A Great Start to 2011

Blogging seems to be a great outlet for your celebrations, emotions and frustrations so I thought I would give it a shot. This Blog is going to be my public outlet of the ups and downs associated with being a commissioned salesman, living in New York City (ok Brooklyn, but close enough) with a wife and two kids....in short a snap shot into my life. I'll profess in advance that when I am stressed I tend to be focused on the negative and have a "sky is falling Chicken Little" attitude and outlook on life. When the deal finally closes, the high associated with it lasts only a short time before the stress and pressure to close the next deal sets back in. Hannah has been my outlet for many years, and as she always says...."it will be fine, fine, fine". She is, was and always has been right about that, but I thought I would start this Blog so I don't have to use her as my only sounding board. Please feel free to comment on any post. All thoughts, comments, criticisms and recommendations will be welcomed, reviewed and considered.

So let's get started....As most folks know in July of last year I took a new job which required I move my family from our familiar surroundings in Florida, with many friends and family within a 2 hour car drive, to New York where we knew absolutely nobody. The job started 4th of July weekend and allowed Hannah and I to play tourist with big dreams in Manhattan, for a couple of days. We arrived in NYC with the same desires as anybody else who has ever dreamed of moving to the City, that we were actually going to live in the City. We thought we were going to be like the Jefferson's and move on up, but instead of the East Side we were going to live on the West Side. Yeah, the West Side, you know right next to Yoko Ono and all the celebrities and rich folk who call the Upper West Side home.

The first day in the City was July 4th and we had a hotel room in Times Square at the Marriott Marquis. One of the many benefits of being a salesman who travels a lot is the frequent flyer miles, and the hotel frequent stayer programs. My last day at my old job I cashed in nearly all my Marriott points and got this room....for one night. We were so excited the night before we flew up that we didn't even sleep. After getting checked into the hotel we started to explore the beautiful luxury bildings on the Upper West Side. We already knew that we wanted a door man elevator building that was close to Central Park so that Hannah could walk the kids and the dogs (who wound up not making the move, and I miss you Max and Molly) to the park on the beautiful northeast summer afternoons. That night we enjoyed the Macy's fireworks display over the Hudson River, which due to the crowds erased my desires to ever attend New Year's Eve in Times Square, and crashed early due to lack of sleep.

The next day we got up early and got on the Subway to Brooklyn. I figured that if I was going to be taking the train to work everyday I should see how the trip would be in from the city. Well about an hour and a half later we arrived in Brooklyn. This train trip was the second inclination that living in the City was going to be difficult, and nearly impossible. What was the first you ask, oh yeah the reality that for our rent budget we would either get a rat infested hell hole or an apartment the size of a matchbook in Manhattan. When I stepped out of the subway tunnel my first comment to Hannah was let's get back on the train and go back to the city. At first glance Bay Ridge Brooklyn was the opposite of what I wanted. I had the dreams of living in a skyscraper and I found myself surrounded by 5 story billings, two family homes and brownstones. We checked into a much lower quality hotel in Brooklyn and began exploring this area. The rest of the day was spent looking at the neighborhood closest to the city, a neighborhood called Park Slope. Again a reality set in that the prices here were similar to the city, but the difference being instead of a matchbox you were able to get a shoebox.

The next day started my new job, which I knew I would master in about 10 minutes. I knew that the people out there in the world were just waiting for me to take this job and hit the phones almost immediately. I was given a 6 month draw plus my base salary. If anybody out there knows or is a salesperson, you know that your commissions are your life blood and that when you start a new job you are extended a draw or advance on commissions. The first 3 months of the draw were given as non-recoverable which means the company couldn't make me pay back the money...in affect guaranteed monies. The last 3 months, or October, November and December were recoverable meaning that when I made a sale I would have to pay the company back for the months I had taken the draw. I remember saying on the 2nd or 3rd day that I knew I would have something sold long before the end of the draw. To make a long story short, I was sadly mistaken.

As I said, I knew that there were people out there just waiting for me to call them so they could buy my software. In fairness to me, I was told that the company had so many leads that they couldn't follow up on them all. I took that to mean pre-qualified leads, when in reality these leads turned out to be about 9 months old from a trade show. No matter, on day 5 I started on the phone. The first few weeks had the excitement of the new job, new people to talk to and continuing to look for an apartment. We had finally decided that living close to my office was not only financially advantageous but better for our family. About 3 weeks into the search we wrote a lease on a newly renovated apartment on the top floor of a 2 family home. The downstairs apartment being occupied by the owner and his family.

We officially moved around the middle of August and I kept plugging away on the phones. Day after day, week after week making phone calls but not closing any sales. Before I knew it, the first three months of the non-recoverable draw had evaporated. No worries though we had a major trade show in October and that was going to be the ticket, yeah right. Just prior to leaving for the show I got what I had been waiting and working for, a commitment from a prospect. Not only was it a commitment but a BIG deal...just shy of $500,000. Wow, what a way to start this show. It took some pressure off and allowed me to focus on building my pipeline for 2011. I would have the contract for this deal signed before Thanksgiving and everything would be perfect. Well before I knew it Thanksgiving weekend was upon us and the contract wasn't signed. I was terrified that when I returned to work on Monday the decision makers would have killed the project. The good news is that the project didn't die over the Thanksgiving weekend, but it wasn't signed either. We were now moving into December, closer to Christmas but more importantly coming to the end of my draw and an uncertain January and beyond. As each day went by I began to feel like my career was slowly crumbling brick by brick, and more importantly I was letting my family down. I tried everything I could to get them to sign the contract, without success. All of a sudden the project had to go before the company's board of directors, which I was sure was going to spell the end. I was convinced that the board was going to kill it, and with it my career.

On December 21st I received the 2nd verbal commitment that the Tuesday following Christmas we should have the green light to proceed. That took the edge off for the holiday, until the Monday when another demo was requested. WTF, we've received two verbals and now we are back to a demo. This, I was sure, meant we were back to square one and if the deal moved forward it would be delayed by 3 to 6 months. Despite the wishes of the prospect I got on a plane and flew to do the demo in person with all of the decision makers. This action, in and of itself nearly blew up in my face. Despite that, it absolutely turned out to be the right move and the demo/meeting went as well as it possibly could have. During this process I was given the good news that I wouldn't have to pay back the recoverable draw (making it non-recoverable) and extending the recoverable period to the first three months of 2011. Well as it turns out, I didn't have to dip into this new recoverable period because the deal CLOSED officially a few short days after the on site demo.

So here we are now on January 19th, the biggest deal of my career in the books and a positive outlook for 2011. I have a couple of other deals in the works and some other solid prospects. The managers of my company are happy, and I managed to earn my keep for a few more months. As I mentioned at the start of this post, this high will no doubt soon wear off. When February 1st hits and our new fiscal year starts, the pressure will slowly begin to mount to prove that this deal was not a fluke. In the mean time however I am going to enjoy this high, and remember that I am good at what I do. And what I do is what I am, a 21st Century Salesman living in New York City with my wife and two kids. Cheers!