I've always been weary of salesman. When I was offered my sales job 9 years ago I wasn't too excited about it. I suppose that salesman stereotypes had perpetuated into the circles that taught me. Nevertheless, there were enough reasons for me to swallow my pride and try it.
Without a thorough synopsis, I will mention a few things I have noticed about the sales folk I've known.
There are those who enter sales as a necessity. They perhaps cant find another job they would enjoy or don't have many marketable skills or they are simply entering a family business and that is the only place to help.
For those getting into the peddling vocation voluntarily they will now choose what type of sales. person to person (P2P) over the phone, door to door, or in a store. Or....(and most of us are guilty of this one) the mlm party. The other main type of sales is business to business (B2B) which is the way I went albeit I do it a little unconventionally. I've chosen to represent 9 different manufacturers now and sell to distribution and retail centres. I also import and distribute a few of my own products. Representing multiple companies gives me excuse to turn down different jobs I have been offered such as product manager and Canadian sales manager. I admit that managing people might have been more appealing than managing a territory but I have good reason to turn these jobs down.
1. They are jobs in the office where I run on a predetermined schedule with set hours.
2. I would be reporting to people.
3. 1 and 2 along with a certain managment style have lead to the quitting of or hospitalization of almost the entire staff of the division.
4. Oh. Another thing. There are alot of undesirable politics when you are inside. Dont get me wrong. I like politics but not what I would consider negative politics such as the fact that no matter what kind of deal you get you cant drive a car with an MSRP less than $5000.00 under the car your manager drives and crap like that. This weekend I have a show in Montreal and they are all staying at the Hilton for $180.00 / night. I found some deals at a downtown montreal hotel that is normally $300.00 / night and I got if for $99.00 with breakfast. This means I will be staying at (and the family is coming for 2 nights with me) a hotel that was rated one of the top 25 places to stay in North America! That ought to rot the company guys socks! I'll be sure to let them know too. Here is a photo:
So far I'm alright where I am AND I enjoy my job.
Being involved with so many different companies, I get to mingle with many different salesman.
SKIP TO HERE
This brings me to the reason I am blogging. If you have read my lengthy seguay you are kind.
The other day I was at a soiree in a downtown Montreal Hotel showing a new line of garage doors when I realized something. Every time a woman would walk through the room EVERY guy would stop what they were doing or saying and stare her bum or her breasts right out of the room. You know when you see that on the old movies where the sailors will whistle as she walks by, that is actually classy compared to this. Then once she had gone the guys would start talking out loud very rude and dirty comments. I had married men making comments that would make a prison guard soap his ears out.
All conversations are about drinking or sex. After work they all go to the strip clubs without variance. This is something I've known for a while but I only now am able to step outside and realize what a pandemic has hit our sales people. It is almost comical to see all of the mens heads turn. Um geeee...... do you think guys get turned on from visual images? I think there is no question. If women understood that well they would try less to be noticed. Having said that, salesman just have no control.
Okay ladies, I'll meet you half way. Undisceplined men are pigs!
In light of the salesman stereotype. The pushyness, the aggressive, the orator and the dishonest and the disrespectful, I am reidentifying (is that even a word?) my profession.
MANUFACTURERS DISTRIBUTION LIASON (thats not bad)
Biography: "Pushing Tin"
3 comments:
KFC is dirty too. Dirty bird.
Nice work with the hotel gig. Just try and steer clear of the lobbies. You never know what kind of seedy people might be there -- salesmen, ranchers, etc.
that explains ALOT about some of the salesmen I work with......
When I started my job as an account coordinator, I should have had the title "Glorified Secretary" instead.
And WHERE the heck do you find these deals!
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