occasionally, but he'd also stop and plan things out a bit. He had a map on him and highlight areas that he'd completed. He'd also do his preapproach in a way that makes a lot more sense to me. I intuitively wanted to do mine that way too, but was told to do it another way, which I tried for a while. I am switching to Clerison's way. (Drawing an actual map with houses instead of drawing lines down the sheet of paper and putting houses and descriptions of them on the paper.)
Tomorrow will be nice. I totally need a break from all of this. I also look forward to getting some much needed sleep.
Yesterday I followed Clerison all day long. It was a little crazy and maybe even uncomfortable at first, but we got used to each other fairly quickly and eventually it turned out to be a lot of fun.
We started out in the "PJs" of Altoona. Clerison uses a lot of slang from Miami and the rap subculture. That was an interesting place to start. We talked a fair amount and Clerison was constantly clowning with anyone and everyone. I found out fairly quickly that he likes to stay diversified in most things such as his humor, his women, and his stock portfolio.
I learned a lot from following him for the day, and I am really glad that I decided early on to ask him about taking notes. I took roughly eight pages of notes on my Ampad. He has so many lines. A lot of them I'd never use, but he has enough for me to fill up eight pages worth of things that I would like to say some time in the future.
Following Clerison was also a lot better than following Dahnell. Dahnell was overly serious most of the time and only had fun at my expense, which gets old for me almost instantly. Clerison would joke around occasionally, and 'hazed' me by getting me to carry his bag the whole day, but that was no big deal to me. Dahnell had more of a ridicule based sense of humor. He still does. It gets annoying really quickly, but I hope to just get accostomed to it, because I am in a situation where I can't change much of anything except the way I look at things.
I have like seven or eight pages of notes that I took when I followed Clerison today. I think I'd like to add them to this blog at some point later on, but I don't know when or if I'll get time. I didn't have time when I started writing this so I saved it as a draft and now I still have no time so I am just wrapping it up and publishing this, which is unfortunate because there were a lot of fun stories to include that I will forget and a few that I've probably already forgotten. That's the life of a SouthWestern salesperson. Constant memory loss. Probably due to the lack of sleep coupled with the constant inundation of new experiences.
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.
I've been thinking lately... SouthWestern would make a great place for recovering addicts of all sorts.
When you join SouthWestern and go through sales school you are asked not to drink, swear, do drugs, sleep a full eight hours, engage in sexual activities, gamble, spend money on little things, etc. You are allowed to smoke, so this program obviously wouldn't work for smokers.
The program would work beautifully for anyone who really wanted to give up their problems. Obviously, it won't keep a true addict down, because these people always find a way, but willing parties would find success with SouthWestern.
Their schedule is what does it. You wake up at 6AM every day but Sunday (7AM.) Then they keep you up and active all day long until 11PM so that you don't fall asleep. Those activities are also usually sufficient to keep you from many of the other activities that feed addictions. Combine that with a fascist student manager (they all are this way -- it's in the training) and you are on your way to an addiction free summer. The final touch is the desire to succeed in this business, which gives people a new high that seems to get a good 1/3 of the people to come back for more.
Maybe this is just addiction replacement. Nah. Luckily, people seem to burn out, which doesn't end in death -- so that's positive.
Wow. I am rambling. I think prolonged sleep deprevation causes drain damage.
Today we drove back to Cullman for the last time to do our "week zero" meeting. Dahnell drove the three of us so Marcus and I actually got to get some sleep in, which was much needed.
When we got there we ate breakfast at the Omelette Shoppe and then went in to our meeting. In between those two I called Sprint's customer service and set my phone up so that it only costs me an extra $5 a month to do roaming calls. That seemed a lot better than $0.50/minute, and it gives me 1,000 minutes, because we've got a 2,000 minute plan.
The meeting was more of the same -- like sales school. We learned some new stuff though, and got all excited about our first day of selling which is either tomorrow or Wendesday for all the first years. My first day of selling will be tomorrow, because I am "following" on Wednesday.
