Inside View

I have always felt that the best part of my job was that I got to see how things are made and how lots of different companies work. This week was no exception. I spent three days working at Disneyland in Anaheim, CA. I basically had an all access pass for three days so I could work on lots of different applications for my product. What an amazing operation! I can sum it all up by saying that they miss no detail.

The goal of Walt Disney is to create a fantasy world for the guests (I think they may also try to turn a profit). To accomplish this, the park is treated like a movie set. They use terms like “On Stage” (inside the walls of the park)”Cast Members” (park employees) “back of house” (behind the scenes at the park) to describe the day to day activity. The goal is that a guest will never notice what goes on to keep the park looking and running the way it does. Much of the work is done at night hen the park is closed, however much of the day to day operation is done under the nose of the guest without them noticing. Many of the conversations that I had with there staff involves how things can be done quickly and discreetly.

The main goal for Disney on this project is to improve worker ergonomics and safety. We spent three days with representatives of all of there business units. Each area has there own challenges and concerns. At this point the project looks great. They will now spend a month trying out many of the ideas we have proposed. I will have to wait anxiously for the results. I anticipate that the program will be very successful.

I don’t like to be a complainer but Delta airlines used to be the best in the business as far as I am concerned. However they finally caved in and in December 5th started charging passengers to check bags. I have no problems with that choice (every other airline except for Southwest does it) they feel they need to do that order to stay competitive. It just seems that in that short time they have let the rest of there procedures and customer service standards go. They spend a lot of time dealing with bag issues on the plane, and it seems they are losing focus on doing things the right way. Here is a small suggestion for Delta on how they can solve this problem. If you decide to pay the $15 to check your bag you should get priority on overhead bin space. The issue is that people don’t want to pay the money so they bring all of there luggage on the plane with them. This fills up all the space so they need to spend 20 minutes fighting with people about were they can put there bags. The ones who get punished are the people whop have only brought a back pack or briefcase on the plane. They are forces to give up the little leg room that they have.


After a week in sunny California I have to come home to a snow storm in Tennessee? Somebody lied to me!!! I may be moving again…TO MIAMI!
Next week I am off to Indianapolis for two days. I post again after that.

Back To The Blog

After much delay I have decided to give this blog another run. Since I last posted our economy has tanked, I lost about 40% of my portfolio, Our country elected its first black president, changed its economic philosophy from capitalism to socialism, and the Phillies have won a World Series. All that being said I figured it was time to get this thing rolling again.

The biggest change in my day to day is the effect of the economic downturn on our company. We had to tighten the belt and cut hours back on most of the employees. This is a terrible thing for moral. Hardest for me was the cut in hours of a good friend and counterpart in our Milford office. I have vowed to work my ass off to get things back to normal, so its time to get out on the road and get it done. The best part about working in sales is that you have an amazing amount of control over your destiny.

Last week I spent two days in Dallas, TX and I must say there are very few cities I visit that I hate to leave. Dallas is defiantly one of those cities. I went in for two days of meetings, and a new dealer. Tuesday I was on the plane at 6:00AM and working the streets by 9:00AM in TX. I had a meeting with Sara Lee, who I am working on a national account program for. The demo and meeting went great.

Wednesday was not so hot. I had a demo meeting with Coca-Cola in Dallas at there request. They decided at the last minute that he wouldn’t have time to meet with me. This may seem hard to believe that some one would ask you to get on a plane come meet with them and then blow you off, however it is pretty usual. I have this happen at least once or twice a year. The reason this happens is quite simple. People have no respect for your time. If I call them I get a sob story about how busy they are. I have to keep a ridiculous schedule to meet there needs but when it comes time to accommodate someone else most people could care less. Thanks a lot. The most important tool a salesman can have s a tough skin. I highly recommend personal sales for 6 months to grow one of these.


Sonny Brian's Smokehouse! Thanks Tom for the recommendation.

So I am writing this from 40000 feet above Kansas City, MO. I am on my way to Anaheim, CA for one of the biggest opportunities I have ever chased. I have been invited to present our product to the Walt Disney Corporation. This could be a huge opportunity for us. It is a deal like this that can get my co-workers back to full time hour and load up the till with cash!

Just a side note air travel totally sucks. If we had a better rail system in this country I would be all over it. I will say thank the lord for the I-Pod and for Bob Dylan!

New Friends On The Road

Life on the road can get wild and crazy!



