Day 51: The First Thing to Go is Your Ego

Oh shit. He broke character.

Sales.

A friend called asking if he would do well with real estate sales.

I had to give that question a good deal of thought because it forced me to look at what I do for a living and evaluate not only his chances of hacking it in this industry but my own situation in it.





 The first thing to go is your ego.

Remember the first time a person with whom you were deeply infatuated turned you down?

Remember the second time something like that happened?

Do you remember how it felt?

I get that every day.

"I don't think we're ready to make an investment in one of your condos."

"While tempting, I really don't have the money to buy a condo right now."

"I'm sorry, but I don't think this is right for me at this point in my life."

Then there's manning the booth.

Once you step into the booth at the mall, you instantly become among the most invisible people in the building.

Honestly, nobody notices as you try to smile and give passers by your flyer in the hope that they will find interest in what it is you're trying to sell. Here is the link to a previous entry highlighting this experience.

Then they say you hold your own time.

That's a lie.

Well, sort of.

If you're one of the in-house salesfolk and the boss says you have to be at the showroom from 8am to 5pm, you have to be there.

Then as you're leaving, if the boss says you have to be at a booth to hand out flyers from 10pm to 2am the next morning, you have to be there even if you pulled a full 8 hour shift.

Then you have to be at the showroom at 8am again.

If a client calls at 5:30 in the morning, you have to wake up and sound like you didn't just wake up.

If a client tells you that you have to email a sample computation in the next ten minutes, it doesn't matter that you're on vacation, you have to find an internet connection.

If a client calls you on Labour Day, it doesn't matter that the government says you're on holiday.

You have to work.

I take pride in the fact that nobody sees me visibly stressed out about anything. In fact, the guy that gave me a call said that he's only seen me stressed out once. After a 10 or so page philosophy term paper.

But now, the stress shows.

My eyebags are bigger and I snap much easier.

Writing as #0019 helps me cope.

That being said, it can be financially rewarding.

Very financially rewarding.

But is it worth it?

Also, the awesome people I've met while out in the booth or making client calls and getting myself out there makes it fun if you're that type of person.

I enjoy it.

But is it worth it?

Remember the first time a person with whom you were deeply infatuated agreed to be exclusive?

That's how it feels to have somebody commit to a sale.

But is it worth it?

The first thing to go is your ego.

But if you think its worth it, who needs an ego anyway?

Day 46: Something Completely Different

Here's how sales works.

Instead of complaining about the tremendous amount of fail in project undisclosed project project, something completely different.

Sales is about establishing, building, and maintaining relationships.




A few days ago, I got a call from a good friend of mine from college. He was in a lower batch. From the same hometown studying in the big city. He ended up running in the same crowd that I did so I made it part of my personal mission to make sure he didn't do anything too stupid while away from home.

I consider my group of friends from college pretty tight and he's an integral part of that group.

Hell, I wrote and recorded an entire album for them as a Christmas present. His song was track 11.

He told me that his parents were interested in an investment in a condo or two. So I asked when they would like to head over to the showroom.

He told me that they wanted me over for breakfast the next day, to which I gladly obliged.

The breakfast went really well.

"My son here convinced me to take you as our broker," the dad said.

Sales is about establishing, building, and maintaining relationships.

I did my presentation, talked them through some of the available financing schemes, and gave them an overview of the available discounts that I can give. They seemed really interested and requested for sample computations.

At the end of it, I got them to validate a little piece of paper saying that I would be the person to handle the sale, should they decide to purchase from us.

After the presentation, I went to the office and started preparing sample computations to send over. When that was done, I printed them out and personally made the delivery to their house, leaving them with their son.

Sales is about establishing, building, and maintaining relationships.

On my way home, I got a call from the other team leader telling me that the account should belong to their team. One of them did, after all, entertain the family as walk in clients the day before. They also signed the little form noting the other team's service, thus acknowledging that they should be the rightful recipients of the sale.

Because of a little piece of paper signed a day before, the other team is telling me to back off from making the sale to the family of a guy I spent a good number of years of my life taking care of.

