Part 95: Climbing To The Top!

Wow! What a week. Seems that starting a new career path can be a challenge. For the past five weeks I have been working in a new direction with my sales indeavor. Still working with food products and still preforming route sales. The part that really works on you is that with all of the experience that I have my training was only seven days long. So, in the minds of others that know your skills think that you can do the job right now.

Though that may be true to some extent, there are differences that need to be adressed and taught. So my learning curve is shorter then someone that has less time selling route sales. ie. driving a route truck safely, knowing back door proceedures at the markets, and so forth. However understanding how well certain products sell or don't in certain stores needs to be taught, and trained to all new employees.

In the seven days I was 'trained' the training was mostly about how to load the truck and just runing the route. The route was set up for no time for just covering the customers. No time for selling. No time for doing the job the right way. Even making back door times were a challenge.

Thankfully this all will change as the routes are being re-engineered. That is to say that the routes are being made over to make it so that all customers will be serviced to a more complete extent. These kind of changes made to routes have to be done when a territory becomes harder to make because the customer count has grown or the business within the accounts has grown to where service starts to lag.

Going through this process for the salesperson can be stressful. Most of the concern is usually about the bottom line, paycheck. In some cases it is true that the pay will be lower at least for a little while. If you are a salesperson then you will dig a little deeper and find a way to sell more with the customers that you have. You will or should look for new opportunities within your route.

In my case two major companies have joined together to become the second largest snack food company in the country. Re-engineering the routes had to happen because of the sheer number of products from the two combined companies. With nearly double the number of UPC's the routes had to be redone. Now with less customers to service there will be more dollars per account and more time to do what we do best, sell.

Part 95 Climbing To The Top!

Wow! I guess time got away from me it has been a month since I last posted with you. I bet some of you are wondering what happened? Here goes, I have departed from my job as salesman with Frito Lay. I took a couple of weeks searching for some  other challenge for my sales career. I contacted the manager of a company that had been a competitor.  Snyder Lance Snacks I was received with open arms. For this I am grateful.
Now I want to talk about 'Networking'. When I was servicing my accounts when I was on the route or when I was a sales manager I always treated my competitors with respect. You know the old adage [Keep you friends close and keep your enemies closer]. I believe that the same works in the sales world. Along the way I would introduce myself to all competitors and fellow vendors. In the market we are like a family. Yes we all try to get along and yes there are times when we are all fighting for the same space. It can be love, hate, but the fact remains that we all are still in a family of sales reps for our companies.
The companies don't always seem to share these beliefs. They would rather you show no mercy. Take no prisoners and get everything that you can. In the last company I was with they had special ball caps made for the salespeople with the letters KTC on them. Kill The Competition. Now that not to say that I don't get motivated because I do. I always try to get as much as I can from a customer. Still I am not out to kill my fellow vendors. I believe that competition breeds business.
So in networking you should know as many of the people around you and show then respect as you would want them to show you. Collect business cards and phone numbers and e mails. Make contact from time to time. Keep your family close.

Part 94: Climbing To The Top!

Well now I'll try to get the spelling right this week. Last week I hit the post button before checking. Which brings be to this next post.

The old adage 'HASTE MAKES WASTE!" If ever there was a saying that has hit true to home as it has with me. In the world that we live in of 'I WANT IT NOW!' Haste does make waste. We produce things using short cuts and using cheaper products and using cheaper labor. When we are done with something we throw it away. When we go to lunch we want it now so we can get back to work. We don't ever want to wait.
In the business world the same thing is true for most of the industry. 'How soon can I get the product?' 'How many accounts can I hit in one day?' 'What's the least I can pay for the product?'
Maybe your company is so unsatisfied with not hitting the almighty number that they push products that you or your customers don't need down your throat.
In my last position the company got to doing this almost every week.So in an effort to please I would put the product on my customers and still doing my best to sell extra displays, found myself running behind, I would 'MAKE HASTE!' In other words the basics would go half undone.
I always thought that I was to sell to the customers 'WANTS AND NEEDS.' Some where along the line it went from the customers to the companies 'WANTS AND NEEDS.' Pressure is on the salesperson. Customer becomes unhappy and if you react then the company is unhappy.
You are the salesperson, this is your profession. Be professional and do the basics first, then do the extra sales. Protect yourself, it is important that you represent your company in a professional way, but you must keep your customer happy after all you may still sell to the customer even if you change companies.

Part 93: Climbing To The Top!

Hello, the heat is on. I can see that across the country the temps are hot. So with so much heat I'm staying inside as much as possible. While 'Climbing To The Top!' the book, is in the refining stages. Much to do with spelling and grammer. So with that I'll be inside most of this weekend doing just that.
Somtimes in the sales world we find ourselves on the outside looking in. This week I find myself in that position. The company that I worked for released from working there this week. Was it age? Was it health? Was it not doing things exactly the way they wanted? Beleive it or not it was all of these things combined.
The next couple of weeks I'll concertrate on how to find a new place to use your selling skills.

