EvilMonkey

I voted for marky Mark. Apparently so did alot of us. I like his approach to the game. He is laid back, but doesn't appear as laid back as Garland was. Yet he is also intense, just not as fist-pumping as the idiot pitcher on the north side. A perfect blend right in the middle. And he is just a good ball player.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Feb 13, 2008 -> 01:50 PM) I don't like the conclusion this leads to, but my thinking has changed in this particular case. The car dealer committed fraud to get this woman a loan. Phrased another way, the result of their crime was a lender lent money to someone who should not have received the loan ~and~ a woman was given a loan she could not afford. If the car dealer does not commit fraud, she does not get the loan and lose her life savings. Is this much different then an unethical contractor who takes someone's life savings in costly and unnecessary repairs? Again, in case you forgot, I don't like the conclusion this leads to. And perhaps if she was just greedy and not stupid, she got what she deserves. But we do have laws to protect stupid people, and we know she should have known, but it seems the dealer had a greater responsibility. I would agree with you completely except that she signed the forms with the wrong info on it. Yes, the dealer changed it again, but she still signed it knowlingly with the wrong amount for income.

QUOTE(knightni @ Feb 12, 2008 -> 03:01 PM) You rock!

QUOTE(Texsox @ Feb 12, 2008 -> 03:28 PM) I thought you were an independent shop, so you are restricted. Is this their sales plan or do they leave you on your own? I'm not certain of the pay scale you have for commission, but even without commission, he has to turn a profit of over $100 per day, just to cover his base. So I'm thinking his target has to be close to $500 per day in paid invoices. You know this forum is probably not the best place to discuss this, shoot me a pm if you ever want to bounce some ideas off someone. Yeah, I saw the z's too!

