In my working life I mostly did jobs that no one else wanted. This is not exactly true but it is partially true. It really is. While I knew I was as good as the next man I also knew I was never going to be given power. People did not like me telling them what to do. In our society's strict hierarchy people felt insulted if they felt they were being told what to do by someone they considered inferior.
I always compared myself with the night cart man of old. Everyone had an interest in what I was doing and everyone thought they could do it better but no one else actually wanted to do my job. In the end I was a full time salesman. Previously to becoming a salesman I suspected that all salesman had it pretty easy. Salesmen do have a fairly easy time except for when the economy is retracting and a company employs a large number of salesmen. The infrastructure of a company cannot be cut back that much but salesman can be easily dispensed with because they will not be making the sales that justify their salaries. Salesman get paid more than people who work in infrastructure but they rarely get to work for long periods of time in the one job. It always seemed to me that a salesman's job was especially enjoyable when they came from a skilled trade background and they were selling complicated machinery or hi tech products in an industry that was not much affected by general economic circumstances. I became a salesman not exactly by accident but it was not planned either. The company I worked for had a small sales team and I thought they were not covering all bases. Specifically there was an industry that they were more or less ignoring. I suggested that more thought should be put into targeting this particular industry but my advice was rejected. So in my down time I started contacting the industry directly myself. Surprisingly I had some success and soon I had a small but profitable number of good customers. I refused to hand these customers over to normal salesman and insisted on servicing them myself. At approximately the same time the need arose for me to take an interest in production. The company was experiencing a severe downturn in sales and a number of people had been retrenched. And some had seen what was coming and had left for greener pastures before they were pushed. The whole industry was subject to changes in technology and we had been suffering a slow but steady downturn for the past 10 years. Technology had simply removed some previously skilled jobs and they had disappeared. There was some unhappiness on the factory floor and someone like me was needed to talk to people when organising the production schedule in order for production to improve. I was always interested in other peoples jobs and luckily my interest in keeping an eye on production was not resented. In keeping an eye on production I learned that I could put some of my new knowledge to effect in providing my new customers with what they wanted. I enjoyed being a salesman. It was an enjoyable change from my normal job and I was able to establish enjoyable relationships with some customers. In my normal job it was hard to establish relationships with other people. For several years I did both jobs. I was originally brought into the company to do several specific things. 1. To regularise the cash flow. 2. To stop the bad debts. 3. To ensure the invoicing was done correctly. 4. To collect the debts. Without any legal costs. 5. To ensure that no contracts were entered into without the proper knowledge of what the contract involved. 6. To ensure that all sales were covered by a written order, 7. To reduce Banking and Accounting Costs. 8. To ensure that all financial commitments were adhered to. 9. To keep an eye on all aspects of administrative procedures and delivery records. The above conditions gave me a certain power. I deliberately set out to be a salesman when I had the chance. However I never considered myself to be a real salesman. I was however a reasonable salesman. I was diligent and I had energy and persistence. I always tried to help my customers rather than sell to them. I always tried to establish personal relationships. I always followed up but I could never exert pressure like real salesmen. I was happy to cold call. I was happy to pound the pavement. I was happy to spend time on the telephone. I wanted my customers to take advantage of the service I was offering. And I always gave the best service I could. I had two distinct advantages over the other salesmen. I was able to do my own quotes and I was able to plan production. So I was able negotiate with customers and to promise delivery. I always knew the bottom line and never had to do a job at below cost. As I always knew the correct cost of a job I was always able to make a margin even if it was sometimes small. I never took advantage even though I knew a real salesmen would. My biggest weakness was that I did not have an attractive personality. I was introverted. I had a closed face. I did not have the ability to put people at ease. I had no joking manner. People could look at me and say no to my face without any feeling of regret. They knew I was the type of person who could be disappointed without them having to worry about it. All good salesmen have the ability to make customers feel bad when they refuse an order. I did not have this skill. I suppose I should have tried to make customers feel guilty. But I just wanted to help them. And to help myself at the same time. Don't get me wrong - I wanted to be successful. I certainly tried to be successful. But I always disapproved of Real Salesmen and always felt they had questionable morals. I could never admire them. I guess I was a bit of a snob but I could never approve of their methods or their over sized ego's. They probably realised this and I always felt the real salesmen held me in contempt. And at times they were not above telling me this. In the whole of my working life I always gave more to my job than it gave to me. I never took advantage of my employer. I always performed above and beyond the call of duty. In the whole of my working life I was never paid overtime. I always worked without pay when the work was required. At times if required I worked on weekends. I never took days off when I was not sick. I was always reliable. I did my work without complaint. In other words I was a good employee. Even if I say so myself. But there were times when I was not appreciated. During my working life I was sacked twice for no other reason than I was not liked. There are simple explanations for this. I always kept to myself. I wasn't above giving my opinion. I always kept my distance from everyone. I was never part of the pack or crowd. I never kowtowed to management. This behavior often results in resentments. In my experience most retrenchments and sackings were always decided on how well a person was liked or disliked. And depressingly decisions were always made using petty childish reasons of course disguised by management terms. Done by stupid people who had power. Unfortunately this is the way of the world. I always took solace in the knowledge that the place would be worse off after I left. I ended up a full time salesman. The company I worked for where I had a certain amount of power were taken over by a larger Australian Company who were in the process of expanding into Asia. They needed a small manufacturing plant in Melbourne to do speedy work that couldn't be done in time in Asia. So they purchased part of the company I worked for and took me with them. They seemed to like me and asked me continue with them but to only do sales. I worked as a full time salesman for two years but it was obvious I was not totally suited. It was like I was asked to get on a bus that was going in a different direction than I wanted to. And once on the bus I had to behave like all the others on the bus. Specifically like they wanted me to. I liked the man who owned the company and he deserves a story all on his own. He was inspirational in his own way. He was going against the grain in that he was expanding into Asia and his choice was to live in Vietnam. But he had a few middle management employees that I had to totally answer to and they were people who believed in modern management practices. They mostly spoke in slogans. This wasn't something I felt comfortable in adhering to. So I left. This wasn't a hardship as I wanted to retire properly. But I knew I would never get another job. So there was a bit of a feeling of loss. I had in fact retired twice previously and on both occasions I was happy to come back to work. I found I needed to work to relax. But this time I had no choice and I retired with some deliberation.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Topics
All
Archives
February 2024
|