Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Knock knock. Who's there?

I knocked on a door once, and there was a 12 year old kid holding a beer and a cigar. I asked him if his Mom or Dad was home. He said, “What do you think”?

I've had three door to door sales jobs in my life. I sold for a company called "Fuller Brush", which many people today don't recognize because the company went out of business years ago.

I was only 16 when I started. After school, the boss would drive us to our territory for the evening and drop us off. We would then knock on doors and try to get the potential customer to let us show them what we had to sell.

Fuller products were superior to those found in the supermarket. Especially their fragrances. We sold an assortment of sprays, one being strawberry. It smelled exactly like strawberry and sold like crazy. We sold household cleaning products and people bought a lot of them. It was fun.

One day, while the boss was driving us around, he took a bottle of Boones Farm wine out of the glove box and took a swig. Uh oh. That was not a good thing. When I got home, I told my Mother, so she went over and talked to the guy. I guess he promised not to do that anymore, so I continued working and he continued drinking and driving.

Finally, I quit. The next door to door job I had was through a company called Portraits by Patrick. Here was the theory. You would knock on doors and try to get the lady of the home to spend more than $200 on a family portrait package. First, I looked all of maybe 16 years old, so who would give me $200 for anything?

So, that was a total bust. Not one sale in a month of attempts. I quit. I needed to make money, not have people laugh at me. So, I decided not to take a 100% commission job again.

When I was older, however, I went to work for a water purification company, with a good name, to supplement what little I was making in comedy. I made a lot of money at that job. It wasn't knocking on doors cold, they were set appointments, but only a free water test. The idea was to leave the house with a $3,200 order.

It was really quite easy once people saw how dirty their current water supply was and they would save money by purchasing our system. I could make $3,000 on a Saturday, then focus on comedy. That was awesome. As comedy became more lucrative, I had to quit. That job was awesome.

I had one more door to door sales job, and I still work for the company. Although I can't go door to door anymore, I work the phone. It's pretty easy because it's a trusted brand, Winder Farms, with quality products, delivered to your door. No more going to the Supermarket after work or dragging the kids with you. I enjoy setting people up for this service. Winder has been in business for more than 130 years in Utah. They deliver most anything you can get at the store.

See you tomorrow.

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