Down the drain

That's where my weekend went because it was all spent at the George Morlan Tent Sale. The last three days have been utterly insane. I wish I'd been keeping track of personal numbers the way they tracked all the sales figures. If I could do so, I would love to tell you things like how many miles I walked (all within a one block radius), how many hours I talked and how many names I forgot.

The world of sales is strange. Through one lens, "salesman" is another word for "vulture." I pounced on so many people this way with the "are you being helped" line, or "can I answer any questions for you." It's funny how these phrases are ingrained in my vocal memory from all the salesmen I have been irritated by in the past. Now I am one of them. But on the other hand, I learned that if you are willing to do what you can to help people and be sincere and considerate of their situation, you can sell even if you don't know fuck all about what you're selling. Of course, it involves a lot of frantic shoulder taps for help and I made a point to personally thank everyone I pestered during the weekend.

I don't know for sure, but I averaged 4-6 thousand dollars a day. For a novice, I'm pretty happy. The new girl who actually got the job I originally applied for went at it with a fucking conviction. I don't think I ever saw her without a customer. And after working the 13 hour days, she would go home and research the products Online so as to have more knowledge the next day. I am dumbstruck by her effort.

My trial was entirely intended to give me the crash course primer of the company. I have a sense of the culture and environment at the company. But most importantly, I know what the customer wants to know and what the salesman has to do to move the product. Now over the next few months I get to take all that and build a catalogue custom tailored for George Morlan, and I hope unlike any catalogue that exists. I've got lots of ideas I want to put to use somehow, though any one of them is going to take a lot of work.

What I've been most impressed by is the way this company supports its employees, who in turn support each other. As I said, the help people offered me was invaluable. I can't imagine what I looked like when in a panic, I realized I'd charged someone the wrong price or needed to find some antique replacement part or forgotten how to describe simple aparati like shower faucets. No joke. There came a time I was looking inside my head for words and just found a gaping whole where knowledge and communication used to be. Actually, that's kind of how I feel now. Time for some beers.

Thank you for reading.