[M.D. Holloway]

One of my guys has decided to leave and go to a major oil co as a tech serv rep. He was one of my decent sales guys and frankly he was doing well compared to a few others but not as good as a few others. I went to visit him at his home (he lives 20min from me) to get his lap top. We were cool - he told me that he just didn't think he was very good at his job and that sales was much more difficult then expected. he came from a tech serv job, was well versed in the technology, understood the customers, was very social and presented well. he asked the right questions for the job.

As I was leaving his home, we went through the garage and I happened to see an old round top trunk. I commented that I had a few of those. he said that he's been meaning to take it to the curb to throw out. I asked him if he didn't want it I would gladly take it off his hands. So we loaded it up.

I get it home and my Son is in the garage welding something. I ask him to help me take it out of the back of the SUV. We get it out and he asks what I'm going to do with it. I told him I think I would refinish it someday when I had a free weekend (which is pretty much never). He looked at it, went to his iPhone. I moved the guys office stuff and laptop inside and as I went out side he says "take $75 for it?" I said "sell it? as is? What if we restore it?" He smiled at me and said "first off, I do metal not wood, secondly refinished these go for $200 to $800 but its gonna need a few pieces of hard ware to fetch that - easy to get but not cheap. Its gonna take you a week end to do it which you don't have. I have a buyer right now, that will give me $75 cash."

Seems like while I was inside I guess he did quick research, determined the fetch price and work entailed to make new and then decided to research out how much they typically go for as is. Took a few snaps and posted. Within minutes he had a buyer giving him what he asked for.

So...the difference between a sales person and not is just doing the work and enjoying it I guess ... like anything else.

epilogue - I should hire him to sell for me! And yes, I let him keep the money. He did the work he gets the commission.