So after my first week of full work at the new job, I have to say – I’m exhausted. 13 hour days. Yeah. As for the job itself, I have to say it has its ups and downs. I’m doing inbound sales – that means people are calling in to me wanting to buy stuff. My last few days of training were horrible. I graduated by the hairs on my chinny-chin-chin. On the last Wednesday, my trainer told me I needed 5 sales to eek by and had that day and the following to get it done. I managed 4 that day, and three more the next and got the thumbs up. On Friday, I took a ridiculous amount of calls and managed 3 sales, which is not good.
What they want is a 30% close rate. My first ‘real day’ on the phones was Sunday and my close rate was under 20%. I felt beat-up. Monday morning, I lay in bed trying to decide if it was worth getting up, showering and heading in to work. That’s how down I was. But I did get up and Monday ended up being my best day ever – 12 sales! I was the team leader, blowing past 2 people who have dominated the team for some time.
Now I was on a high. Maybe I really can do this job.
I get home each night just in time to fall into bed and sleep until my alarm goes off again – which is always too soon. Tuesday dawned and a freak snow storm came in. No one expected or predicted this snow storm. I dug my car out and headed to work only to find the roads had not been plowed and were covered in ice and snow. 5mph was pushing it. From my house to the highway is usually a 10 minute trip; this morning it took 45. I’d left early, but started to panic it wouldn’t be enough. 2 hours later, I was still on the highway and had to call in to tell them I would be late.
If you work the extra hours they want you to, you make more money. Regular shifts = 100% commission. Extra shifts = up to 135%. If you’re late? You are back to 100% no matter how many hours you work that week. So on the one hand, I had an awesome day Monday, but being late on Tuesday destroyed my 135% commission for the week. So I was down again. I did stay positive but struggled on the phones for another whopping 4 sales and a 22% close rate. Wednesday had 5 for 25%, so my close rate did go up.
My manager tells me it’s going to be a lot of ups and downs at first, but it will eventually even out and those ups and downs will become less dramatic highs and lows. I do have the rapport on the phones they want, which is good. Had one of my calls evaluated by someone who was listening in and got high marks on everything (it was also a sale, which is good).
I think a good portion of it is staying positive. Not always easy when you’re going back and forth and dealing with such long, hard days hourws-wise. But I’m trying hard. We’ll see where I am after a couple weeks. Hopefully, it will become easier as I adjust and acclimate to the challenges of such a schedule.
~P
