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My new least favorite sentence fragment.
One of my co-workers, Drunky the half-lit-half-wit was let go about 6 weeks ago, due to an unfortunate instance that included police intervention, public intervention, attempted assault on our boss, vehicular theft, and of course 12 beer. Before 11am. It was coming for a long time, and the best part was, when he filed a grievance with labour board the boss gave them the contact information for the police and members of the other businesses involved, and the labour board told him to go pound sand, in less than 72 hours. Probably a new record. The worst part is, we are now down 2 salesman.
So me and another guy are trying to take up some of the sales slack. Due to my sparkling personality and winning interpersonal skills I am usually doing take-offs from plans, or typing up quotes based on information from other salesmen, but I do occasionally have to go to peoples houses and do actual sales calls. Some of these people are starting to annoy me.
Annoyance 1:
I met with a woman who wanted a very small amount of work done. I explained to her that we have a minimum price to roll the truck, $750, but that because she lived in a town that we drive through frequently, if she could be flexible with her scheduling I could probably reduce that price. She said she hoped so, that she really couldn't afford $750, and that since she was retired she could be available anytime, just let her know in the morning if the guys were coming. So I ended up quoting her $260, on the quote it included, 'Price based on scheduling flexibility only' She agreed.
Three separate times I called her, stating that the guys could come that day if she was available. She agreed she would be available. 'When are they coming?' she would ask me. I kept telling her I didn't know, the guys were doing one job, driving to her job before carrying on to another. Possibly around lunch time? Each time she would call by 10am and say she had to go out and could we reschedule. By the fourth time the boss is pissed, we are making no money on this job, so she better be there. When she called me at 11am to ask me where the guys were and could we reschedule I told her that if she couldn't be available today that I would send her a new quote, that didn't include a flexible scheduling discount. She didn't like, decided to stay at home, the guys came around 1pm and did her job. They left a bill for $260 + tax.
She called the bossman, very upset 'But shee saaaaiiid I would get a discount if I had flexible scheduling.' She wanted a discount off the $260 cut-rate price I'd given her. It took boss 30 minutes just to get her off the phone. She still hasn't paid.
Annoyance 2:
I met with a lady who wasn't sure what she wanted. I spent almost 5 hours at her house, going over option after option after option, explaining to her various things about our work, trying to help her decide what would work for what she wanted and her budget. We finally nailed down three options that she actually wanted me to price, so I sent her three separate quotes, one for each option. She agreed to do the work on one, signed the quote and the guys went.
When they got there they got into an argu-scussion over what areas were supposed to be done, and called me for clarification. I explained what areas to do (the areas on the dispatch), which they relayed to the customer. I can hear her in the background 'But shee saaaiiiid we could do .....'. Yes, I did say that. I gave her a price it would cost to do that. She rejected that. She signed a much less expensive quote for a different area entirely. I told the guys to tell her we could certainly do the areas she wanted, I would bring a copy of the original quote for that area for her to sign, I would bring more materials to the guys, I could be there in 1/2 an hour. No, no. She didn't want to pay more, I said we could do that area, I saaaiiiid iiiitt! When they put her on the phone and I told her the same thing, she actually said, 'Well I think you should honour your price to show good will for a customer'. Um.... The quote she signed was for $1350, the quote she wanted me to add, for no money charged, was originally given to her a price of $8600.
Annoyance 3:
I quoted a job for a man. I warned him when I looked at the work and saw what he wanted done, that it wouldn't pass code, that it was his house and he could do whatever he wanted, but if he had a building inspector in, it wouldn't pass. There's a line we can add into our quotes, 'Work guaranteed as written, work may not meet current building code. Consult your local building department or building inspector for information on current building code.' That was included in his quote.
He actually call Bossman after the work was complete and complained that the building inspector didn't pass his work, we guarantee our work, it says on our website, we need to come fix this for free. Bossman said he does 100% guarantee our work, he would be happy to meet the customer and be shown where our work was below standard expressed on his quote, and send someone to fix it for free. Well the customer agreed, the work on the quote was completed, but what we quoted wasn't something that would pass code. And shee saaaiiid that our work was guaranteed. Some people don't understand the meaning of the word guarantee.
Please pray for the quick hiring of a competent salesman for our company!