The first and most important is to network. When I say network, I mean that when you are in the market selling and servicing your customers and there are other sales and sales management people there doing there thing, even if they are the direct competition, you need to befriend them. You know the old saying, "Keep your friends close, keep your enimies closer." Well that is true for you in the sales world. Get to know everyone that is selling around you. Collect business cards. Load phone numbers. Get e-mail adresses. Make your direct competitors your friends. After all competition breeds business.
I learned the hard way and as long as I have been in this business you would have thought that I would have done all of these things. I did to some extent but not as much as I should have.
Remember the days and times that you would see some of those people in the market. Return and visit with them. Networking face to face.
Call on old contacts, customers and former supervisors. You will find that they are willing to help. Customers will know more about the other sales companies and who needs help. Some former supervisors are willing to help, espesially if you nidn't burn that bridge when you left them before.

So with all of that said. It's time to network. With all of these things executing these things should mean that you will be out in the cold for only a short time.

Part 92: Climbing To The Top!

Hello everyone I hope you all are enjoying the warmer weather as summer is starting this week. Along with the warmer weather comes more wear and tear on our bodies. This effects the sales world in many ways. Sales people usually do more traveling to meeting with customers. Warmer weather has an effect on all of us and when traveling it makes us more tired. Also when route sales people are out and about we are sweating more and moving along to get through the day. Even for those that are vacationing or staycationing some of these same problems can effect all of us. Weekend warriors have the same type of issues.
Becoming more tired from extensive traveling. Results are from starting earlier, driving further, the sun shining down through the windows, high humidity and hot temps. These factors can be combated by taking more breaks. Plan your trips to include more breaks and through this process of planing you will still make your appointments alive and on time.
For the route sales person I cannot stress stretching enough. The route sales person that works handling products off of a route truck, the milk, soft drinks, bread, chips and so on. We are no different the the athletes we see at the different games that they are about to preform. They all stretch and warm up. Even during the games when idle that are stretching. So they have set the example for all of us. Before starting on your job do a variety of stretches. You will be more nimble and alert. Staying hydrated is most essential. Drink more water then you think you need.
For the weekend warrior, playing golf or just working in the yard the same pertains to all of us as well, stretch and stay hydrated.
Enjoy the warmer weather, stretch and stay hydrated and take breaks.

Part 91: Climbing To The Top!

     Hi there! I hope that all of you are doing great today. The question for today is..... did you sell anything this week? Last week I said that we are all born to sell. We just have to reach inside of us and take the first step. Did someone sell you on something or some idea this week? Sure the did we all have been sold to and sold to others through out our lives. Some times though the task of selling when it is your job can be hard. There are many factors that come into play. Some of the of the times it is just us the sales people. We maybe get set in the way things are. We  don't want or maybe feel that we need to change. We like the way things are going and we are content. We are content with our pay, or our hours, so we just simply don't bother growing either one. We then become maintainers, not sales people anymore.
     Sometimes maybe we just get in over our heads and become scared to let anyone else in on it until we get called in on the carpet for non performance. Maybe you put on blinders and just like the race horse you then only focus on what is right in front of you, never looking to the left or right. All you can see is the end of the day or even that particular project.
     Rejection is probably the main reason that causes a sales person to cease selling and fail. Rejection does not feel good. If it comes from a spouse, a friend, a co-worker, a supervisor or especially a customer. If sales is you career in life than you deal with rejection all of the time. You must overcome, adapt and realize that it is part of the nature of the business that we are in.
     Get help from the same people as I stated above or find someone that can be and is willing to mentor you. Turn to motivational books or Cd's. The world is filled with all of the hope that you need to succeed. Believe it or not everyone wants to succeed and wants you to succeed.
    

Part 90: Climbing To The Top!

     Hello to all! Though my book, Climbing To The Top!, has ended there is still a lot I must do before publishing it. As you all know that there must be at least a hundred words misspelled. Then there is the grammar that I used. When it comes to grammar I wanted to express myself as I thought the terms and wording should be expressed. However not all of my grammar problems are from my way of getting my words across to the reader. So it will take some time to make these corrections. This book will be published and when it is you will be the first to know. My plans for this web blog is to continue to bring fresh content to the idea of' 'Climbing To The Top!'.
     In an effort to enhance this page I welcome anyone who is in the sales world or who has benefited from some extra ordinary sales person or experience to share with this blog and become part of the idea of 'Climbing To The Top!'. This blog is meant to help sales people be better at their profession. It is to help people in general to be better at what they do. Suggestions are welcome.
     I will continue to bring short stories about success and sales. 'Climbing To The Top!' lives on.

     Believe it or not a waitress or waiter, a stock person or a cashier, a bag boy or a service center manager are all sales people. Even a school teacher or a public official, so pretty much everyone you meet or have known are all sales people. From the beginning of time the oldest profession is sales.
     Everyone is trying to convince the next one to buy, or do, or try something. Any way you look at it convincing as the word itself is, selling.
     When you were born you were selling from your first breath. "I want a bottle!" "I want my momma!" You were born a sales person. I have heard that a sales person is not born a sales person, but I'll argue that point. I believe that selling is in everything we do.
     When you wanted a toy or something special for Christmas you had to sell someone on the idea of getting it for you. Then as I had said before you might have had a show and tell day at school. Believe it or not you were giving a sales presentation to your class. You were self taught, self motivated, self driven.
     Today you will sell something to someone or you will be sold to. Enjoy and welcome to knowing that you are in the sales world!

