Random Thoughts.....

One thing I’ve learned since being in sales is that there is a wide range of pay structures and sales methodologies.

At one extreme, you have door to door salesmen. Everyone hates these types. I’m pretty sure they even hate themselves. Most have unobtainable quotas and may get paid only on commission. The barrier to entry is low and they get very little training. Burnout rates are very high. No offense to any door-to-door salesmen who may be reading this, I just think it’s an antiquated business model that needs to die.

The other end could be selling equipment or a service that takes a very high level of technical expertise to understand and selling it to a specific or niche customer type. These guys mostly have a technical background and probably get paid some level of livable or semi-livable wage plus an uncapped commission structure that incentivizes high performance. These guys have budgets for food and entertainment. It’s been my experience that higher potential revenue or profit margin business means better pay and perks.

I never thought I’d work in sales. I’d still never work in any kind of retail sales or sale any product/service that doesn’t have intrinsic value to the customer. But I don’t think of myself as a salesman. I just solve problems by utilizing my companies product and it’s my job to demonstrate how those solutions make my customer’s businesses better. #lunchincluded
 
Andy J. said:
I’d still never work in any kind of retail sales or sale any product/service that doesn’t have intrinsic value to the customer.
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Terminated my VP of Sales about 8 weeks ago...and I took it over...45 sales reps, all retail. That makes up 40% of my revenue. My metals/construction business also makes up 40% of my total revenue...I'll take the metals/construction every day of the week. People need roofs and repairs, not much in my retail product lines that people need. I've been racking my brain for 6 months trying to figure out complimentary products that make sense that people need.
 
Saw this and didn’t know where to put it. I love the writing style.

From a pissed off farmer:

A polite-ish notice to all cyclists on country roads during harvest.
Please understand I have zero issues with you using the roads to ride your bicycle, I’m all for exercising and if slipping in to a lycra suit and impaling your self on a dick shaped bike seat for hours keeps you satisfied then each to their own. If I’m driving a car I always give plenty of ‘safe space’ when passing cyclists which is only fair, we know how sensitive you are to your requested road space, you have just as much right to the roads as anyone....
HOWEVER, if I’m coming at you in a fucking great tractor with 20 tons behind me on a single track road, do me and yourself a favour and STOP for one second, either move as far over to your side of the road or just step on to the verge if there is one, so I can pass safely, do not just continue at full speed and then piss and moan as you go past because if it goes wrong you’ll end up being pressure washed off a tractor wheel. Unfortunately for you we take all your space and we can’t help it, so unless you want to lend a hand either changing a tyre that’s blown out or shovelling up a spillage, then we’re not dropping our wheels into drainage grips so that you can continue your bicycle ride. Cars, horse riders and runners are capable of it, I seem to be missing something with cyclists, I presume either you don’t want to get your special bike dirty, you’re trying to beat your PB or more than likely you’re just a complete cock in general.
Regards your Road Safety Advocate for the 3 shires

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UTfball68 said:
.,.not much in my retail product lines that people need. I've been racking my brain for 6 months trying to figure out complimentary products that make sense that people need.
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Related story: A couple years ago I interviewed for a Sales Director job at a company that made marker/identification lights for aircraft. Their pitch was basically that all their lights were LED and, although more expensive, would outlast incandescent lights. Thus, minimizing maintenance and turn times.

During my second interview, I asked the question that I always ask the direct boss: “What is the biggest challenge the person in this role will need to solve?”. Well, the answer to that question surprised me. He said that in the real world, the company learned that it’s LED lights actually have a shorter life span that the cheaper, industry-standard incandescent lights and they are really struggling to figure out how to sell a product that costs more, doesn’t work ask advertised, and really offers no value to the customer.

I acknowledged that he does indeed have a big problem on his hands 😂. I brainstormed with him for a few minutes on possible solutions, but no way was I about to accept that job.
 
Andy J. said:
Related story: A couple years ago I interviewed for a Sales Director job at a company that made marker/identification lights for aircraft. Their pitch was basically that all their lights were LED and, although more expensive, would outlast incandescent lights. Thus, minimizing maintenance and turn times.