One of my co-workers, Drunky the half-lit-half-wit was let go about 6 weeks ago, due to an unfortunate instance that included police intervention, public intervention, attempted assault on our boss, vehicular theft, and of course 12 beer. Before 11am. It was coming for a long time, and the best part was, when he filed a grievance with labour board the boss gave them the contact information for the police and members of the other businesses involved, and the labour board told him to go pound sand, in less than 72 hours. Probably a new record. The worst part is, we are now down 2 salesman.
So me and another guy are trying to take up some of the sales slack. Due to my sparkling personality and winning interpersonal skills I am usually doing take-offs from plans, or typing up quotes based on information from other salesmen, but I do occasionally have to go to peoples houses and do actual sales calls. Some of these people are starting to annoy me.
Annoyance 1:
I met with a woman who wanted a very small amount of work done. I explained to her that we have a minimum price to roll the truck, $750, but that because she lived in a town that we drive through frequently, if she could be flexible with her scheduling I could probably reduce that price. She said she hoped so, that she really couldn't afford $750, and that since she was retired she could be available anytime, just let her know in the morning if the guys were coming. So I ended up quoting her $260, on the quote it included, 'Price based on scheduling flexibility only' She agreed.
Three separate times I called her, stating that the guys could come that day if she was available. She agreed she would be available. 'When are they coming?' she would ask me. I kept telling her I didn't know, the guys were doing one job, driving to her job before carrying on to another. Possibly around lunch time? Each time she would call by 10am and say she had to go out and could we reschedule. By the fourth time the boss is pissed, we are making no money on this job, so she better be there. When she called me at 11am to ask me where the guys were and could we reschedule I told her that if she couldn't be available today that I would send her a new quote, that didn't include a flexible scheduling discount. She didn't like, decided to stay at home, the guys came around 1pm and did her job. They left a bill for $260 + tax.
She called the bossman, very upset 'But shee saaaaiiid I would get a discount if I had flexible scheduling.' She wanted a discount off the $260 cut-rate price I'd given her. It took boss 30 minutes just to get her off the phone. She still hasn't paid.
Annoyance 2:
I met with a lady who wasn't sure what she wanted. I spent almost 5 hours at her house, going over option after option after option, explaining to her various things about our work, trying to help her decide what would work for what she wanted and her budget. We finally nailed down three options that she actually wanted me to price, so I sent her three separate quotes, one for each option. She agreed to do the work on one, signed the quote and the guys went.
When they got there they got into an argu-scussion over what areas were supposed to be done, and called me for clarification. I explained what areas to do (the areas on the dispatch), which they relayed to the customer. I can hear her in the background 'But shee saaaiiiid we could do .....'. Yes, I did say that. I gave her a price it would cost to do that. She rejected that. She signed a much less expensive quote for a different area entirely. I told the guys to tell her we could certainly do the areas she wanted, I would bring a copy of the original quote for that area for her to sign, I would bring more materials to the guys, I could be there in 1/2 an hour. No, no. She didn't want to pay more, I said we could do that area, I saaaiiiid iiiitt! When they put her on the phone and I told her the same thing, she actually said, 'Well I think you should honour your price to show good will for a customer'. Um.... The quote she signed was for $1350, the quote she wanted me to add, for no money charged, was originally given to her a price of $8600.
Annoyance 3:
I quoted a job for a man. I warned him when I looked at the work and saw what he wanted done, that it wouldn't pass code, that it was his house and he could do whatever he wanted, but if he had a building inspector in, it wouldn't pass. There's a line we can add into our quotes, 'Work guaranteed as written, work may not meet current building code. Consult your local building department or building inspector for information on current building code.' That was included in his quote.
He actually call Bossman after the work was complete and complained that the building inspector didn't pass his work, we guarantee our work, it says on our website, we need to come fix this for free. Bossman said he does 100% guarantee our work, he would be happy to meet the customer and be shown where our work was below standard expressed on his quote, and send someone to fix it for free. Well the customer agreed, the work on the quote was completed, but what we quoted wasn't something that would pass code. And shee saaaiiid that our work was guaranteed. Some people don't understand the meaning of the word guarantee.
Please pray for the quick hiring of a competent salesman for our company!
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