Part 89: Climbing To The Top!

Happy Mothers Day! The sun is shining and the weather is to warm and clear here. This is the last segment of 'Climbing To The Top!' I can't help but remember my mother on this day and be so very thankful as to have such a beautiful person in my life. I have stated that behind every successful man is a strong woman. At the beginning of my story that person was my mother and she still is. Thirty five years ago she passed that job on to my wife, Darlene. She has followed me to every position that I have had and earned. She has always offered me encouragement. She has pushed me to my goals. In reality there has been another woman that has always paid close attention to me too. Though from a distance my sister Cathy has always encouraged me with positive words. Even through this whole writing, every week she has praised me and that has helped to keep me going. Last is my daughter, Melissa. She has tried often to follow in my footsteps. She too has encouraged me to be the best that I can be!
To these four women in my life that have helped me to reach my goals I say thank you. Happy Mothers Day. 'Climbing To The Top!' is dedicated to them. 'BEHIND EVERY SUCCESSFUL MAN IS A STRONG WOMAN!'

 Before the six months were up for me on this route he came to me and said that he had never met anyone that could back up what they said like I did. I grew the business and the customers became close with me. I was assigned one more route before I finally got my own route.

     I received a route that the Zone Manager felt compelled to talk to me about. He wanted to talk about the manager at the Super Center I was going to have on my route. He stated that this man was probably the hardest customer that the company had. He told me just to maintain the stores business and let the customer get to know me before I go in with my six shooters blazing.

   My route had two accounts, the Super Center and a major chain super market. The boss was right this was not going to be easy. In fact, I felt that I had made a mistake taking this route. This guy was a real hard ass. I got to be so bad that if I had to go to the restroom I would look toward the electronics department where the closest restroom was and if I would see him close by there I would walk clear to the front of the store to avoid him. Avoiding him was always temporary as this store took six to seven hours to service. I would build a display and before I would leave he would want it taken down or moved to another spot. This was a lot of stress and this was the way it was for the first six months I was on the route.

     It was the start of a new year and I decided that this was not me. I was not scared of any customer and so I developed a plan. My plan was to get in front of the store manager as much as I could. It got to the point that he would see me coming and in a smart ass way he would say,”I don’t have time for you!” However I would be persistent, and soon I was close to being in control. I finally got him to agree that one day each week that we would meet. I would have his sales figures and promotions and my display needs. Now we were communicating and his sales were going up. Every week the sale were over the prior year. I received almost everything I needed. I was sure to follow through. This same process I used for my other account and it was working there too. 

     By the middle of the year I had made my sales plan for my route every month. The sales were growing. the customers were happy and I felt it was time for me to approach them and ask for one more thing. The thing that I wanted most. The thing that I had always seemed to miss out on during my sales career. I need their commitment to help me become Salesman Of The Year. Both customers were on board. The hardest customer became my closest ally.

    A year and a half after receiving Rookie Of The Year, I received Salesman Of The Year. I thought that it was the most honorable reward I could have received but along with that reward came another. This reward was created new for me and others to follow. It was called ‘The Impact Award’. This was given to an individual that had created the most impact on the companies business.

     I had started as a very young salesman at the age of eight and now I had made it. I had accomplished my goals. I know that this is not really the end. I now wonder can I do it again? I have finally after all of these years of ‘Climbing To The Top!’ made it.

Climbing To The Top! Part 88

Hello out there! I am on vacation this week and it feels great! I am very close to the conclusion on my story. Next week will be the final segment in Climbing To The Top! It's been two years in the making, but I'm not done yet in the future I will write more on sales and on success. Please enjoy this next part.

My first day on my new job, and it was the kind of day like so many others for a first day. This day was going to be spent learning. Learning about the company from another employees view. Learning from working on the job. I was assigned to a twenty year veteran female employee. I could only think that she had to have been the first female to break into the route sales part of this business. I was however wrong. One other female had a year on her. She was filled with an abundance of knowledge. She was also a perfectionist, when she stocked shelves every single bag looked perfect. The companies term for this way of merchandising was called ‘snapping and popping’ the bag of chips. I told you a long while back in my book that I was told that I swept streets like Michelangelo painted paintings. I’m here to tell you that this woman had a presentation on the shelf and on here displays that I felt that she was a fine artist in her own right. I tried to perfect the style of snapping and popping but I could never get it to look as good, twenty years of practice was needed.

     Here I was back in the food industry, and I was with the largest company in this line of business. I had the best trainer at least the best trainer for teaching me the business of company procedures. I learned about merchandising this type of product and that rotating the product was probably the most important part of my training.

     I made it through training and became the Swing Route Sales Person on the route. As a swing I split my week working the weekends that the Lead Route Sales Person had. This company serviced their customers seven days a week. So as swing my weekends were Wednesdays and Thursdays, one route was off Fridays and Saturdays the other was off Sundays and Mondays. Tuesdays were split between both routes. This was going to prove challenging for me. I was used to having the normal weekends off, but there was nothing normal here. 

     On the two routes that I was on there was only two stores. One on each route, both stores were super centers. Both did over a million dollars of business each. Each account would take eight to twelve hours to service depending on what day it was and if there was to be displays built. Being a glorified delivery and stock boy was not going to be enough for me. Though it was mostly the Leads job to sell in displays, I found myself doing that too. I excelled at gaining display space.

