While we lived and worked in San Jose, l never worked with a group of employees that worked together as well as those l met working in MPT's
San Jose store. Having been chosen to work with them added to my self-worth.
All of the permanent employees there had some input in hiring decisions, so new-hires knew their fellow-workers had approved their hire. (And, most likely
would be there for them when they needed some help).
The two weeks that new outside reps spend inside makes it possible for them
to do the work of insiders when they happen to be in the store for whatever
reason if , during that visit help is needed. The more l learned about the policies
and procedures at MPT, the more l felt l was in the right place.
lHad inside retail in Eli's businesses as a kid and had grown to like direct (to the
customer) sales. As l think about that, l recall my last inside position: a Firestorm tire and automotive store in Santa Claral went to lunch alone to a
favorite Chinese place and, thus fortified, talked myself into taking the rest of the day off. Like l often did when l had some time on my hands during the day,
l decided to visit 4th street bowl. l'm not a bowler but l have a connection to
bowling and bowling alleys in an interesting way. But before l get into that, let
me remind you that my blog is named "Real Gideon". My real name is Gideon
and everything l write really did happen. l realize that some of it is unusual,
especially the bowling story. But it is true:
Bob Cruz, Ed Burkdahl, Ron Mason and l were in Elko, loose from whichever mom of ours that brought us on her shopping trip. (We would meet her later
at the Commercial (Elko's Grand Central Station). We were just aimlessly exploring Elko and we happened to find ourselves at the entrance to the bowling
alley,"Elko Lanes". We are each about eleven years old. The three of them had all been there before, with their parents. My parents were not into sports at all,
nor was l. ln fact, that day was the first time l had ever even seen a bowling ball
"in person". "They all "shot" before me, each giving me directions as they did so. Each knocked down a few ten-pins and then it was my turn. l aimed for the sweet spot that the others told me about and let fly. At first, it seemed the ball
would be too far from the spot to knock any pins down. A crashing sound, and
then, suddenly all ten of my pins were lying flat. lt immediately occurred that
if l stopped right then and for ever l could honestly say that l never rolled a bowling ball that failed to knock all the pins down. So...? As you might imagine,
when the subject of bowling comes up in my presence l'm gonna tell it. The hard
part is remembering who l've already bored to tears with this story.
While l never got into actually bowling, l did acquire a taste for the food, the drink and for the sights and sounds of a busy bowling alley. Just the sounds coming from the working lanes, mixing with the music from the bar's jute box
l found strangely pleasant.
Nearly all of my accounts reaped the benefits of the war in Viet Nam,
Something l probably should have considered before l accepted the job. But at that point in my life l was just happy that my no-stripes military history and
my exit from which employed political influence prevented me from bring
eligible for re-deployment. l wanted the job more than any l had ever sought.
At the outset l really didn't think that l was the best man for the job, but l intended to become someone who could be the best man for the job.My first step was to visit as many prospects in my territory in the shortest time as possible. l did the math:419 prospects in the book. lf it were possibe to visit three of them every workday, 139 days would be required to visit them all. That
That sounded like a lay-down but the math didn't work. During my time at MPT,
l met many of the prospects in the book, but by the time l left MPT l still had not visited everybody in the book. But, know that most of the prospects l didn't
meet would not see me when l went to their offices, nor talk with me on the phone when l called. And when many of my charges were calling me for service,
most days l stopped even thinking about visiting the "resisters", and consentrated on proven customers. Still, if l visited a good customer nearby
one of my resistors, l'd pop in to their office and request a visit and wish the
receptionist well on my way out.
Before long, l realized that l was spending good time on poor prospects, when l should be rewarding those who were actually buying our products or at least are willing to give me some of their time to let them know why MPT is their best bet for power transmission products. During training for this job, Ray, Dave,and
every other person involved in training outside reps emphasized the value of the
lunch hour. Don't be bashfull about spending expence account money. You will
get it back with your next paycheck on the first or 15th of the month. We field agents wereencouraged to have a lunch date every work day. The prospect has available to him, from more than a few sources, the exact same products that
we have as well as an equally able staff to serve him. Long lunches at the Brave bull (or other such den of of mid-day sales activity) give us the oppertunity to actually make the prospect a friend.
ln my territory there were seventy-six owner-operated machine shops of which
only a handfull were regular MPT customers at the time l started there. l did
manage to visit a few of them within the first couple of months and two of those
turned me on to a few new machine shops that began to do some of their business with us, but most of the resisters persisted.
Guys that wear bib overalls at work are not ready for lunch at BB, as we
regulars called it. Not that they would not be comfortable there, but to change
out of his work clothes into casual wear might take half the lunch hour. Lunch
can take more than hour, (if it's done right) then drive back to work, get back into the coveralls and get back to work. The two hours he spent at lunch, he pays back by working after closing time so the job due tomorrow will be finished on time. Another thing: his wife always makes him a lunch that he likes a lot.
One of the few machinists that took the time to talk to me, told me all that in
response to my lunch invitation. That was bouncing around in my head on and off for the rest of the day. After dinner that nite, Dahlia and l sat down to watch TV. Playhouse Ninety was on.Though l was usually deeply interested in that show, l just couldn't get into it that nite.l kept thinking of the machinist l had talked to that day. l had to force myself to concentrate. But when l did, it hit me immediatly: Ray had told us to not limit ourselves to taking clients to lunch.
Take them to entertainment venues: Stage Plays, Rock concerts, The symphony
The ball game. Before long, l was spending two or three evenings a week in
that way.
During my first month at MPT Dave called me in and showed me some invoices
for some purchases one of my accounts had been re-ordering large quantities of a particularly expensive bearing. Dave said we could often suggest a bearing
that would do the job using a much less expensive bearing for considerably less
money.Dave asked me to stop by the customer's place to get all the details,
with the hope that we might be able to save the client some money. When l
returned to MPT, Dave looked at the ruined bearing when l returned. He would
replace the SKF 2-109 ($19.oo) with a New Departure ND-054 ($3.59). The size was right,as were the load charactaristics and everybody liked the price.lt
turned out that Dave had been studying similar situations (and saving clients
money) for years. l was totally impressed and excited with this new tool.
No comments:
Post a Comment