Slushies

Nope, not the sugar-filled icy beverage. It's a description of my shoes after today.

We were very motivated today. Got to work early, and ready to go. Well prepared, we were expecting great success.

There are many things in this job that I cannot control. Today I will touch on two such things.

1) The Whether; This morning we woke up with attitudes set for success, and a plan. However, we also woke up with a billion little snowflakes making the roads a mess. We couldn't drive nearly as far as we had planned and had to choose an inferior area to work. We were ahead of schedule, though, so we thought we'd be fine, and have just as good of a day.

2) The Past; A customer will often make his or her decision based on a past experience. For instance, today I encountered a block of houses that had also been spoken to before by a young man. He went to each door, describing the tragedies he had seen as a firefighter, and how sick his poor son was. "Please support this charity, for families like mine," he would say. A couple of weeks later, each generous supporter would be visited again; this time by a kind police officer, returning each penny they had donated, and explaining that the 'firefighter' had in fact been arrested on drug charges. Oops.

And so, each one of these donaters swore it would never happen again, and told all their friends this story to be learned from.

I may not be creative enough to think of such an elaborate scheme, but I paid for this man's mistake all day long. No one wanted to talk to me, and it really is unfortunate for them. All well.

So in the end, I worked for almost 8 hours today and accomplished what would usually take me 2. And my shoes have icky slushies in them.

On The Road Again

On Tuesday we decided to go on a raod trip.
A road trip is an opportunity to just work work work. We're not around people we know outside of work, we have nothing to do in a foreign, likely small, town. So we just work.
It really is a great concept, especially since we haven't been putting in enough hours lately.
We drove for about two hours, to our destination. Set up the hotel arrangements, and off to work. It took us an hour to do what usually takes us three or four, and we knew we were in the right place. You see, when you on a roadtrip, you have some kind of reassurance that you won't have competition in the area, that people won't have heard of what you're saying. Because you're further away from the center of the business, there won't be all those rumours about what you are or aren't doing. Whether or not you're scamming your customer never comes up. They trust and listen earnestly, with intelligence, not assumption.
On Friday, I went to a local DriveTest center and acquired my G2 class licence. Yay! Independance! Let's all dance a little, because I now no longer depend wholly on a coworker with a car. Now I can get a car!

A Dream?

Today is Monday, and I should be working. My coworker/transportation should be ready to go, his suspention is over and done with. But, this job tends to employ a certain unreliability. Not from me, or my boss, we both find it rediculously irritating. But when a person knows that it's incredibly unlikely that he or she would be fired for being late or not showing up at all, it is human nature to take advantage. Given an inch, we are all tempted to take a mile.
So here I am, sitting in my bed, typing to the many people who will probably not read this.
Let's touch on the "Door-To-Door Dream." When hired to their first position as a door to door agent, every person is told of the possibilities; the grandure at the tip of their fingertips. The riches and glory achievable with just a little determination. This is the foundation of Direct Marketing. This is why so many agents are tempted and drawn into a world of deception and manipulation. Many of us are stretching out our arms, reaching out for that plato at the top of the ladder.
You hear buzz names in the business. People who started out just like me! I could be that person?! Someone who now sits in an office counting sales, motivating managers, hiring agents, and collecting checks.
We ask our managers, "How do I get there?" And he or she replies, "write lots of business, and hire more agents."
From here, some of us decide to get where we're going. We save for school, finish school, find that dream job that this was holding us over until.
Or, some of us get obsorbed. Consumed, even. This usually occurs with a more rash personality type. This person will work hard for that giant check. After recieving that check, they will spend it the way that Buzz Name would have. He or she will be back a week later, more broke than before, and ready to work.
I guess when someone visits your door, or when you say, "I hate those door to door guys," I wish you would think of them more as people. People with jobs providing what is likely to be a legitimate product. And then I want you to focus on the product. Not how they're selling it, whether or not they're a good person, or if your supporting their bad habbits or not. Focus on what you can acomplish for you and your home, because that's what's important for you.