     The first year though it seemed tough, turned out to be rewarding. I was given Rookie Of The Year. At the age of fifty three I felt that was some accomplishment. I was soon offered a chance at an assignment to a route. An assignment was not getting your own route, but it was taking the route and running the route as if it were your own. Usually this happened when the regular route sales person was off injured or off for some reason for an extended period of time. If the individual returned the you would return to you former job title. I was on this route for about six months.

    The day I met my new supervisor, which their job title was District sales Leader or DSL, was a day that I’ll remember for a long time and so will he. Myself and my swing met with the DSL and a local fast food eatery. He was asking me questions about my experience and what my plans were for my future. His real concern was really about the route. I got cocky with him and made some statements about how I was going to grow the business and how I was going to  get the customers to give me what I wanted. How my first goal was to be Salesman Of The Year. Then to become a District Sales Leader. He told me that he respected my ambitions but felt that they were lofty. I promised that I would prove myself.

Climbing To The Top! Part 87

Hello! I know it's been a while. I have been ill and have been having a lot of test done and that has taken a lot of my time. I back now so I hope you enjoy this next part as I am winding down 'Climbing To The Top!'

 Needless to say ‘The Cleaning Company’ was a company where I was more able to use my skills as a salesman than any other company that I had been with to this time. Now don’t get me wrong, I had all of the challenges of the sales world with those too, but with this company I had to deal with customers that were over vast amounts of stores. The products also were not a consumable product as with the meat company or with the soft drink company. Selling a consumable product meant repeat sales to our customers customer and the more they had on hand the more they consumed. When using a piece of cleaning the consumer may use it once or twice a year, depending or their lifestyle maybe more. 

     That’s why when making the sales call to a potential new customer it is so important to be well prepared and knowledgeable. Failure is too costly. With me selling these products I was able to grow in my profession and I was always so grateful for my supervisor and friend in having trust and faith in me to do what I did for ‘The Cleaning Company’.

       After being successful with this company another opportunity came along. I had for all of the years left my resume’ on line at several job sites. One day while I was doing office work I noticed an e mail that popped up stating a new job that I might be interested in. It was with the largest potato chip company in the world. The benefits were outstanding. The pay was good. I wasn’t getting any younger and the cleaning company didn’t have much in the way of benefits. I hadn’t received a raise in a couple of years and the payed sixty percent toward my medical insurance that I purchased on my own. I also received two weeks vacation and had a company vehicle with all of my expenses paid. This was great for me at the time but I needed more. I had no retirement of 401k. I was in my fifties and did not want to work for the rest of my life. I showed the online site to my wife and she wanted me to submit a resume’ quickly. I did so so just to see if there was a company that would be interested in hiring some one of my age.

     I submitted and they responded wanting to interview. The interview went great and the next step was some testing that I needed to do. A week later I tested the manager stated that the test needed to be sent to the west coast and it would take until the following week for the results. I left not sure about how I did and by the time I reached home I received a call from the hiring manager making me an offer. I don’t think the test really mattered they wanted me.

     Now understand I really liked what I was doing and yes the travel was a lot. I was spending at least two overnights some times three out on the road. I had grown the cleaning companies business to new bounds. I had grown the business in the states that we were already in in my original territory and went further than I’m sure the company expected from five states that we were servicing to nines states in my territory. I had gained for the company hundreds of new stores. So with the other job offer on the table I thought I could negotiate a deal that would hopefully have me staying with the cleaning company. I first wanted a raise, so I went high. I also wanted my commissions to double. 

     I presented the offer on paper to the owner of the company and he took it back to present to his people. He then came back with an offer of no raise and would agree to double my commission. I was really hoping for the raise. I needed to pay for my own benefits, I would need to start investing some of my money toward a retirement fund. Doubling my commissions would have been fine, after all I wanted that, but the problem was I didn’t know how much more I was going to grow the business and I was receiving commissions based on gaining new customers only. There was no more negotiating it was what it was. I decided to leave and go with the chip company.

Part 86: Climbing To The Top!

Dogwoods and hardy bulbs are in bloom. How amazing spring is I love this change. I hope all of you are doing fine? We are doing great here. This next part has to do with presentations. It is important to be relaxed when doing so and to be in control. Enjoy!

My ‘Wants and Needs’ always came with goals. Maybe it was a paycheck to be larger, of course we all want bigger paychecks. In the commission world of sales usually there are not raises. I know that you can sometimes get a raise of a percent or so, but that does not happen all that often. I believe that you must give yourself a raise. How to do that is to work smarter and harder and sell. Sell with a goal that you give yourself that is above and beyond the goals set for you by your company. If you set a goal to reach for the stars you may not get quite to outer space but if you try harder enough you may reach the outer atmosphere and that is a highly lofty goal in its self!

     

Having high goals, and you must have goals so you can grow along with a growing paycheck is very important to being successful. So then ‘Wants and Needs’ are attributed to yours and your customers success. If you and your customer are achieving the “Wants and Needs” then in your sales world all is perfect.

