Journey with Gene, Months 21-25

5 MONTH MEGA UPDATE:

As you have probably noticed, I have not updated his blog in several months (I hope you all didn’t miss me too much!). Don’t worry, I still work for Hajoca and I’m loving it — for real!

So why the long hiatus? Simply put, it was a combination of the fact that outside sales has required a significantly larger portion of my time and has also completely captured my attention that I found myself concerned about nothing other than reaching my sales goals! Lee Tracy, our Senior Director of Administration and Training, kindly reminded me that I had forgotten about my blog. Oops, I’m back on it now!

Let’s see… April was spent mostly doing preparations for my outside sales phase, which started on May 1st. During this time, I got with my mentors, Tom and Ed, to discuss what accounts I should call on and what my sales goals were. I also spent some time with other managers and outside salespeople in my region and went on a few sales calls with them (special thanks to George, Ed, Jerry, Mike, and Matt). I was able to observe their sales techniques and styles; it was a very active learning experience.

Once May arrived, I started out firing on all cylinders. I also signed up for the Dale Carnegie Sales Success course, which I attended every Monday evening for 8 weeks. My sales goals were set quarterly. My first quarter was from May 1st though August 31st. This three month span went by like a blur. I was constantly on the road visiting my customers, writing up quotes for them, and also still helping out in the office and counter on occasion. Amidst the chaotic schedule, I attended a three day long division-wide vendor roundtable meeting in June and a three day long pricing and purchasing class in July. Additionally, I managed to squeeze in a 5-day vacation to Las Vegas in June!!

Bottom line: How did I do? My sales goals for the quarter was to open 4 new accounts and make at least $70,000 in sales. Unfortunately, I was only able to establish 2 new accounts, but I made over $88k in sales! For the August-October quarter I will definitely do everything possible to hit all of my goals. So far, August has been a little slow, but I have a few more big sales in the works and I am already negotiating two new accounts. Always forward; never quit!

The third week of August was also my third annual Management Development Program Seminar. It was very similar to last year’s, but we are now up to over 50 trainees in the program! Kate, Haley, and Noe added some fun activities like the visit to our corporate headquarters in Ardmore, PA and renting a suite at Citizen’s Bank Park for the Phillies game! Grant and I presented our project and received praise and acclaim for our work. We identified multiple practices which either correlated to positive or negative performance at the profit centers. Based on our findings, we constructed an action plan for the managers to improve their teams (e.g. more delegation, cross training) and had a good participation rate. The next step is to follow up in October and measure the results.

Perhaps most importantly, I made sure I had a lot of fun this summer. I think that the summer of 2014 has been the most memorable time of my life. I took a Vegas vacation for the second year in a row, and I also attended a few other music festivals. I feel blessed to have incredible friends and a promising career. Hajoca promotes and encourages a healthy and fulfilling work-life balance, and for that I am extremely grateful. Here’s a special thank you to Keith, Rick F., Rick K., Chris, Lee, Jock, Paul, Tom, Ed, and Jeff for being the best bosses I could ask for. <3