slonezp

I'm not a salesman. I'm a lowly commercial refrigeration mechanic that had a career ending injury 10 years ago, that just happened to get lucky working, where I'm working. My customers all know this and they see me as an equal. I don't know everything and I don't expect him to know everything. I do expect him to know where to get the answers. That is where I have issue. I push people to our engineering dept all the time for answers I don't have. I might lose credit for the sale but I gained the confidence of my customer for the next time around. Mind you, I took 5 years of stagnant sales from this store from $850K annually to over $2M in 2 years. I never dealt with hydronics or commercial controls or pneumatics when I was still in the field. Just refrigeration. Refrigeration sales are maybe 15% of my sales at best. I'm selling crap I never worked on in my life. I read technical manuals day in and day out. If my customers trust me to give them the correct parts/answers, I'm golden. What happens is, I'll get a call or text when I'm on vacation or out of town and tell them to call the store. "That's ok I'll call....(fill in the blank). Got a call today from a customer who offered me a job a few months ago running his service department for more money than I am making now. "You quoted me this and gave me that" conversation. Well, my employee gave him that. Whatever. I told him I would take care of it. These are my frustrations. I've worked my entire life alone. Working with others can sometimes be difficult.

130*

Some personalities can't deal with being empowered. Some folks need to be told what to do. The guy I have working for me has full reign to do his job. I want him to succeed. Guy has been in the industry in some capacity or another, longer than I have. He just has little practical knowledge and cannot think outside the box. A couple issues I'm dealing with is when he doesn't know what to do, he's a deer in headlights and he won't ask for help and, he spends either too much or too little time coming up with answers and, I believe, customers sense the frustration in his voice. (there's a run-on sentence for you Mr. Teacher ) When he is corrected, and I don't mean that the way it comes across the keyboard, he doesn't take it well. If we're not busy, I listen to all his conversations at the counter or on the phone and jump in when necessary. If we are busy, I only hope for the best that he sold the correct part or gave the correct information. I sell commercial and industrial hvac parts. It's not always rocket science but sometimes it is. I have a ton of resources, some better than others, to get the correct parts and or correct information. I have forwarded him all of my contact info. He is an hourly employee. My hourly wage is similar to his. I get commission on store sales, he does not. Every sale he doesn't get comes out of my paycheck not his. That is my incentive to get him to succeed. Unfortunately, his personality and inability to think outside of the box, has me struggling. He's great with the customers but average with his knowledge. Again, I don't have issue with that. All I ask of him is when he doesn't know something, ask me. It never happens. Yesterday I listened to his side of a conversation he had on the phone. I figured out what part the customer was looking for without ever hearing the customer. He did not. The customer told him they would just call my main office "Because they would know what he was looking for" and hung up on him. Again, his lack of knowledge is one thing I can deal with. His reluctance to ask for help...

Maybe next time

I could call my GM or the owner of the company at 2am and they would answer the phone. Probably give me crap the next day but they would still answer. I could call my GM or the owner of the company with a question and if they don't have the answer, they will point me in the right direction to get the answer I need. Bottom line is making money and keeping the customers happy. I'll preface this by saying, 99% of my customers are not the general public. I deal with mechanical contractors for the most part. I sell to the general public at my discretion. I threw a guy out of my store last week. Not the first time and not the last. He didn't, but had he called my corporate office, they would have stood behind me no questions asked. I work for a family owned company. The owner could close the doors today and probably support the next 3 or 4 or 5 generations of his family with the money he has. He's younger than me by a few years Guy works 10-12 hours a day. He'll pick up the phone no matter what. His office is the sales floor at our corporate office. Someone walks into the store and says "I want to talk to the owner!" He's there. I'm fortunate

Guess I'm still here

I always had custom covers. They last a lot longer than the factory covers

A good manager needs to know the jobs he/she manages and how to delegate such jobs based on the employees skill level. He/she also needs to delegate jobs properly when shorthanded. He/she also needs to be willing and able to step in at any and every position they supervise at any point in time. Many managers are unable to do this. The movie Office Space comes to mind when talking about employee and management.

Seriously... A boat is a tool. It is used outdoors and in some pretty crappy conditions. For someone to worry about how they store a boat effects it's appearance is mind boggling to me. It's a frickin boat. Buy it and use the hell out of it. When I was selling my Lund, I had people pass (so they said) because of scratches on the hull. Seriously??? Should I have purchased my boat and never used it so the 2nd owner would be happy?

Olympic sized Sarcasm

Pray that I win and you'll never hear from me again.

I prefer to buy boats that I can use indoors. That way I don't have to worry about the sun and rain affecting them.

I spent Saturday in the ER with grandma and her mother. Grandma has RSV and MIL has RSV and pneumonia.

and this is the reason one needs to have a marketable skill. And by marketable, I am not implying one must be skilled labor. Even if you are part of the unskilled labor pool, strive to be the best at what you do. Someone will notice. If they don't, take your experience elsewhere. I don't have patience for a bad boss and/or micro managing. Rub me the wrong way more than once and I'm history. Hire me to do a job and let me do it. If I need to be told how to do my job daily, either I accepted the wrong job or you hired the wrong employee.

And 20 mph winds. No snow forecasted here, going to be all lake effect for you. Grandson has been sick the last few weekends when it's been mild. Actually he's been sick for a month. Has RSV and as of last week ear infections in both ears. I was going to take him crappie fishing one last time. Providing he's well this Saturday, I don't think he's going to want to fish with the wind chill being 20*.

I am both confused and intrigued by your answer.

Right place right time. Honestly, time on the water trumps everything. You have to have consistent spots.

I am truly sorry. Lost mom a couple years ago. Dad's pushing the envelope right now at 82. Spent some time in the hospital the last month. with congestive heart failure. We, the kids, try and spend as much time we can with him. Called him today and he answered the phone "You checking up on me?" Yeah I am. I share this video with you. It really hit home with me. I learned more about my mother the last 2 years she was alive than all the years prior. I don't know jackshit about my dads childhood. I'm alive 52 years and have no clue as to his first 30 years on this earth.

IMO GE never got the notoriety he deserved. Were it not for his stint as the SNL band, most would have never heard of him. Speaking of blues guitarists, Buddy Guy is doing his farewell tour next year. I saw him play on multiple occasions at Buddy Guy's Legends over 25 years ago. My guess is if this is truly his last tour, there will be some big name blues artists on stage with him. Don't know if they are still scheduling dates. Right now there are only 5 scheduled in the Midwest.

Should be a nice winter project

There's a huge difference between Walmart quality and something you would get from Duluth Trading or Eddie Bauer or Field and Stream

I'm the same age as you. Lost my mother, an aunt, and an uncle all in the last 3 years. Dad has been in and out of the hospital a few times recently. It sucks.

Buy better quality clothing.