     To be successful you must look the part. That means being clean, smelling good, and dressing well. Being prepared, meaning knowing your products, and having a presentation ready. I was always on time and mostly early for all of my appointments. I also made sure that I had several extra copies of the presentation ready. Customers more times then not, have other interested parties there for the meeting. Being prepared for this surprise become not a surprise at all. Make sure you have the proper tools with you, that is to say extra scrap paper and pens along with a calculator.

     If you were given a reference from another customer and that customer said that you could use them then by all means do so. The deal that you have with the each of the customers has not necessarily anything to do with the other. Meaning unless they are all part of a group that works together as an ad group or are part of the same organization then you should share less info about the other as far as of the business agreement that you have with that customer.

     Keeping control is very important. You need to control your presentation. If your presentation has several pages you need to try to keep the customers attention on what you are covering. Customers that move ahead of you during the presentation are wanting to move along. This could be that they have many appointments scheduled for the day and don’t have the time for a long drawn out meeting. If you lose control at this point and cannot regain the customers attention then you may not get the sale. 

    Now with my presentations with the cleaning company, my meetings were not all about the paper presentation. I had chemicals arranged before them and I also had the equipment for show and tell. Now I always wanted to start with the paper presentation, but it didn’t go that way most of the time. I learned to compose myself and would still be in control and would change so to please the customer. They would want to know all about the equipment first. I would be ready for that and do that part of the presentation first, then I would reel the customer in to the paper part. Sharing the company history and where they have been and where they are intending on going is important. It’s important that for your company to move forward to the future your need the customers business, and you are asking for help. When asking for help, most people want to help you.

Part 85: Climbing To The Top!

Tomorrow will be the first day of spring. Finally! Birds chirping flowers blooming and warmer days. In this next part I discuss the 'Wants and Needs' that help to make the sale. Please enjoy this next part.

 Once you have the appointment make sure that you have done all of your homework. Investigate everything, making notes as you do so. I have already discussed some of the investigating that needs to be done, but there is always more to it than you might believe. I would visit as many of the stores as I could that were in the particular chain. If available at the time I would talk to cashiers, stock clerks and management. I would ask them about the service that they were or were not receiving from the competitor. I would walk the whole store looking for other competitive products and then finally I would look at the products that I was going to replace.

     Knowing everything that you could before the appointment is important in two ways. One it saves time as you may only have one chance to present yourself, the next appointment you want is to go for the close and the customer will know that you are serious about earning their business. Second is the customer will appreciate you not wasting their time because you don’t know what you’re talking about when it comes to their needs.

     Need’s and wants are what both you and the customer are trying to achieve. You must understand both of these to get to your goals. The customer may or may not need your product, but they may want to have better service. They are trying to provide for their customers need’s and wants too. You need to increase your business and the results are the wants of achieving your companies goal. Want’s and needs are what equals the bottom line for your customer in putting more dollars in the register. Want’s and needs is what makes your company profit. Wants and needs is what it takes for you to make a living in the sales world.

     When you do your homework and investigate and you are prepared in every way how could you ever expect to the customer say no. Zig Ziglar taught me that the word no does not nessesarally  mean n o, it may mean k n o w. The customer just doesn’t know enough about what you are trying to sell. I just could not believe that any customer could ever say no, so I would try to explain all over again just what the customer didn’t know.

    Sometimes you have to shoot from the hip in trying to sell a customer. I had plenty of chances in the shooting from the hip technique. My company would want me to participate in consumer shows. We would set up booths at a convention or hall and customer would come by the different booths and see the items on display and you would have the chance to sell to them. In our booths we would set up a full display with our cleaning supplies and equipment. I must admit it can be very tiring to stand in one place for the whole day and generally there would be two of us so we were able to take a break, however, if there were a lot of potential customers coming your way I just could not leave. Sometimes it would be so busy that both of us would be busy demonstrating to customers at the same time.

     Quite a bit of the time most people would just walk by. I couldn’t believe that they could just walk by my display at the booth. So I would get aggressive and go into the isle and get their attention. At that very time I would introduce myself and my company and investigate, all within a couple of minutes. The results more often than not the customer would come back to my booth. Most of the time you wouldn’t get a yes but, most of the time I would get an appointment. Not all of the people attending the show were the owners or buyers and that was okay because I would do some homework and investigate finding out the name of the account, how many stores, where the main office was located, phone numbers and the main buyers name. Every show was a success to me as I always received leads and sales. Achieving my ‘Wants and Needs’.

Part 84: Climbing To The Top

Hello again everyone, spring is almost in the air, spring flowers are starting to come up. In this next part we are still talking about cold calling and closing the deal. Please enjoy.

 It took me a while to learn the products and what their use was for. Learning the use of the equipment was easy, the company had great instructions on each machine. The machine was designed for use just as the largest companies that you would hire to come to your home or business. The machine forced water down deep into the carpet and at the same time vacuumed the dirty water back out getting about ninety eight percent of the water back into the machine. This made the carpet dry in a lot less time.

     When making a new account call I took a machine and a few bottles of the cleaning solution   

with me. This all was for show and tell. After all, as I said earlier in my sales life that we all were really taught how to sell when we brought a toy or an item of interest to school and had our turn at show and tell. We shared the great things that we believed made the item great. The same process is used in the sales world. Think about it, you go to a car lot to look at a new car. The salesperson shows and tells you all about the new car. Show and tell. You go to an open house when searching for a new home. The realtor shows and tells you all about the amenities of the home. Show and tell.