During my second interview, I asked the question that I always ask the direct boss: “What is the biggest challenge the person in this role will need to solve?”. Well, the answer to that question surprised me. He said that in the real world, the company learned that it’s LED lights actually have a shorter life span that the cheaper, industry-standard incandescent lights and they are really struggling to figure out how to sell a product that costs more, doesn’t work ask advertised, and really offers no value to the customer.

I acknowledged that he does indeed have a big problem on his hands 😂. I brainstormed with him for a few minutes on possible solutions, but no way was I about to accept that job.
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well - at least he was honest about the situation!
 
Andy J. said:
Related story: A couple years ago I interviewed for a Sales Director job at a company that made marker/identification lights for aircraft. Their pitch was basically that all their lights were LED and, although more expensive, would outlast incandescent lights. Thus, minimizing maintenance and turn times.

During my second interview, I asked the question that I always ask the direct boss: “What is the biggest challenge the person in this role will need to solve?”. Well, the answer to that question surprised me. He said that in the real world, the company learned that it’s LED lights actually have a shorter life span that the cheaper, industry-standard incandescent lights and they are really struggling to figure out how to sell a product that costs more, doesn’t work ask advertised, and really offers no value to the customer.

I acknowledged that he does indeed have a big problem on his hands 😂. I brainstormed with him for a few minutes on possible solutions, but no way was I about to accept that job.
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On a side note this has been my over all experience with LEDS period. Either they stop working very quickly or I get intermittent service and twinkling. I want my old filaments back.
And the lighting colors.....
 
Have you ever used and understood a word to have a different definition than you thought it to be… your entire speaking life?

I recently came across two common words that do not mean what I thought they did.

Angry Mr Johnson GIF by ABC Network
 
WARRIORWELDING said:
On a side note this has been my over all experience with LEDS period. Either they stop working very quickly or I get intermittent service and twinkling. I want my old filaments back.
And the lighting colors.....
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The best part about this is now the lights are just built into the fixture or part on the assumption "It will last so long you're not going to need to change it" which really means "I'm assuming swapping the whole thing later just bc the light is burned out is somebody else's problem"... when in reality its your problem way sooner than expected.

On top of that, in the cases where they don't just stop, the natural decay of an LED is that they just slowly lose brightness over time. LED luminance decay. So in 5 years you'll be standing in the kitchen saying, why can't I see anything? and not realize what happened.
 
RatLabGuy said:
The best part about this is now the lights are just built into the fixture or part on the assumption "It will last so long you're not going to need to change it" which really means "I'm assuming swapping the whole thing later just bc the light is burned out is somebody else's problem"... when in reality its your problem way sooner than expected.

On top of that, in the cases where they don't just stop, the natural decay of an LED is that they just slowly lose brightness over time. LED luminance decay. So in 5 years you'll be standing in the kitchen saying, why can't I see anything? and not realize what happened.
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Don't get me started on that aspect..... government mandated "switch over" oh and some industries those fixtures are 600 percent more costly as well.
 
RatLabGuy said:
The best part about this is now the lights are just built into the fixture or part on the assumption "It will last so long you're not going to need to change it" which really means "I'm assuming swapping the whole thing later just bc the light is burned out is somebody else's problem"... when in reality its your problem way sooner than expected.

On top of that, in the cases where they don't just stop, the natural decay of an LED is that they just slowly lose brightness over time. LED luminance decay. So in 5 years you'll be standing in the kitchen saying, why can't I see anything? and not realize what happened.
Click to expand...
I install and maintain landscape lighting and it's mostly LED now and the light is definitely better but we go in saying the lamps need to be replaced at 4 years, not that they'll last forever. Also the fixtures that have built in lamps, I don't touch anymore.
 
Today I noticed HF has a shop light on sale that's a great replacement for the one I used for a decade and finally died after one too many drops. OK, I'll run out and grab one. And a replacement grinder and another light, grab the kiddos to each use a coupon.

Get home, go to put the light where it goes in the pile of other lights... and low and behold, exact same HF light, still in unopened box, sitting there looking back at me.

Oh yeah, I already got a replacement. SMH. :laughing:
 
mbalbritton said:
I like music. Especially rock music.

Today my wife asked if when I’m driving down the road by myself, listening to music, do I ever have songs that make me think of her?

Yes sweetheart, you make the rock in’ world go round, was not the right answer!
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Well why not lol?
 
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