WORKING FROM HOME AS IF I HAVE A JOB

Like the title says I am working from home as if I have a full time job. I guess as a salesman it is a full time job that pays nothing until there is a sale. But since February their has been nothing. You see I sell commercial vehicles for a Ford/Lincoln dealer in the Tri-State area . But since all that has happened I have lost my draw salary (which I hated anyway) and now will only collect if some thing I sell is delivered.

Not a bad deal if the vehicles wanted are in stock, or can be factory ordered or swapped in. But these types of sales mean time waiting to get paid. Time lost by customer because they were not in stock or could not be found easily with the pool of dealers and upfitters. What should happen and what I need is a decent supply of vehicles in stock at the upfitters and on the ground configured correctly or close to their needs for the customers/prospects we are getting.

It is very hard to get a customer interested in doing business with you in the first place. But then to explain you have to either locate or factory order it makes it even harder on me and the customer as they always seem to wait to the last minute. Even when you have been talking for a while and you tell them don’t wait. If you plan out the purchases with my help we can have the vehicles around the time you are actually ready for them. But that requires a good track record and a level of confidence by the customer and the salesman making the pitch and explaining how things can be. You need to be telling the truth and be earnest that you are yes trying to get their business but also show them you care about the business and their needs. Once you get through and get the order then you have to put up and show you can do what you say if not more. like this rolling office /clinic I helped design and sold. Or for another customer I designed, pitched and sold this truck for their use to replace the original and now extinct E-series van and be able to still get in to the garages around town.

It was tough enough when I was able to go to their offices or meet someone in the dealership but now it is even more of a challenge. Gets really hard talking to a prospect with a mask on. I mean how do you show the right facial expressions? or how do you give that since of security that you’re a person they can deal with now and in the future? Mine is a business of relationships not someone buying on impulse or looking for cookie cutter family vehicle. I deal with people and businesses who need vehicles to get jobs done. Some times more than one and not all built or equipped the same. It is this that makes the job interesting and worth while too. Like I have said in the past I get quite a nice feeling when I see one of my vehicles on the road going to a job or parked somewhere with the technician out doing a job. I got him there and I got him in to the best or closest vehicle to accommodate his working environment. This why I get bummed sometimes when I cannot seem to get the help needed to get through to the prospects and or fulfill the needs of my current customers in a timely matter.

But like I always say I am