After our "week zero" meeting we drove back to Jackson County, and went straight to Dutton, which is this small town that I'll be working in all of this week. We went into their town hall / fire station and got everything worked out so I could solicit door-to-door. Then we picked the house that would be the infamous "first house" for me. (Way to pile on the pressure and nervousness, guys...)
Then we drove over to Pisgah. We tried to do basically the same stuff we did in Dutton, but by the time we were done, we ran into a new 'adventure.' Dahnell's car wouldn't start. That was pretty nerve wracking for about two hours, until finally the town's water service guy decided to help us out. He'd walked by us a few times already doing his business, but this time he was curious. He gave us a jump and we were on our way again.
Next -- the banks. We checked out some banks and finally decided on Regions Bank. We worked on opening an account there and got all of that situated. I still need to go back at some point though, because nearly all of my picture IDs are recently expired. Luckily, one was only expired by a week though. It is a National ID given by the Uniformed Services, so they thought they could accept that. Now I just need to get an Alabama ID or Driver's License within 30 days and let them make a copy of it for their files.
After that we came back to our HQ. Dahnell left us with a few things to do. We did all of them accept going to the Sheriff's office, and now I am using my little bit of free time to blog while I can.
Tonight counts as a Sunday too, so we get to go to bed early again. That will be nice if it happens.
Last night around 7:30 in Scottsboro Alabama, Marcus, Dahnell and I secured our HQ for the summer. That basically means that we found someone to take us in for thirteen weeks. Her name is Karen Grisson. She lives on 324 Sharon Street in Scottsdale, AL ZIP: 35768-4205. Obviously, she is a really nice lady -- she took in three total strangers.
Right now we're still getting situated. We don't have a whole lot of space, but we don't really need it because we're not going to be here all that much. Work, work, work. That's is pretty much all that we're going be doing all summer long, and it pretty much sucks.
The room that we are staying in has a bunk bed, and the room is called "the dungeon" by the family, because it was a one car garage that was converted into an extra room for exercise equipment, TV, bunk beds, and a computer (with Internet! what a blessing!)
Karen has two kids. Her son is 19 years old and about to graduate from High School and attend University of Alabama. Her daughter is some younger High School age, but we don't remember what her age was. She also has tons of kids from the neighborhood coming in and out of the house all during the day. Luckily, it doesn't seem to happen all that much at night though.
There's more to tell, but I think that it will have to happen at another time.
Well, we found out today who we are going to be living with and which cities/counties we'll be living and working in for the summer.
I am going to be living in Scottsboro, Alabama with Dahnell Clervil and Marcus Goynes.
I'm pretty excxited.
It's the second-to-last day at Sales School. I really don't have much free time to blog normally, but I decided to spend my lunch today writing e-mails to people and writing an entry for the blog.
So far in Sales School I have learned a lot of stuff. The second day I was pretty grumpy for the frist part of the day because I was really sleep deprived, but now things are a lot better, because I am getting a lot more acclimated to the sleep schedule that they keep us on here.
The school is pretty cool, because they divide it up into lots of little segments. We get lots of motivational speeches, practice of our "sales talks," fun and games, entertainment and jokes, group meetings, getting know each other meetings, physical and mental challenges and contest/games where the winner wins $50 or $20 in cash depending on whether you are competing against just your "org" or in the larger group of all three "orgs."
This whole thing is really hard, but it is also really inspiring and fun. I am getting a lot out of it, and I now think that it will be better for me than I had previously anticipated, and I anticipated a lot!
Sometimes, when we are going over things and learning new stuff I think about the people that I know and love back home. I wish some of them could have come with me. I also wish I could do this all again next year too so I can bring back some of my friends and let them have these great experiences too. I don't know if that will happen or not, but it will be cool to see how things play out. Even if I don't come back next year I guess I can still recommend it to people I care about.
I only have about 15 minutes of lunch left and I should probably actually eat something so I am going to end this for now. Hopefully, I'll find spare minutes to write more about what I am doing and maybe even blog someo f the cool stuff I am learning. I've taken tons of notes so far, but I don't think I have taken enough. As they say -- I'm overloaded with information.