     When you are prepared with the items that you want to share with the customer and you are prepared to write the deal, even though you may not close the deal, you will have at least had the chance to do a soft close. Soft closing is when you are confident that the customer is ready to make a change or a purchase. How you get to a soft close is through the investigating process. You may have found out about the customer being ready to make a change, or you may know that the contract or deal that they are in with a competitor is about to end or has ended. The customer may even not have a product like yours.

     I believed in my products all through my sales career. The only way to close or even have a soft close is to believe in the product that you are selling. The slightest disbelief in any of the products that you are showing and telling will almost certainly end in a no sale.

     So getting the appointment may not have been an easy task. You must get the appointment to be able to do a show and tell. That appointment is very important for you to achieve the sale. How you get that appointment has taken you time and effort and there are several ways to get the appointment. There are many books and CD’s that are filled with ways to get the appointment and they are good resources for you to learn. There are list that you can buy to get phone numbers for particular types of business that you may be interested in for your needs. I had several ways that I used.

     One way and I that worked really well for me was to ask the customer that I had just closed or even if I didn’t close for references. You can do this if indeed you did your best to close, if you did everything right then ask for references. I found that they customer would almost always give some references. Once I had the customer give me a list of customers that covered most of the state of Tennessee and Alabama. Once I had that list I moved quickly to contact and make appointments with as many of the people on that list that I could. I didn’t stop there either I would ask every single customer for more references. I would attack these list and keep myself very busy.

     Another way to find the new customers that you wanted to contact was to go on line and go to the yellow pages. Pick a city and state search for the type of business that you were interested in. You can from there expand your search to the whole state. Write down the addresses and phone numbers of the potential customers. You may not get the right person when you call, so then you investigate. Ask who the right person is that you need to talk to. I found that sometimes when I did this, that that store was part of a chain of stores and I would ask for the home office number and, this is very important, ask for the buyers name. Almost always at the store level you could get the name. If you failed to get the name and you called the home office you would have another step to go through, the gate keeper.

     The gate keeper is usually the office manager, administrator or secretary. they are in place to screen the callers. If you have the name of the person you are that much closer to the appointment. Having the right name still does not always get you to them, you will still be screened. Be polite always, be pleasant, after all the person that is answering the phone as more responsibility than just answering the phone. 

Climbing To The Top!

Well I hope all are doing fine this week? This week I get into cold calling and what I believe it takes to grow the business. Please enjoy this next part.

We had several major chains in our company. In my territory we had a few independents and one major chain. I called on two offices of this major chain of stores. Indianapolis and Louisville. Their stores were the main reason for our employees doing business in the states I covered. The company covered six divisions in the eastern and the mid southern region of the country. My goal was to maintain the accounts that we had and to seek out more business to increase the number of accounts on each route.

    Managing people was nothing new for me and making new account calls was also nothing new for me. I loved making cold calls on new potential customers. The company really made it very easy for me to achieve new business. Introducing new products to the customer was something I loved to do as well. The company really along with my belief in their products and services made my job easy. The hardest problem I had was the type of people we had for the most part were not sales people. I tried to encourage and instruct them on how to sell. They were for the most part just service oriented route delivery people. I could handle that I had maintainers work for me on other routes at the other companies I worked for. So I knew what to do. Go get the new business myself.

     I believe that most people in the sales world that do not succeed is not necessarily because they did not have the ability to sell when it came to gaining new business, it was mostly because they had on blinders giving them tunnel vision. In other words, just focusing on the job of the day and trying to finish the day out and go home. I on the other hand would see a sign for a town that was a few miles off the beaten path and I would take the road to see what was there.

     If was gained a new account I would ask all of them the same question. Who else do you know that you might think could be interested in our services?  I always picked up a store ad and looked to see if they had other stores that they were maybe in the same ad group with or if they had other stores in their chain. In almost every case if you did a good presentation and sign up that customer, they would give you a referral. 

     If I did not have time to call on a potential new account I would write the store name and location on a tablet that I kept in the car with me. When there was time I would schedule an area of that territory where I could call on as many of these potential new accounts. This was cold calling at it’s best.

     Cold calling takes more than calling just on that store. You must investigate. Investigate the community around the store, see if they have competition. Make a note see if I have competition in and around the town. Check their pricing, look to see what kind of service level they have from the competitor, do they have broken machines or dirty chemicals. Then before you make your new account call, check the account the same way.  This is the way to gain new business. It takes time to do it right, that’s why a lot of sales people don’t succeed. They must take the blinders off.