Here is Snoopy and I after a long night at the bar.

Big Game Hunting

After a week of working inside I was back on the road this week. I headed up to Chicago, and Milwaukee. I had several objectives on this trip. The first was to pay a visit to my dealer in Chicago to discuss an upcoming trade show and make sure he can handle a large influx of leads. The second objective was to train and motivate the sales reps from my new dealer in Wisconsin. My final mission was bigger. I needed to get a commitment from Grainger for the 2009 catalog.

What I have learned is that many of my dealers represent hundreds of products and if your not in there face then you are not on there mind. Such is the case with a new and unproven product like The Mule. I traveled to Chicago in June for Kazapoloza and to meet with a prospective new dealer in the area. In sales there are a few cities were you need to have great representation, Chicago is defiantly one of them. Back in June I left a 1 hour meeting with a contract in hand and a motivated rep for Chicago. However as time has passed I have yet to see results. How can a dealer with no competition in one of the largest markets in the US not be selling? We found out the answer to that on Tuesday when I meet with the owners. Apparently they took on our line but never really told there sales reps about it. I outlined a training program for them and saw some motivation in there eyes as we left.

I love that I have the ability to excite and motivate a customer. Sales is 90% passion and hard work, If I can build that into my dealers I will get results. I am committing myself to spending more time with my existing dealers to keep them fired up.

After working Chicago on Tuesday morning was off to Wisconsin for a day and a half in the field with a new dealer. It was great to see a new dealer get some success under thee belt the first day out. I was notified that on Tuesday afternoon we would do a demo for a potential customer. I went to pick up the Mule from the shipping hub and found that it was not charged. This will most likely cause a problem when it comes time to do a demonstration in 30 minutes. A lesser salesman would have canceled the meeting and cut his losses. My boss said to me this is only a good story if we close the deal. So I will try to do it. So there I am standing in front of 10 engineers and a plant manager not to mention a new rep who has never even seen The Mule. My job now is to try to get them to understand the operation of the unit and how it will work in there application. This is normally not a problem except I have a Mule with a dead battery. With kids to feed and a reputation to uphold I give it a go. CLOSED! The lesson is that selling is a lot like poker, the man is more important than the cards. It didn’t really mater if they saw it go because I bring the experience of hundreds of demonstrations. I would prefer however to have a working demo in the future.

After seeing more of Wisconsin than any man should in one serving I was headed to Chicago again to meet with Grainger. I stopped at this great little cheese shop that I have come to love in Milwaukee to pick up some cheese for Kim and a pack of cheddar and green pepper brats form me! (Yes incase you are wondering they were awesome!)

For those who don’t know what Grainger is I will explain? They are the largest industrial distributor in the world. This is like the Wal-Mart of industrial supplies and equipment. A commitment from Grainger will put us in a new league for 2009. I had a chance to get in front of the buyer at Grainger back in March and the meeting went well. There concern was that we couldn’t manufacture the Mule fast enough to meet the demand they would generate. This is a great problem to have. We told him we welcomed the challenge and went on our way. They had been unresponsive for the past few months except when a senior manager with the company ran into us at a trade show in Cleveland. She told us that she loved The Mule and she wanted us to keep pursuing there 2009 catalog. So finally after 8 months of phone calls and e-mails from my boss, we were able to get another meeting with them. I new going in the door that we were lucky to get a second shot at this deal, and I didn’t intend to waste it. There building in Lake Forest, IL appears to have been designed to intimidate sales reps, when you walk in there is a huge waiting area in the atrium were the sales reps wait. You feel like you are being stared on and pre judged from above by all the people working on the upper floors. Then the buyer appears and it is go time.

The negotiation process is kind of one sided. Grainger is so big that they know that they hold all the cards. Hey dictate to us what the process will look like, and then negotiate a price. In order for me to get my best margin I must assess the projected sales volume from a dealer. Most dealers I can give you a pretty accurate answer walking out there door. Grainger is so big that it is hard to quantify. So I must try to get this info from the buyer. I ask straight up “John, do you have any idea how many units you can move in a year?” He knows what my game is because he has been in that seat for a lot of these meetings. There is a long silence and then a crooked smile. “No, I couldn’t tell you” He knows exactly how any of these units he will move in 2009. Now it’s his turn, he wants to know what his bottom line price will be. “any idea what our cost will be on the unit?” Now we don’t want to have this discussion this time because there will be other cost that we need to account for with Grainger such as freight cost and co-op marketing programs. There fore the price we give him needs to be inclusive of those things or else we will eat lot of profits. The answer comes after my own delayed silence: “Well John, we are looking at a price increase this month and we haven’t nailed down the final number yet. We will get back to you this week on that.” This could go on all day, it is like a chess game, we both know what our next move is but we will try to hold off revealing it as long as possible. I love it! This is what my father-in-law calls the art of the deal. It is what drives me to get up at 3:00 AM to get on a plane and fly three hours to get to a 10:00AM meeting and spend all day in the car making cold calls looking for the next big deal. And when it was over we got the commitment that we came for and we go home tired and satisfied. Our iceberg has been melting over the last six months on our other product line. This may be the ship that carries us back to solid ground!