QUOTE(Texsox @ Feb 12, 2008 -> 02:41 PM) In twenty five years of business to business sales I've never had someone even mention calling the police and frankly have never heard of it in business to business selling. The guys with perfume and the non business stuff, yes, but never business to business. But, hey there is a first time for everyone. I understand the many small order concept, electronic components was like that. For every very nice memory order was twenty for resistors, capacitors, etc. And the chemical business was very similar. I know without appointments in Illinois and Texas I rarely had a day with less than 10 contacts, usually many more. But I was selling stuff I knew they needed and had something I knew could help them, so why wouldn't they want to see me? You know your industry and even with 25 years sales and marketing experience, I'm still learning. Have you considered, for bang for the buck, hiring independent rep firms who you pay on a commission basis? Especially for out of the territory stuff. Or, another thought, since the sales seem to be face to face, hire a high school kid or college kid to work the phones for a couple dollars a day for minimum wage and perhaps an appointment bonus and keep your outside sales guy face to face? Well, I do have a few freelance designers that use me from time to time for printing. Most of the time they sell high volume full color stuff that is not my niche, but when they get something that is, I get the job. As for just independent reps, for printing we get some 'print brokers', who are a pain in the ass. They pinch pennies so tight Abe cries in pain. The print broker is a printshops worst nightmare, because you can always find it somewhere else for less. As for contracting with one specifically, I am somewhat limited in my franchise agreement. Each franchisee has a territory that is supposed to be protected from other franchisees actively seeking business in. We all have customers in each others territories, but I can't go do a mass mailing in the next territory over or start cold calling the new office park if it is in someone else's territory. If someone calls us and wants to see us, I don't care if they are right across the street from another store, i am going, and that is OK. Unfortunately I am 'surrounded', so the only open territory would be around my house, which I sometimes prospect. The appointment setter idea we have used before with varying degrees of success. We have used a few 'services' before that were pretty expensive. At first, we did get good appointments from them, but after a few weeks, people started saying that they didn't agree to a meeting, they thought we were just there to 'drop off some information'. 3 different firms, same result, although one took about 2 months to get to that point. We have hired some seniors to call in the past that worked ok, but they actually had some knowledge of what we did beforehand, which helps. They have since moved on (to Phoenix, I think, not dead). I had planned on trying to find another one once he got going a bit, to make calls for both of us, but wanted him to get used to doing it himself first. And your total experience in sales dwarfs mine. I may have been in the business for 17 years, but I have only been selling (and the owner) for about 7 of those. I too am still learning. oh, FYI, 3:20 and he is still not here. DOH! As for the perfume guys, I hate those! Although I do talk to them for a minute, in case one of them looks like they might have potential in a more legitimate setting.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Feb 12, 2008 -> 01:23 PM) 74 phone calls resulted in 3 appointments. And hopefully those three will see you. Three more agreed to another phone call. So if I'm understanding the system correctly. They are out pounding the pavement giving away samples and making contacts, but not trying to see the decision maker. Then the salesrep is taking those contacts and making 74 phone calls to set 3 appointments. You are also making a lot of mailings to these people in the hopes that they will open the letter and actually read the information. And in the end, there may be a $300 sale which the sales rep may make what $40 - $50? How many sales dollars per day would the sales rep need to make to earn a mid thirties income? And the goal isn't to talk to people over the phone, it's to get a sale. How many of those people could you sell over the phone? If you are talking to the decision maker, are you asking for an order? Well, if you CAN see the decision maker when you first get there, great! But I can tell you that 99.9% of the time, you will not. Sure, you can, and should, try, but at that first meeting, don't push it. Plus, if you try to see the decision maker without an appointment, and there is a no solicitation sign, some of the gatekeepers are downright b****y and actually call the police. I was removed from one office once, a long time ago when the gatekeeper started swearing at me and calling the police when I only asked if I could have the name of the decision maker so I could call back. She was being very loud to me, which prompted the decision maker to actually come out of his office and start yelling at me as well. So my temper got the better of me and I yelled back asking them if they wanted their sales people treated the way they are treating me (although I also used several profanities). I get sales people in my store to see me all the time. I try to not be rude but won't see them unless they have an appointment. When they persist, then I get rude, but not before. As for what the sales guy is making, you forgot about the $500 a week he got before he even sold a thing. That pays for his time to make calls, mail letters, etc. And I think you missed it, 2 of the 3 already saw me, and I got one order and one job to estimate. The third is later this week. As long as I meet him that will be a 5% success rate on the calls for appointments, not too bad. WHat you live for is the repeatability of the orders. I have a restaurant chain that has 7 locations that order from me regularly. Each invoice is between $50 and $120, but I get 7 of those, every month, without having to 'sell' them anymore. Just provide good product and service, which I do anyway. I do inventory sheets for a metal fabricator every 3 months like clockwork. No more selling of that item, just an automatic reorder. I do work for several homeowners associations. They do the same copying and mailing every month because theyare legally required to do so. I just download the file from email and print, every month. He's gotta start somewhere, maybe he just wanted to start right at the top?

"Empire" by Orson Scott Card. The right-wingers on here (like me) would love it!

QUOTE(sox4lifeinPA @ Feb 12, 2008 -> 12:08 PM) Wait, do you work for Dunder-Miflin? Nope, I own a printshop. However, with the characters I have here, I COULD have a show. I have a press operator with a blue streak that would make a sailor blush, is not happy unless he is complaining about SOMETHING and is funny to listen to when he tries to talk about sports, because he knows nothing about sports. I have a designer who is very religious, likes to stay at nude resorts with her hubby, does freelance work for Rainbow PUSH and has bad computer mojo when it comes to hardware prblems. Then there is Juddling. Not sure what I can say about him. (just kidding, bro) And then there is me. The business owner who hates people, but loves the White Sox.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Feb 12, 2008 -> 11:32 AM) So you are cold calling in the first step? You are calling them prospecting visits. How many telephone calls are you making to reach those 50 people, and is that just to make an appointment? Bottom line how many face to face visits with decision makers per day were you expecting from your sales rep? I do the totals more by the week than the day. He needs to start with a list of names. Those can be generated by prospecting visits or purchasing mail lists. We have a list of 500 names he was given, plus a list of about 70 inactive customers and several 'hot leads' we got over the previous week. And since his first week was the week before Christmas, he spent the whole week just collecting names and putting them into the computer. Then you need to have some form of contact, either thru the mail or skip to the next step with the phone to get an appointment. Once you get the appointment, you keep it, and try to get a sale. If you don't get a sale, make sure there is a reason for you to come back, and then follow thru with whatever you promised to do. As for the actual numbers, he is supposed to get a list of 50 companies to initially target. Start with 10 or so, and mail. A few days later, mail the next 10, and call the first 10. A few more days you should have (hopefully) an appointment or two from the first 10, you are calling the second 10, and mailing a third 10. And so on. In between, you hit doors left and right to get more cards/names for your lists. All names are added to our monthly mailing in addition to the personalized ones. In fact, the monthly ones are also personalized, with the customer's name as well as the salesguy's name. First sales require a delivery whenever possible by the sales rep, where the customer gets a contact list of people back in the store to talk to if there are any questions. So in any given week, he should be talking to anywhere from 10 to 30 prospects, not too large of a task. The 50 people was mostly for illustrative purposes, showing that you can talk to more people on the phone in less time than you can physically visit them. However on one of our snowy days last week, I made 74 calls, managed to talk to 33 people, and got 3 appointments for this week and 3 appointments to call back at a specific time. Snowy and rainy days are the best for the phones. And I hate talking on the phone. FYI, one of the appointments resulted in a $200 order, one will have me coming back with an estimate later this week and the third is tomorrow. And I am not good at this (sales).