A Life Remembered

     Many years ago when I was very young, around two years old. I vaguely remember seeing my mother standing by the ironing board, an old sprinkler top on a beer bottle, dampening the clothes before ironing. In the background was a record playing probably Elvis or Pat Boone. My mother had shoulder length hair and she was almost always wearing a dress. I remember that she looked very happy as she was sort of moving to the music. I remember this time because this was when she told me that I had a new baby brother or sister coming soon.
      A short time after that I had a new baby sister. I remember seeing her in the crib and watched in amazement. As time went on my sister became my playmate we rode tricycles and played with a wagon we had. I remember one time we had to play outside because mom was cleaning the floors in our small apartment. We were playing outside the fenced front yard which we did a lot. For some reason we wanted to go inside. We went through the gate not seeing the two wasp and before we knew it they were buzzing us. We started running for the front door only to find the screen door locked we screamed for mom but it was too late we both got stung.
     So goes life, you go along and everything is great then you get stung. My sister was my best friend for many years and has always been a great support system for me. She always believed in me and always thought I was the greatest at what I did. Even when I was up or down.
     My sister introduced me to my best friend and wife of thirty five years. My sister is still a great supporter of me. I love her with my heart, thanks for being there for me.
Happy Birthday Cathy

Part 81:Climbing To The Top!

Happy Valentines to all! Moving right along another change has come into my life, a new sales position with a new company. We are winding down the book now. Please enjoy this next part.

 I applied to all sales positions I could find. I used the internet applying all over the country, to never have any takers. The positions I tried for were from sales to sales management. Now I found out what problem I had and it was a piece of paper called a degree. I had always been a mustang, that was the way I learned and gained knowledge and the love for the companies I sold for. I invested all I could for all companies I sold for from the time I was eight years old and selling flower seeds and greeting cards.

     One day I was looking through the newspaper help wanted section and found and ad that was looking for someone with grocery background and in sales. That seemed like it was right for me. I made contact and an interview was set. 

     I met with two people one was the vice president of the company the other was the sales manager. The interview went good, I swear I felt like I knew both of them. They were going to be back in contact with me after they interviewed other applicants. One week went by and a second interview was set up. I was offered the position. I accepted and was excited, finally back selling and managing. I was to replace the sales manager as he was moving on to another company.

    The company was was a family owned business out of Canada. They had been doing business in the United States for around ten years or so. Mostly north eastern united states and was reaching to the south eastern region too. They had several major accounts and the needed to continue to grow by picking up all of the independent grocery stores. They were a major competitor in the carpet rental cleaning systems. They had a great cleaning system and it was an easy sell.

   Again I believed in the product and gave it all I could. When you believe in the product you are selling you become passionate it becomes your life, and the selling of the product become easier. 

     At first I just maintained the accounts that I had. My territory covered three states and part of another and I had responsibility for nine employees in my area. I was on the road a lot overnights were a given when I took this position. I was given a company van and all of my travel expenses were covered. I had first rate tools to work with and the reps that worked the territories in their area were all good people. Most of them however, were not sales people. I had a mix of men and women. They all were responsible for maintaining their route and they all had storage facilities where extra equipment and supplies were kept.

     Their territories were large as an example on person covered the whole state of Illinois. That person would have to spend time away from home on overnight stays. This job was not for everyone. They would go to the account and fill the supplies and clean and do minor repairs on the equipment. You could just imagine on how dirty the carpet cleaners would get

Part 80: Climbing To The Top!

Hello again! Big change in the weather for this weekend, in the mid 40's I know that won't last as change is inevitable. At this point in my story there is a big change in my life. Change is inevitable! Please enjoy this next part.

The next few weeks were tough, I decided to start my own business, a food brokerage business. I had contacts in the food industry and I had been in the food and beverage industry all of my life. From the first time I had a job in the grocery store when I was fourteen I always wanted to own my own business. I made some contacts and one of the people that I had known for years put me in touch with another man that had been in this kind of business and was doing well. We hit it off and I had a little income to live on. This wasn’t easy for Darlene as she was in charge of the bills. She had always been great with numbers and I was not the best at handling and paying the bills. I was best at selling and that was what I was going to do. It was very hard to get this business going we had a couple of customers and we decided to team up with a few other fellows over in Indiana.

     

     Cut throat is what this all came to and before I knew it I dropped my partner as was suggested by the Indiana boys. They wanted me for themselves and I wasn’t going to let that happen either. Now I was lost. What had I done? I left a company that I had been with for twelve years just because of some pressure? I had to think, then it started looking better I got hooked up with a company that supplied eggs and noodles and another company that produced a chili for hot dogs and a couple other related items. So now on my own totally I was in business. I met with old boss from the meat company that I had been with and he was heading up another company in the meat business. They were interested in me selling their products in Kentucky. This was going to be a home run for me! I just need to come up with the logistics of getting the products distributed. This was going to be new for me so my contact wanted me to get in touch with a fellow in Indiana. Small world, the person was the ring leader of the cut throats. I wasn’t going to have any part of it.

     In the next days to come I tried to convince my old boss that I could handle it. Then on this day in September of 2001 a tragic thing happened to our country, we were attacked and the Twin Towers fell. After that day my business fell too. Every one was pulling back on the purse strings, I failed.

     The employment center was located in downtown Louisville and the lines were long. Everyday I continued to look for work. I was on the internet looking at all of the job sites. Nothing, I began to believe that looking for jobs on the internet was a joke. I lot of the jobs that I was qualified for wanted the applicant to have some kind of degree. I had no degree, I was what was known as a mustang. Mustangs were people that always start at the bottom of a company and through using there God given skills rose to as far as the could rise. This had always been me, the Marines, the soft drink company and the meat company. This was the definition of my life.