After a long three day trip it is time to relax and fly home. Oh wait one second there buddy you get to fly out of O’Hair. Just your usual Thursday night flight out of Chicago, half of the flights are cancelled and now its time to fight the airlines to get out of there.

Well a few days in the office and then back at it next week.

New York/ Connecticut

Another whirlwind trip in the books this weekend, and another successful demo of The Mule. I flew in to Connecticut on Thursday morning. I had to get up at 3:30AM so I could make a 6:00AM flight to Chicago. I finally got to my office at 2:00 and spent the afternoon catching up on various business and house keeping tasks with my co-workers.

Friday morning my boss and I went to Queens (what a great part of NYC) to do a product demo for the New York City Transit Authority. The call was very successful all the way through. The only hitch came at the end of the meeting when we went to meet the plant chief. He comes out to greet us and he has a gun on his belt. (I have now made the decision that I will start carrying a gun to work every day as well.) I am not sure if this is part of his everyday routine or if he only arms himself when going into meetings with sales people. His big concern about the project is that his people will start to complain that they cant do there job without a Mule, and they will stop doing work until there is a Mule available to them. (He is right in assuming this. It is my experience with union shops that if you bring in one unit you will need to bring in 10 more.) They decided to order there first couple of units next week and “introduce it as a test program.”

After my call on Friday I traveled to Moosup, CT to visit The Joe’s at Soper’s house. We basically laid low but it was good to see my boys again. Saturday I went back to New Haven to participate in a ritualistic male pre-nuptial ceremony for Matt “The Mayor” Hill (Sorry no details available).

Today is Sunday and I am at the airport. I finally return home to see Kim and the boys. Kim has graciously taken one for the team by looking after the boys all weekend. I am looking forward to getting home to see the family. The good news is that I am in TN all next week.

Who Cares?

OK - so I have noticed that everyone has decided to exercise their rights to free speech by starting a blog. I have decided to do the same. One difference you may notice is that I don't intend to use this forum to blame all of my problems on someone else.

So, you may wonder, if I don't plan to use this blog for airing grievances with the world, what am I going to use it for? Good question. I have decided to use this as a journal of my insights and observations into the world of sales, business, and life on the road.

Your next question is probably who cares? Well I am not sure about that part. Most likely nobody cares. I usually don't read blogs from other people because I don't care. I have decided that even if nobody reads this, it will be a good way for me to document my day to day life so that I can share it with my children and grandchildren. When I begin to approach my 50's and my mind deteriorates to the point were I need diapers and someone to feed me at least my kids will know that I once had a real job and was self sufficient.

So here are some basics for those who don't know me, or those who know me but don't care enough to have ever asked what I do with my time (many people assume all I do is eat at McDonald's all day). I work as a sales manager for a small company in Connecticut that manufactures a piece of material handling equipment called The Mule. Because the company is so small I cover the entire USA and all of Canada and Mexico.

I have worked in sales since I was 20 years old. I have had some good days and bad days, good jobs and bad jobs, however I love what I do. Every day is a little different and I love working in a fast paced job. Anyone who has ever "toted the bag" knows that you make your own success in sales and you are rewarded based on your effort. It is by far the most fair system in the world. 

Most people detest my profession thanks to a lifetime of bad experiences at car dealerships and with the sales pros at Best Buy. Always remember as ridiculous as sales people seem to you consumer behavior is always just as strange. My hope is that the next time a sales person comes to your office that you will see were they are coming from.

I hope you get some enjoyment out of this small look into my life. I will try to update this at least once a week. Let me know what you think.

(Disclaimer - I do not spell check nor do I have perfect grammar.  Unlike my wife!)