That's good news.....for the rest of the AL central.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Feb 12, 2008 -> 10:56 AM) The appointment assumption can go either way. I've worked for a couple companies that are broad usage and they found that cold calling with samples in hand was more effective (more customer contact) than telephone work. Many times it is much easier to brush off the salesperson on the telephone, more gatekeepers, more voice mails. Both companies are Fortune 500 entities that have been in business for a long time. Yeah, getting past the gatekeeper is hard. And for some products the in-person approach with samples in hand is the best. Trust me, for printing, it is not. That is what the prospecting visits are for. Drop off some notepads or pens, grab a business card, say hi to the gatekeeper then leave. Follow up with an addition to our monthly mailing, or mail a separate introduction letter, saying that you will call at a certain time and ask for an appointment. Then actually call at that time. You can even say that he/she is expecting your call and be correct. But even if you still get nowhere, it is a numbers game. You can reach 50 people on the phone for less effort than it takes to visit 20 in person. And no, you can't just go from door to door in an office building anymore. Security finds you pretty fast, and I can't run like I used to!

Can I get the award scaled down to use as my avitar? That would be cool.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Feb 12, 2008 -> 06:45 AM) At some point you will want to know what it did not work out with and for that salesperson. Many people will just assume he was a jackass and that the job and your company were 100% perfect in the situation. And you may be correct. Still, listening to him and what the problem was may be in your better interest. 10:45, still not here. I would talk to him but I truely believe in this case it wouldn't do much good. Once my other peeps found out I fired him, they expressed their reservations about him and shared some conversations they had. He seemed to think it would be a lot easier than it is, that each order would be thousands of dollars (when in reality the average is less than $300) and that he apparently hated the phone. In the interviews I let him know that phone work is key to getting appointments since people hate it when you show unannounced, and showed him a large selection of 'typical' orders. He is 24, and just needs to grow up and be an adult.

Congrats to all!

An update on my MIA salesguy. I still had not heard from him by 5:45 on Friday, so I called his cell phone, which he supposedly lost on Tuesday and was getting replaced. After 5 or 6 rings I got the voice mail. So, I left a message with a question: "I'm just curious. Would you keep someone employed if you haven't heard from them in a week? Call me, now." Nothing friday. Around 3 pm today, still haven't heard from him, so I called again and left a message asking when he was coming by to pick up his things. FINALLY, at 4:45 I get an email saying "i will be by at 8 to get my stuf." Typed just like that. Should I say something witty in the AM, or just hand him his last commission check and laugh?

