Post by Fingerplucked on Nov 16, 2015 17:56:29 GMT -5
One minute I had a job, the next . . . . I knew this was coming sooner or later. I wasn't expecting it this soon though.
Business has been between slow and dead. New business has been pretty much non-existent due to our Chinese suppliers increasing minimum orders by ten fold over the last year and our nearly 90 year old owner losing his grip. Not that he was ever easy to deal with. But he's gotten so much worse. We've always been pretty competitively priced but inflexible with terrible service. And that was back in our glory days. Now somebody has to beg us to take an order and most of the time we say no.
The company closed down today at 2:30. The owner said he may reopen it but he's not sure when or exactly how he'll structure it. I think there's some bullshit in there. The one thing I'm sure of is that if it does reopen, it'll be without me.
We had the nicest talk today we've ever had in the 12 years I've been there. He told me I worry too much about what the customer wants and needs. I agreed with him and told him I can't sell unless I feel the customer will be better off for listening to me, and especially lately, that has not been the case and I don't know how to sell when I'm pretty sure the customer will think I screwed him.
He apologized today for being such a jerk all these years. That part surprised me. I didn't think that he knew he was a jerk. He added that although we never saw eye to eye, he really thought he could mold me into thinking more like him. (I should have signed him up for the Soundhole right then and there.) He said that if he reopens, he'd like to continue working with me if I think I can sell pc boards and if I'm not already committed to another job. I said I could if I knew he'd support me for a change. But a couple minutes later I realized that he was talking about me repping for the company, paying commission but no salary. That's not going to work. I've seen how he treats his reps and I still find it hard to believe he'll ever change his ways.
So I'll be looking for a job now. Not that I wasn't before, but there's a little more urgency to it now.
Business has been between slow and dead. New business has been pretty much non-existent due to our Chinese suppliers increasing minimum orders by ten fold over the last year and our nearly 90 year old owner losing his grip. Not that he was ever easy to deal with. But he's gotten so much worse. We've always been pretty competitively priced but inflexible with terrible service. And that was back in our glory days. Now somebody has to beg us to take an order and most of the time we say no.
The company closed down today at 2:30. The owner said he may reopen it but he's not sure when or exactly how he'll structure it. I think there's some bullshit in there. The one thing I'm sure of is that if it does reopen, it'll be without me.
We had the nicest talk today we've ever had in the 12 years I've been there. He told me I worry too much about what the customer wants and needs. I agreed with him and told him I can't sell unless I feel the customer will be better off for listening to me, and especially lately, that has not been the case and I don't know how to sell when I'm pretty sure the customer will think I screwed him.
He apologized today for being such a jerk all these years. That part surprised me. I didn't think that he knew he was a jerk. He added that although we never saw eye to eye, he really thought he could mold me into thinking more like him. (I should have signed him up for the Soundhole right then and there.) He said that if he reopens, he'd like to continue working with me if I think I can sell pc boards and if I'm not already committed to another job. I said I could if I knew he'd support me for a change. But a couple minutes later I realized that he was talking about me repping for the company, paying commission but no salary. That's not going to work. I've seen how he treats his reps and I still find it hard to believe he'll ever change his ways.
So I'll be looking for a job now. Not that I wasn't before, but there's a little more urgency to it now.