Part 79: Climbing To The Top!

Brrrrrr!!!!!!!! The cold freeze has set in. The chill is on. Only 8 degrees outside. That's cold! Well we are nearing the end of my book only a couple of chapters to go, so please enjoy the next few weeks of Climbing To The Top! In the near future the format will change and I will be posting short stores for your pleasure. I've already started a novel and will tease you as I go along with the new book, 'Rising and Falling'.

In the days to come I had people from other branches and other supervisors come to help me run routes and to hire new route sales people. Before long we back to being a hundred percent with the people in place. Now at this point I must add that we hired enough people to be trained, however, you must hire the right kind of people not just bodies. That is what we did and that created another problem. Though these certain people wanted to do the job for a paycheck they were not ready to be sales people. For the most part at least with a couple of them they just wanted to have a paycheck.

     I thought that everyone could be taught how to sell, how to present themselves and the product. I showed them and taught them all I could and even though I thought I was that good still a couple could not grasp or did not want to grasp the idea of selling. The job was commission and I was forced to ask the region for a base pay structure that was an amount that could hold people in place until they either learned or were replaced. The latter was to be my only option after trying to teach, train, and develop these individuals. I did get the right sales people in place but the branch suffered in sales numbers and some of my customers suffered too.

     The next weeks to come I worked on fixing things. Service was the main concern and I concentrated on this as the number one priority. Service is always first. Issue was fixed, fixed the old fashion way, riding the routes and not spending as much time in the office and spending it in the territory. Now the numbers were starting to grow, but to our demise our business was shrinking and our plan was growing. Some of our small customers were closing and the larger stores were growing. We didn’t service the larger stores they were taken care of through there own warehouses that our company sold to separate from us. Our own company was our main competition. If they set up a hot deal on a product the chances of us being cut the product for our deliveries were going to be strong. So along with our smaller groceries being closed due to their customers going to the larger super markets and super centers and our company still expecting a growth the pressure was a lot to take.

     I was working more hours and was trying to find business in a shrinking market. I had grown our customer count to larger levels than when I first came to Kentucky. The problem was it was almost all c-store business. We were the main supplier for the trade in these type of stores. I figured that the sheer numbers of stores would be enough to make our quota numbers. I was wrong. Most of these stores were credit traps. That means that because we guarantee our products would sell before the expiration date we would pick up the product and replace it with more product.

     We kept trying to sell to wherever we could, produce markets, schools, c-stores and every small mom and pop store in Kentucky. We expanded our territory as much as we could. However I pleaded for relief with our planned number it was to no avail. For four years I tried to make the Louisville branch successful, but the pressure was too much. I quit.

Part 78: Climbing To The Top!

Well hello again! I know that it has been a couple weeks since my last blog. I had to get through the holidays and my hours were long. Anyhow I hope all is fine with you all. Please enjoy this next part.

When I returned to Galesburg I had a great feeling of success and I was about to have that feeling compounded when I was offered a new branch. This branch was to be one that I started from scratch. The company wanted me to go to Memphis and start a new branch. They sent Darlene and I there to check out the area. This was going to be easy as I had a sister that lived there. Angela was thrilled that there might be a chance to have family close by. When we arrived I had a meeting at the hotel with the powers that be. We discussed my new pay raise and a special incentive program that no other branch manager would have. I excepted after talking to Darlene and we spent a couple days getting wined and dined as well as checking out the town.

     Things were going to move along rather quickly. Darlene, Melissa and I headed back down to Memphis to find a place to live. we had to find storage and an apartment. We signed the leases. I met with some more supervisors and we canvased the area for a building to place the branch. We found a place suitable for our needs. In the next couple days we had construction underway for the new branch. Then back to Galesburg to get ready for the move.

     Things were not going to be ready for a while in Memphis and the company had promoted a young supervisor to take my place after the move. I showed him all around the territory and I braced him for the snow and cold, he was from Texas. This cowboy was going to have a rude awakening when winter came. 

     After about a couple of months we thought we were getting close to moving when one day I got a call from the vice president of the company telling me that a deal had fell through in Memphis with a big grocery supplier. We had it all set up that we would be able to sell to there customers our line of packaged meats and deli products. The supplier changed their minds and without their help we would not have enough business in that territory to support a payroll let alone the cost of the construction and running the branch. Just like that my dreams of starting a business and a new life fell through.

     The company now had two branch managers running one facility, however after a few weeks I was offered another branch in Louisville, Kentucky. I excepted and the  move was on. Louisville about a seven hour move to the southeast. Warmer climate but not quite as warm as Memphis. My sister Angela was let down by the companies change of plans. I felt let down too, to make things worse I knew the manager that I was replacing. The company was not happy with the way things were being run In Louisville and that’s why they wanted me. I needed to fix things again. 

     The manager was still there and would be for two weeks. I had known him for several years,  he was a good person. His problem was that he was a good old boy with an attitude to go along with his down home charm. This charm he shared with his customers made him a well liked fellow. His employees loved him too and that was to become a problem for me.

     In the next few weeks after he left half of my route salesmen quit. My administrator though seemingly nice didn’t really care for me. To make things worse my route supervisor thought that he should have been promoted  to my position and there was friction between us too.