Calis Beach and Fethiye Turkey Discussion Forum
General Topics => All things that have nothing to do with Turkey => Topic started by: Scunner on May 02, 2014, 22:38:51 PM
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Trying to work full time after over 10 years being your own boss is quite tough. I don't know much about some of the things our company provides. As a Bedfordshire born and bred type, I came to the company offering a contact list in Scotland of literally nobody. I don't know where all these customers are. Even with satnav, I can get hopelessly lost. I don't even know Scotland really. Clients have said things like 'oh, you need to speak to the people at our other office in Alloa - when are you next over that way?'. Answering 'I don't know, where is Alloa?' doesn't give huge confidence. I can spend hours looking for a company that moved 6 years ago. It's very tough sometimes.
This week I found a name and an email address - nothing more - for one of the big utility compaines. I emailed and asked if I could pop in as I was over that way. Often you hear nothing. But he must be bored, I got an email saying yes, we'd love to see you. Amazing. So I drive into the back of beyond to an address with a post code that covers around 60 square miles, get hopelessly lost and eventually turn up embarrassingly late - to a small but perfectly formed hydro (dam) power station that is going to be worth next to no business to us - probably struggle to cover the petrol I just wasted looking for it.
I go in, apologise for my lateness - no problem my new contact says, "I saw you arrive - you came in the wrong way - so I knew you'd driven right round the long way. Don't worry, I did that too the first time I came here". So he's a nice guy. Thanks, I needed that right then. So let's get this done, there's no potential in little places like this so let's have a chat and let me get off on my way - which came out as "this is a beautiful building - one of the smaller ones in Scotland?".
"Yes, we have over sixty power stations, and I am responsible for all of them."
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Good Indians and Bad Indians ?
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So far just bad :D
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Whoo hoo! Jackpot! Good Karma . . ;D ;D
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"Yes, we have over sixty power stations, and I am responsible for all of them."
Bliss!
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Keith, it's the classic story of sales, remember the story of the guy who worked in the rolls Royce showroom?
I don't envy your return to work on two counts though, firstly going back after ten years must be really hard, I often say to Chris that I really, maybe less physically but definitely mentally couldn't do my old job now. But secondly, as you know, I'd always run a National Sales team and have lost count of the times a customer in Scotland, Wales & Ireland had insisted that you need a "local" person in the role, in the case of Scotland "not some laddie from down south"
On the other hand you can always play the classic "things are different up here" card to your boss, I've also lost count of that one as well.
And don't forget, bank holidays in Scotland are different to those in the UK, but somehow you must manage to take both !!
Best of luck mate, your story brought a smile to my face as I remembered telling all of my sales guys that the harder you worked and the more leads you tracked down, the luckier you become.
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Keith, it's the classic story of sales, remember the story of the guy who worked in the rolls Royce showroom?
No :D
It's an odd one this employment lark - I left my last "job" in late 2003 and have never had a boss since then till 8 weeks ago. Certainly not a boss younger than me!!
I often wondered if I could do it again (in fact you and I discussed this one night at King's Garden) - but it has been fairly smooth returning to it and I think you appreciate the small things more than before - paid holidays, not having to pay for that new tyre etc...
I find people north of the border much more helpful than in London and the South East - I call on places where the direct business is likely to be negligible - but they know all the people locally that I need to know - and are more than happy to tell you who you need to be getting in front of :)
I doubt it will last forever but for the foreseeable future it's an unexpected and enjoyable (mostly) chapter.
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http://248am.com/mark/automotive/the-story-of-the-rolls-royce-taxi/
This I think.
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On a similar note to the Rolls Royce story
Back in the early 90's I was working as an estate agent in a small office in the part of the town where I had grown up. You got to know the local characters and one day this one guy came in. He looked a bit like a tramp and needed a good bath. It was a quiet day and nothing much was happening so I asked him if he fancied a cup of tea - which he accepted.
This became a bit of a ritual every other day or so, he would pop in for a chat and a cup of tea. After a while he started taking an interest of some of the properties we had in the adjoining streets. This was in the day when a terrace was 30k. He would often ponder over details and say how he would like to view this that or another. I didn't really think much of it to be honest as I had assumed he was just making conversation and besides he looked like he was a step away for the gutter.
