# disagreement with potential sales rep. Am I wrong?



## Grumpy (Oct 29, 2008)

As some of you may know I'm kinda part time looking for a commercial sales rep. One person responded to me Linkedin posting about it.


Anyways, he said "what area do you service?" I said about 50 miles outside of the Chicago area. He mentioned something about us needing to be regional if we wanted to compete in commercial. I disagreed being in a huge metropolitan area there are plenty of roofs. Why would I pay perdiem? I just don't get it. Am I wrong?


He said, "what do you do in the winter time?" I said you'll continue to try to make sales and I'll let you go on unemployment and we'll defer any commissions until the spring. He said if we wanted to compete in commercial we need to open up a branch in the South and/or take on interior work in the winter. Ummm why? I don't get it. Plenty of repair work, roof snow removal, and the unemployment for the days you just can't work. Am I wrong? I prefer to be a specialist, not a generalist. 


We got talking a little about coatings. He asked if we spray our coatings. I told him we prefer the pour, spread and back roll. It takes a little bit longer but we've been doing ok with it, and told him we don't do as much coatings as we used to for many reasons. I said a 3 man crew was doing about 80-100 squares per day. He said his guys were doing 250 squares a day spraying. That's alot the most I ever heard was 120, but that's not the point. He said they had to do 250 a day for him to make any money on the job. I said he just needs to charge more. He said, "Charging more is one thing, and selling the job is another." Now I know I am not wrong, anyone who thinks selling on low price is a sale, is an idiot and has no place in my company and that's where the conversation ended. Well i didn't call him an idiot but I thought it. I'm sure my words were more diplomatic.

Now looking at his work history, I know why the last two companies he owner went bust. 


Now you may be asking why I ask if I am wrong, but I ask this because I bust my butt trying to grow my commercial customers and really all my commercial/industrial commercial customers are a result of good luck, not hard work. Was he right? He can't be right.


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## Billy Luttrell (May 3, 2010)

Sounds to me he was trained on volume sales not high end sales. Would probably be a clutch player in a volume based company, but as you said his previous 2 employers went belly up.

I do 2-4 out of town jobs per year, usually apartments or a strip mall, but those come to me and I charge per diem for me and my guys. I do not pursue anything out of the tri county area where I live.


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## LCG (May 30, 2011)

A guy looking for work. Telling the potential employer how to run his company. Sounds familure. 

I think I would have told him if he needed to stay busy in the winter he had better sharpen his sales skills rather than his pencil! Better yet. Find a different line of work.

He is a perfect fit for storm chasing!


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## 1985gt (Dec 21, 2010)

Wouldn't touch him with a 10 foot pole. We do fine doing mostly commercial work and we are in a town of about 250k people. We do service the closer smaller towns. Sounds like this guy will price him self out of a job and you out of a business.


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