Today is my day off. I scheduled a visit to the social security administration today on the advice of my doctor. he suggested I initiate a claim for social security disability on account of my poor eyesight.
zmy metro mobility bus came to pick me up at 08:00a.m. and got me to their building in downtown Saint Paul shortly before 09:00a.m.. I was done with my appointment in less than 10 mins and came home.
Spent the remainder of the day reading, napping and listening to music.

I took the day off in lieu of working my scheduled day off last Thursday April 30th. Thursday was the last day of our Spring Sale. Our store manager anticipated lots of customers and we did not have enough staff to work the showroom floor. As it turned out, it was not that busy but as always, at the end of the day we have to pull the sale tags from every item in the store.
I began pulling tags on the second floor at about 7:00p.m. I started in bedrooms, moved down through mattresses and the back through bedrooms for a second look. After satisfying myself that Bedrooms was completely clear, I moved around through recliners, into Office and Home Entertainment and then finally through Youth Bedroom. I was just finishing up at about 7:40p.m. when I was joined by Linda E. She did a final check of the upstairs area. My Metro Mobility bus was scheduled for 8:00p.m. so I got myself ready to leave.
Tracy P. a customer for whom I hade prepared a quote called to order the items I had quoted so I ended my day with about $3,300.00 in sales.
Monday was otherwise uneventful. I went to Bakers square for breakfast, then to Target,Sam’s Club and Best Buy.

Steve U. was a little late this morning picking me up. He enjoyed breakfast with his wife and lost track of time. Anyway, we wended our way to Schneiderman’s. We stopped by at Kwiktrip in the hopes of a pleasant morning encounter with Bree one of the gas station attendants. We got coffee and repaired to the showroom.

The morning meeting was run by Reese H. Honestly, I have no idea what was aid. The store music was too loud and the air exchangers were running drowning out normal conversation.

sadly the president of Schneiderman’s apparently believes that loud music somehow increases excitement in the customer and subsequently, sales. Personally, I find loud obnoxious music, annoying and distracting.
On a side note I should mention that I have never been to or will willingly go to a Jimmy Johns sandwich store because I have been told their music is loud and obnoxious. I should mention that we have one or two colleagues who drink the cool-aid and believe that the music we play drives excitement and sales. Ah well, it’s a free world.

Perhaps the saddest part of the equation is that employees seem never to be asked for feedback or opinions.
In fact, communication within the company is somewhat sparse.

our Senior Corporate Mattress Buyer Paul Z. comes to our showroom occasionally. but remarkably, when he does, he seldom sets foot outside of the store manager’s office. he does not walk the floor, meet with staff informally, or ask what’s happening.

Sunday was boring and almost uneventful. I sold one chair for aa$96.00.
See you all tomorrow.

Steve U. picked me up at home this morning and we both wended our way to the Woodbury showroom.

For those of us who had arrived early, there was a note to finish tagging the main floor for the Mother’s day sale which began on Friday May 1st., and then to meet in the “Rug” Department at 9:20a.m. So three of us gathered at the rugs, only to hear that the store manager, Randy D. decided to move the morning meeting to the Design Center.
The meeting was an endless drone of boring stuff read from a printed agenda page.

My first Up was good. I sold a clock to Mr. H. and son. my second Up was also good. I sold a sofa, love seat, chair and ottoman to John and Francy D.

I received a page to go and see Randy D. at his office. Also present was our Sales Manager, Reese H. Randy D. began by berating me. A colleague had brought it to his attention that I had a bad attitude. He asked me if I enjoyed my work and I told him frankly, no! I told him how frustrated I was with being unsuccessful in sales and the reasons why. I went back to work on the showroom floor.

My third Up was painful. I chased Sam and Mrs. B. around the showroom for almost an hour. Believing them to be in the bedrooms area, I waited patiently at Kiosk 4. After some time I went to check on them but they were nowhere to be found. I went downstairs to put myself back on the board and low and behold, Lindsey L was talking to them. Subsequently she sold them a chaise for $799.00. I suspect that Lindsey L. did not ask who had greeted them and just assumed that it would be OK to take the sale. I was disappointed and tried hard not to let the event ruin my day.

Today marks my sixth month of working at Schneiderman’s Furniture in Woodbury, Minnesota. Actually my sixth month was officially on April 27th but I was just too tired and more to the point, uninspired to write about the occasion then.I began my new career as a furniture salesman on the 27th October 2014.Prior to joining Schneiderman’s I had been in the hospitality and travel business, so retail sales was a new endeavor for me.

I began my two weeks of sales training on October 13th at the Lakeville offices. There were about 8 of us in the training class. Three of us were bound for the Woodbury showroom and the others bound for the remainder of our 6 stores in Rochester, Duluth, Plymouth, Lakeville and Roseville.

Training was somewhat redundant as the first week was devoted in its entirety to teaching us how to become sales-people. Redundant? Well considering you had to have a sales background to get hired, one would have thought that sales was a given.
The piece that none of us but one had was experience selling furniture. Alas only a day or two the following week was allotted to product knowledge. One of the days was allotted to computer training i.e. actually entering an order into the inventory management system. And this was bizarre to say the least; three people crowded round one computer and the instructor telling what he was doing on his screen so that we could follow along.
I remember doing a LinkedIn update saying that I was attending sales training and furthermore that it was the best training I had ever received. this was quickly followed up by Larry S. the owner of the family business saying thank you and that he would like to get together to talk about LinkedIn sometime. What Larry did not know is that the message was not really aimed at Schneiderman’s. It was aimed at a previous employer whose V.P. of Sales, Rick M. was a total diploma-mill moron who thought he was the only person who really knew how sales worked. But that’s another story.

Look out tomorrow for more rambling and the dish on my life as a furniture salesman.