Wednesday 4 June 2008

It should all work out

So if you have been watching my Tweets you may already know a little about this next entry.

On Monday I quit my job.

It just wasn't working out. The original job I was doing there I did enjoy. It was working in sales face to face. We were told that we had to do a two and a half to three hour presentation with people about the product. A holiday club.
When I did my training I almost bought one of the memberships myself. It was a great deal. It looked fantastic.
So I felt good with what I was doing.

Unfortunately there wasn't enough people visiting the sales deck so I was recently moved to telesales.
I was told this was pretty much the same thing, just with a differnet club.

But the whole set up was totally different. Plus you only had a few minutes once someone picked up the phone to get it sold.
Obvioulsy there were some advantages to this picth, like it cost a tiny fraction of the other sell. But this one just felt wrong.
I just always thought if someone phoned me up with the same pitch I wouldn't go along with it.

So I just couldn't do a good job. Which meant that the manager was always having a word with me about how to improve. Which just made me feel rubbish.

Anyway on Monday I walked in and told them I was leaving.
Don't get me wrong there was one product that I didn't like but the office were very helpful and good with me. They gave me a job as soon as I moved to Spain. Plus the people that work there are really good people and I hope that I spot them outside of work.

But I do have another job lined up thankfully. The missus brother-in-law told me about a job listening to telephone calls and ranking them. It can all be done over the internet so I can do it from home.
At first I was unsure that I would get the job. I sent off my application form and hadn't heard anything for a few days.
Plus I thought that the brother in law was only putting my name forward as a possible applicant.
Then the missus tells me not to worry. The in-law is in fact a huge deal at the company and owns quite a few shares. I thought he was just one of their best sales trainers.
Then I get an email which I have been copied in to, which is of my CV sent from the in-law to the HR team. I'm told that the in-law has put himself on my references. I have a look and under job title it says 'Director.'
Then I stop worrying and think, "if a director is going to try and get me a job then it might go through."

So now I am just waiting for some log on details and I'll soon be able to work form home.
I really do hope I don't pick up any bad habbits, like reading blogs all day.
Plus I've promised the missus I'll stay away from the pool of a morning.
I'll still be looking around for any bar work/waitering just for some extra cash/hours. The season here has just started and I have seen a few adverts in restaurant windows. Only problem is they are in Spanish or you have to be able to speak Spanish. So that's how I've been spendning a few of my hours. Getting back to learning my Spanish.

Just one more thing about the office. I was watching an episode of the American version of the sitcom 'The Office,' when Dwight (the US version of Gareth) was giving help to another character on how to do god in sales.
The advice he gave, "K.I.S.S - Keep It Simple Stupid," was the same advice I was given to me when I first start selling face to face.
I'm not sure whether that means that this office have been getting selling tips from The Office.
Or whether both offices are using the same sources for all of their material?

3 comments:

Unknown said...

It's horrible trying to sell something you have no interest in. I generally hate sales, I hate it when people try and sell me stuff too, so I'm not a great advocate for it.

So what sort of work is it you'll be doing now? I'm confused - rating phone calls?

Is it like mystery shopping, I used to do that...ringing up car dealerships and testing the salesmen on what they did and didn't say. Got paid a bomb for it too.

commis chef said...

Sales is awful work - a thankless disheartening job. It sounds like a good move anyway, working from home. If you can avoid all the temptations of the internet and the kitchen!

Seriously though, I reckon you should go for one of those bar/restaurant jobs. If there's one for a runner, (which is what I've been doing in France), it's great because you only need a minimal knowledge of the language. It was hard at first, but I must admit I feel so much more integrated now, my French has improved, (and I feel more confident about it) and even though I wouldn't be friends with most of my colleagues its just great to get out the house and be able to have contact and a bit of a laugh with people.

I wish I'd done it sooner, honestly.

Robbie said...

@Mouthd Yeah it's pretty similar to what you used to do. Except I don't call sales people but just listen in on recorded calls.

@Chef Well the season is just getting started so hopefully there will be alot of opportunity for that now.