One day he came in and he looked at details of a bungalow that was 50k and asked to look at it. I would normally just joke this off but as I needed to visit it and measure up, and it was empty, I asked him to join me.
Anyway....over the next few days he came back again asking lots of questions and asked if he could put in an offer of 50k. I didn't take it seriously as he didn't look like he had a penny never mind this much. I said I would when he came back with his mortgage details or how he was going to pay.
He didn't come back for a few days and I didn't think much of it until late in the day he walked in with a very smartly dressed guy who introduced himself as to guys solicitor. He then proceeded to discuss with me the property before showing me a bank statement for, shall we say, much much more than the 50k needed.
The bungalow was sold to him in weeks
I will NEVER jump to assumptions on people based on how they look. It was a lesson well learned
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"Yes, we have over sixty power stations, and I am responsible for all of them."
One of those perfect golden sales moments ...... kerrr...ching!!
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Steve's tale reminded me of my first week in my first job post college. I'd been taken on by a, then, large hotel company as a Management Trainee. I had been allocated to the Reception of one of their central London hotels. By Friday, my trainer had sufficient confidence in my ability that she left me in charge whilst she took her lunch break.
A short while later, a very scuffily dressed old chap shuffled in through the front door, came to reception & without a word, leant over & picked up what was regarded as the most confidential document, which listed, in room no order, all the hotel residents & the rates they were paying for their rooms. I reached across to take it back, saying that if he was looking for the room no of a friend, I had an alpha listing & could find it easier that way for him.
He looked straight at me & asked for the General Manager, by name. I asked the chap for his name, as we were not allowed to call the GM without this info. The chap answered Edwards, Henry Edwards. I gulped & saw my career disappearing down the pan, Henry Edwards was the CEO of the hotel group.
Fortunately, Henry realised that my intention was solely to protect the confidentiality of the document & a year on, when I was due to take up my first Junior Asst Manager's role, Henry told a real mysoginist of a General Manager that he was getting me regardless of his views on women in management roles.
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My "Rolls Royce" story.
When I was first in sales I sold coatings mainly for floors in factories and warehouses. I used to go to see contractors when they were painting floors. There's a proper pecking order in coating contracting. Manager, supervisor, applicators and at the bottom, a guy to mix all those tins of paint for them. One contractor from Northampton, had a shy lad called Joe who was from Ireland to get the lids off and mix the paint. I remember sitting outside with him having a fag and a chat, not something even his colleagues bothered to do.
I moved from coatings for concrete to coatings for steel and didn't deal with the company anymore. Then years later they launched a range of coatings for concrete and I was told to go find my old customers and introduce the range.
In Northampton I called in to see Jim, the MD. No, Jim retired several years ago. Really? So who's MD these days...
Ok you got it. :D
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Slightly off track, but following on from Steve.
In the mid eighties I changed careers and started working for a small Estate Agency chain. The person I was about to replace would tell me about some of the local characters and two spring to mind.
Firstly there was George, who seemed a little eccentric, talked out loud to himself, stood outside looking at our window display most mornings and on wet days would come in and look at the displays inside, chatting to the staff who would give him a cup of tea and listen to his war stories, he would ask about new properties that had come available.
We never really knew exactly where George lived until about 5 months later, a certain terraced house came on the market at £29,950 and he came in to announce that he lived next door to it and wanted to buy it.
That's fine George, you can if you can afford it we said, 2 days later in comes George with a carrier bag containing £29,950 in cash. Can I buy the house now?
We had all assumed that George rented his home but it later turned out that he owned a total of 14 houses in the same road.
Then there was Nellie, she was a neighbour of our office cleaner Mrs Jones, both in their late 70's and lived in small terraced houses just around the corner from the office.
Having no family in the area, twice a week Nellie would come to meet Mrs Jones at the office, have a cup of tea, then they would toddle off to the local market.
Nellie was by all accounts a spendthrift and this was reflected in her bedraggled appearance and her shopping habits.
What we subsequently found out after she died several years later was that she owned nearly 20% of the buildings in the High Street, including the one we rented.
You can never tell ! 8)
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Well you can't judge a book by its cover eh? Still waters run deep and all that. Great, thought provoking stories. ;)