If this were any other client, I would have let it pass but I've invested too much of myself in my friendship with their son to even consider not giving them the best goddamed service and buying experience that I can offer.

Sales is about establishing, building, and maintaining relationships.

If the company rules that in sales, a little piece of paper trumps years of friendship, here's my resignation.

Day 24

03/30/11 - 24 days without sale

Courtesy of Corbis

0700hrs. Gearing up for the dreaded 13 hour shift. It happened before and its gonna happen again. It's gonna be awful.

Got my payslip today. I was paid for 15 days of work.

03/30/11 - 15 days without sale.



0859hrs. Slow start. I made a Twitter.

http://twitter.com/VeryLongestHour

Follow me.

---

This

    space

        represents

             the

                 time

                     I'm

                         spending

                             at

                                 our

                                     little

                                         booth

                                             in

                                                 the

                                                     mall

---

1941hrs. Managed to wiggle out of the booth early. Gave out flyers non stop. I hope they call and buy condos.

Gonna be serious for a while because I need to let this out.

So yeah, breaking character.

If there's one thing that work in sales is supposed to teach you, its humility.

I was at the mall earlier being as friendly as possible handing out flyers to people that passed by. High energy. Trying to do the whole beacon of light thing in an otherwise sick and dark world.

Then I came to my last flyer. Make it count. I saw this middle aged lady in corporate looking attire. Well made up. Wearing pearl earrings. Looked to be with her youngest daughter. Looked to be in a bit of a hurry so I wouldn't be able to have a little chat with her. But walking at a moderate enough pace such that she would accept the flyer.

I smiled and handed her a flyer.

"And if you have any more questions, my number is right here."

I pointed to my number on the flyer.

You probably have a vague idea as to what's coming next but I'll recount anyway.

After handing out that last flyer, I went out for a smoke. I saw the lady on the other side of the waiting area. She still had the flyer in her hand. Then, as her ride approached, she took a nervous look around, dropped the flyer on the floor, and stepped into the car pretending that she hadn't just littered.

It was funny because she looked just as guilty as a guy in the elevator that farted trying to look cool.

Heartbreaking, yes.

But you win some, you lose some.

It was the only one of my flyers that wasn't thrown on the ground. That's a good thing. I took a quick peek into the garbage cans, no flyers in there. At least the rest of them made it out of the mall.

It just sucks that I happened to see my last flyer littered. At least have the decency to throw it in the trash. Let the flyer die with honor.

Oh well. Here's to hoping somebody picks it up off the ground and gives me a call.

Not gonna fall back into character anymore.

Ending on a serious note is cool sometimes.

Thanks so much for your time and I hope to hear from you soon.

Day 21

03/27/11 - 21 days without sale

Not my boss

I called the boss today asking a question about the building.

The boss tried to sell me a condo.

Well, that's what the answer sounded like.

This was in response to a question a prospect asked me. Over the phone. Yes, I got a call.

On a Sunday.

A Sunday.

A hazard of the job, I guess.

An email came in from a company I sent a proposal to. Another no.

I have an error in the numbers. One in ten respond with a smile. One in 2000 actually show interest.

Damn the numbers.

Damn the numbers to hell.

I feel myself digging a deeper and deeper hole every day.

(breaking character) 
Shoutout on the anon that left a comment on day 17. I'm actually having fun with my job and I'd like to think doing I'm ok with saturation, working on pipelines, building relationships, etc... Getting in touch with old friends and catching up. That and talking to all sorts of interesting people with a different story to tell is awesome. I actually wouldn't mind doing this for some time. Yeah, I think I've found a little niche in the corporate world that I actually enjoy. Its like every day is a whole new adventure. I was just out of it that one day, and this little blog was born. I'm having fun writing it so might as well continue. That being said, thanks so much for the words of encouragement. I'll keep what you said in mind and if ever I have another bad day, I'll check back to that comment. Yay! First comment!

(back in character)
Damn this life.