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Feb 11, 2008 -> 03:09 PM) I had an experience on ebay where I won the auction, paid right away and 2 days later the seller refunded my money and told me he didn't have it available anymore. There were a lot of the same items on ebay going for $30-40 more than my winning bid. I told him I didn't find it any different than a buyer deciding after the auction that he didn't want to pay for it, so I would leave him negative feedback. He then went into a tirade using some filthy language that he would be leaving me negative feedback and that he knew how to track me down from my email address, I had given him my mailing address, and would personally "take care of me". I forwarded the emails on to ebay, and he is no longer a registered user. I had a similar experience with a baseball acrd I won. It was a 2001 Topps Gold Frank Thomas, numbered to 2001. I have 34 of them now, and am always looking for more, so I found one on Ebay, and won it for $4.00 plus shipping, which was supposed to be $3 flat. Well, the seller first tried to say he didn't have it, then tried to charge me $10 for shipping, then said he didn't have it again, then insisted he wouldn't send it unless I paid the shipping AND insurance. I forwarded all my exchanges to Ebay after he filed a non-payer thingy on me. I never got the card, but he isn't a seller anymore, at least not with the same screen name. And I keep searching, and looking for one that has the same number as the one I already 'won'. I didn't get any verbal threats, but there was sure plenty of swearing and name calling.

That's still pretty funny.

I am always flooded with things to do at work, and I WILL forget something if I don't write it down. I keep a pad or small notebook with me and make checklists as things come up, and cross them off when done. Something might stay on my list for a week, but I won't forget it. Unless I forget to write it down to begin with!

QUOTE(Texsox @ Feb 11, 2008 -> 08:05 AM) It seems to be more than just China trying to take politics out of the Olympics. I have mixed feelings. Are our athletes "Ambassadors" of the US in this celebration of the Olympic spirit? Should we respect the laws and customs of the country that is hosting the event, no matter how much we object to their way of life? I don't know, maybe this is the one venue that should be pure sports, or at least as pure as we can make it. "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well." You guys missed the point. It wasn't China that requested it, it was England that put that in there because of their ultra-PC-ness. And then there was my barb at the end about how I would bet that they wouldn't put a similar clause into effect were the olympics to be in the US. It's ok to criticize the US, but not our Chinese overlords. I agree that politics should be left out of it, but on the individual level, don;t people have any sort of free speech right to be rude if they want to?

QUOTE(NUKE @ Feb 8, 2008 -> 12:55 PM) Doing just fine. These days we're having far more difficulty fighting off boredom than anything else. We're just trying to run out the clock at this point. Some more good news, though, I now know the exact date I'll be leaving Baghdad. That would be April 6th. If you throw in travel time and such, I fully expect to be home in the US and back at my home base in Kansas on the 10th or 11th. That is good news! If you stay staeside for a while, you can win your award back next year. Come home safe, my Soxfan brother.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...d=1770&ct=5 I would bet that if the Olympics were being held in the US that there would NOT be a similar pledge to not criticize George Bush and the US. With all the cameras over there, the complete disarmerment of the citizenry and now the voluntary submission to their Chinese Overlords and their quest for shiara-lite (some archbishop over there claiming that the UK should abide by some form of shiara law), can they still be considered a free nation?

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/20...ron-paul-r.html Does this signal the end of the Ron paul Experience?

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Feb 9, 2008 -> 09:34 AM) Does anyone here have any family members by-marriage who are just such a great fit and so wonderful that they become as close or closer to you than your blood relations? That was my "Uncle" Joe. Not really an uncle, but married to a first cousin. Unbelievably great guy, generous beyond measure, and lifelong diehard Sox fan to boot. He was diagnosed with lymphoma a couple of years back, and it progressed unbelievably rapidly and just ate him up. He died yesterday, way before he should have, leaving a wife, children, and new grandchildren way too soon. You will be missed by many, Uncle Joe. :crying It sounds like you were richer for the experience of having known him. Sorry for everyone's loss.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Feb 8, 2008 -> 06:52 PM) No. The government just cut your taxes by $600/person if you make under $75,000 a year, threw in a little bit for kids as well, and they're giving you that money as this check. This is an actual one time tax cut. Took me a while to understand that too...in 2001, the tax rebates were an advance on the Bush tax cuts so they counted when you filled out your returns. This is different, as it's a 1 time event, and so it's not just an advance. Speaking of that, how is it that Illinois has you list your state tax refund as income the next year? If I get a refund in 2007 for the taxes I paid in 2006, I have to claim it as income for 2007! i already paid taxes on it in 2006, which is why they returned it to me to begin with. How they got that one thru is amazing.

Fixing my garage (inside) so it is organized like the one I had before I moved. Drywall, cabinets, shelves, bike hooks, the works.