Salesman's first day

WebFisher · #1 07-18-2007, 02:35 PM

There once was a young man from a small country farming town in the middle of nowhere. All his life he only knew farming, and every aspect of it. He never went more than a mile from home, and only then, it was to do something relating to his family farm, so “big city” stuff was all foreign to him. One day, he saw a picture of a city in a magazine and decided he would go visit and see what all the hype was about. Bidding his family a fond farewell, he set out to make his fortune in the nearest big metropolis.

He wasn’t there very long before he realized that his farming skills were going to get him nowhere in the big city, so he decided to look for work in other fields. He saw a help wanted sign on a local store called the “Super Mega Mart: If we don’t have it, it isn’t made”, and promptly decided to apply. The manager, upon speaking with him, decided to put him in a general sales position where his salary would be based upon commission on sales. For his efforts, he would make a total of 10% of his total sales as his wages. After giving a tour of the multiple floors of the store and a brief training session, the manager showed him to his department then took him to a training room for him to familiarize himself with the registers and other departments.

When the young man finished his training, he went back to the manager, and was told to be at the store at 8am the next day (Friday) ready to work. When the young man arrived the next morning, he was again greeted by his new boss, who took him to his department and answered any questions. When the manager was satisfied, he encouraged him to make a lot of sales and left, saying that he would be back to check on him at the end of the day to see how he was doing.

Five O’clock came and the manager found the young man finishing up a sale on his register. He had just given the customer his receipt and thanked him with a fond wave and a “come back soon”. The manager went to his new charge and asked him how many sales he had made.

“That was my first one!” exclaimed the employee.

“Your first sale!” the manager responded in anger and disgust. “Our employees are expected to make hundreds of sales per day. I realize this was your first day, but come on man! This will not do. I can see that you are not cut out for this kind of work. Give me the total for your sale, and I will pay you your commission and I’ll even throw in an hourly wage for the time you put in, just so there’s no hard feelings. What is your sale total?”

“$33,946,358.55” said the young man.

Coughing, the manager gasped… “How much???”

“Exactly $33,946,358.55. I'm sorry I only made one sale. I guess I'm not cut out for this.”

The manager, in a state of shock grabbed the register receipt from the young man and stared at it in disbelief… “This is amazing! A new store record! I think this is more than the store does in a month!! How did you do it?” (The country man noticed his tone change from anger, to gladness and awe.)

“Well,” he began.”At first I sold him a small fishing lure, then a medium fishing lure, then a box of fishing lures. Next I sold him a small cane pole, then a large rod and reel combo. Next I showed him the tackle boxes, which he bought the deluxe model with the radio built in. I told him that he would probably need a boat to haul everything in, so we went to the boat department where I sold him that 40 foot yacht that has been on display for the last five years. After the boat, we went back to sporting goods and he purchased a GPS, a fish finder, an emergency radio, life vests, a pair of jet-skis, and some more fishing stuff. Then he needed a trailer to put the boat on, so we went to the trailer department and he bought the trailer that matched his boat. After getting the trailer, I asked him what he was hauling the trailer with, and when he told me about his small convertible, I told him that it would not be able to haul the boat and I recommended the big pickup truck with the V-8 diesel engine. He decided to go ahead and get that as well, along with a deluxe tow package. Once we got that done, I took him to the vacation department and sold him a vacation home at the lake with a private dock, so he could have a place to keep the new boat. And that was about all I had time for.”

The manager was stunned. It took him a few moments to gather his thoughts.

“And you did all this from someone coming in to buy a fishing lure?”

“No,” the young man replied. “He came in looking for tampons. I told him ‘Looks like your weekend is shot, you may as well go fishing…’”

Monday, the country man went back to work at Super Mega Mart.