Employed 13 Part 4

At Cal Lum, sales people and installers were independent contractors. Our customers paid for their awnings, patio covers and screen enclosures by the square-foot amount of the materials used to build the job and the number of square feet installed times the price for each square foot. The salesmen at Cal Lum really were independent, as were the installers. Payment for salesmen was based on a "par" system. All materials and the labor to install them had a par price. The total par price of a job was the company's share of the job. The actual price of a given job, minus par on that job, was the salesman's share. So, the salesman needed to sell jobs priced well over par, so as to leave himself with a good profit. Obviously that's not always possible, but the company had a wide array of alternative models of their products that were priced more affordably &
with lower par prices to boot.The installers were paid an amount per square foot of finished and installed product. (Thom Kessler had started at Cal Lum on an installation team and was paid an amount that he thought was fair and he liked the work.  But, one day the salesman of the job Thom was helping to install, stopped by the job to check on some detail and he and Thom got to talking and, at some point Thom, noticing how the salesman was dressed and the brand of car he drove, asked how much he would make on the present job. On that particular job, the sales man would make an amount ten times that of the installers take, on the same job. The very next day Thom applied for a salesman's position. When l first met him, Thom was Cal Lum's Northern California General Manager. When l left Cal Lum, he was General Manager for all of Cal Lum.

l felt privileged  to be hired and trained by him; it sure did bump my income into an area that l had not previously visited to the extent that Dahlia and l began to think that paying rent was wasting money. We figured we were ready to buy a house and start building equity. My commissions and overides would,( if they continued) easily pay the mortgage , maintenance and insurance. We found a twelve-year-old Eichler at the North/East corner of Goodwin Avenue and the southwest expressway, in San Jose (just 1.8 miles from my office.)
in San Jose. Purchase price was $17,950. The mortgage payment was $159. At that time (we moved in on Oct.6, 1963, just exactly two years from the day l left Soledad.) my average income per day was nearly twice the monthly mortgage payment. A very comfortable margin.

Only a couple of months after we moved to 890 Goodwin Ave., our pretty little Corvair Monza started to behave like some of the cars in Ralph Nader's book,
"Unsafe at any speed". The combination of a rear-mounted engine with rear wheel drive caused drivetrain problems that culminated one day at about fifty miles per hour, in the drive wheels suddenly locking up and throwing the car into several spinning rotations. No one was hurt. The car came to a stop without hitting anything. But, even thought the repairs made the car drivable (and presentable). We decided to get a car with front-mounted engine driving the rear wheels. l decided it was time for Dahlia, who had grown up riding in her dad's Buick company cars, to finally step up to Cadillac. And for me to share legal ownership of one . lt was a '61 DeVille, 4-door. White exterior. Black with gold trim interior. We bought that car about three and a half years after l was forced to stop stealing cars. We were at least pointed in the right direction, now.

Vic Demos and l were both in the office one day, waiting to go to our next appointments and we got to talking about specific things we do or say during a presentation to soften the prospect's resistance. l told him that l thought being punctual was, at least a good start. lf you say you'll be there at 3:15PM and you are there, then,you are not only punctual, you're honest; you did what you said you would. Having the prospect think of you as honest is going to make all the difference when you're closing the sale. Vic agreed; punctual is good. But,for himself, getting the prospect's sympathy worked best, though he said that he wouldn't discount punctuality in future. He owned the only 1963 Buick Riviera
l had seen, up to then (they were new, that year)but rather than let the customer see his expensive car (and maybe take him for a high-pressure, big money salesman) he would park his car a few blocks away and wait 'til he was a few minutes late for the appointment. Then he would run to the prospect's home, arriving sweaty and full of contrition. He was SO sorry to be late, but he was new to this work and had an old broken down car that usually let him down,
"like it did today". And, the customer! he hated to think how many of them he had let down. And, it usually worked for him.
My routine was to arrive in the prospect's neighborhood about ten minutes 
early. At a minute early, l drive my car to the prospect's house and park it on his driveway and knock on his door. Almost every time, someone in the house makes mention of my arriving exactly on time. No one ever said anything about my choice of parking spot.
During a recent break, l opened a beer and it reminded me of another example of the benefit of doing what you said you would.

l'm not religious, but l've always liked to take Sundays off when it's possible. At theSan Jose branch of Cal Lum l had asked everyone to not schedule appointments for me unless no one else was available to a Sunday caller/prospect. One Sunday, in the Summer of 1963, l got a call from Lil: She knows she's not supposed to call me, and says so, but she had to because a prospect had spoken to the answering service and said he was almost sure our screen room is the one he wants. He all but promised to buy the room if some one could see him that day. l called the guy and told him l'd come to his house and show him the screen rooms. Before we hung up, he lamented the recent 
demise of his last case of beer."Could you possibly bring one with you?" l said l would , if he promised me he wouldn't buy the room from somebody else before l got there. What kind do you want?"
"Oly", he said. "My favorite", l said. on the way to his house, l stopped to pick up the OLympia beer, then arrived at his front door precisely on time, leaving the "Oly"in the car. l proceded with the nearly one-hour presentation. Near the close, the subject of my veracity came up relative to the job's general construction quality and it's ability to last thru the years. how could he be sure l had been honest with him, Kyle (the prospect) wanted to know.
"Well, all the specifics of your job, as l've have told  you, are in the contract.
Besides, my contract with Cal Lum requires me to be honest with prospective 
buyers. l can be fired for just being accused of mis-leading a prospect. ls there
something specific that you think l havn't been honest about?"
"Uh, well,it's not about the job, but you did say you'd bring me a case of "Oly".
"You're right, l did say that and l also brought it. But, in the interest of my being able to provide you with a good presentation and you being able to clearly understand it, l decided it would be best to add the beer to the mix after the 
presentation. lt would make a great signing bonus, don't you think?"
"Uhhh. Uh, l guess".
"Fine, l'll go get it, but don't start the signing without me.
l went to the car, got the "Oly" and returned to the kitchen. l drank about half a beer before l picked up the contract, put in front of Kyle and told him l'd need both his and his wife's signatures. He signed it and said "Hon, you hafta sign this too". She did. l gave them their copies and my business card and my direct office phone and told him to call that number if there were any problems with our job. Kyle said he certainly would and he thanked me for coming on Sunday.
Most people who were interested in a screen room were usually in need of a floor to which the room can be fastened. Cal Lum had contracts with six concrete patio specialists available on one day's notice. That made it possible to do all of the labor on the same day, which gave the salespeople's commissions a good bump.
Somebody had designed our system to be very beneficial to the sales staff and l thanked them.

Even while l was making more money in less time than l had before Cal Lum, l was always looking for ways to increase my income.Eli's son Ross moved to San Jose and stayed with us for a short time, until he was able to find a spot for himself. It was very fortunate that he was staying with us, on the night that our dishwasher malfunctioned and caught fire after we were asleep,but at nearly the
same time that Ross returned home after a late date. He got the garden hose on the fire and put it out before we even awoke. l'm sure that without his quick thinking and correct action, our home and our lives would surely have been lost.
Thanks again, Ross.

Just a couple of hundred feet south of the stripmall that contained Cal Lum's San Jose office, was a fruit stand operated by Roger and Hazel Oakwood with the help of their teen-age daughter, Jesee. Ross had discovered the place when he first stopped there for some local plums, in season.He wound up working with the Oakwoods full time for a few years. When Roger left the San Jose stand, and leased another in Milpitas (About ten miles from San Jose) Ross went with them. Ross and Jesee were married when she graduated high school. They had three boys and later adopted a girl child. They were together over twenty-five years, before they divorced.










twice the monthly mortgage payment.