The Wife of a Car Salesman

It's Sunday morning, 10:00 a.m. I've just finished a nice homemade cappuccino and now I'm sitting at the computer catching up on everyone's blogs and feeling a bit inspired by all of the insightful things my friends have to say. So maybe it's time to catch up a bit on my blog too. Since I'm not so good at the phone calls, if I don't write often enough, our family wouldn't know if we were dead or alive.

First of all, I'm so proud of Don and his new job at Volkeswagon. Last month was frustrating for sure and he definitely struggled in the beginning with whether or not it was the right decision to take this job. And too be frank, I did too. It was a long commute, long hours, a declining industry. We had our hopes set so high on the Mini Dealership. When that didn't come through, it wasn't so much that Volkeswagon was a close second, but more like the only offer on the table at the time.

So I held my breath and played the supportive wife roll , whatever you decide I'm behind you, while Don waded his way through a frustrating first few weeks of incompetent IT department taking forever to get his computer hooked up and figuring out the strange and bizzare workings of the car business. It's different than he's used to, the biggest factor being that he doesn't close his own sales, his manager does, and therefore he doesn't set his own margins, nor does he even know what they are. He may have flubbed up an opportunity or two in the beginning, and his first sale that he closed was an all day process, but his managers of course love him and kept pleading to just give them 90 days to see what the car business can do for him. Apparently it takes about that long to really develop your contact base and have consistent leads to turn over.

Well, Don seems to be on a much quicker path than 90 days. He's been able to take his professional skills and process and combine them with this crazy industry and already with less than 6 weeks under his belt is coming in 2nd in sales this month. And this couldn't be more exciting for me. I find myself really getting into his job actually. A born athlete like myself, it has been a long time since I've followed anything which resembles keeping score and my competitive nature is really coming out. I told him the other day that I don't even care how much money he makes anymore, I just wanted him to win! Haha. But it is interesting, and I always look forward to hearing about his day, what kind of customers he had, how the test drive went, what kind of car they were into and why. We are riding the tide a bit and the days when people don't buy are monotonous and frustrating but when he does make the sale it's excitement and celebration time.

I'm not surprised in the least that he is doing so well so quickly. He is a professional in a very bizarre industry. He's honest, listens to his customers, cares about their concerns, gets excited with them, and willing to take extra steps that will lead to greater satisfaction overall. One of the sales he closed last week the customer told him that he had already been into the dealership several times and met with several other people. If anyone else had helped him, he probably still would have walked away from the deal but he wanted to buy from Don because he was the only one that he felt he actually connected with and made the sales process a positive experience. Yeah babe!

But yes, there are downsides. Loooooonnnnngggg hours. And there's no such thing as a day off. You're on the customer's schedule not your own so if they want to come in on your day off, what are you gonna do? Give the sale to someone else? Maybe after we have made our first Mil. ;) So no doubt that sucks but we are making the most of it. I've adjusted my sleeping schedule a bit to stay up later so we can spend more time together and I've been cooking late night dinners so we can eat together when he gets home around 8:30p.m. For me actually it works out pretty well. I have a solid few hours when I get home from work before I even have to think about cooking. Excellent! So far I have been filling my time with chores, errands, meal planning, blogging, chilling with my sister on Skype, walking the dogs, cleaning, and a little exercise here and there, and wayyyyyyyyyyy too much time on Facebook.

Now that I'm over the initial adjustment of our new lifestyles, and have made some progress on my home organization, the next big goal coming up is a half marathon with my sister-in-law in October. So I'll be starting a running program for that and have a long way to go to get in shape.

My other big goal is to read 25 books in a year, so I just started #1. It's called "The River Wife" by Jonis Agee. Just something I grabbed quickly from browsing the shelves at the library that sounded interesting. It's a mystery of unfolding family secrets that weaves together the lives of two different women from the early 19th and 20th centuries living out their lives on a quaint river settlement married to a couple of French descendents named DuCharme. It's off to a grabbing start with a big number on a disaster that traps Miss Annie alive in her bed during the devastating New Madrid Earthquake, and abandoned by her family who could not free her from the wreckage, begins to die a slow death until a wandering scavenger comes to her rescue several days later. Although his intentions are unclear, her motivations for survival outweigh anything else and her powerful will to live sets the opening tone for the book. If anyone wants to read it with me let me know and so we can start our own online bookclub! Don figured out a way to do multiple webcam streaming yesterday for gaming with folks up in Washington so I'm sure we can use that same network for a book club. Well, I have to say that post has gotten me a little jazzed up about this book, so I think I'm off to do a little reading. Happy Sunday All!