Hot tub industry - careers

[D.P. Roberts]

Oh, believe me, I have PLENTY of great customers at my current store. For example:
1) Two weeks ago, we finally asked a guy to stop coming to our store until he got his bladder control problem under control - he had already ruined three chairs. He then swore at me loudly for several minutes. He then threatened to burn our store down. An undercover cop happened to be standing right nearby and heard the whole thing- then the fun began.
2) A woman was found giving her pet monkey a bath in our restroom sink.
3) More restroom stories? Okay. People unaccustomed to western plumbing clog the toilets with paper towels, and then think flushing over and over again is going to fix the problem.
4) Finding some "adult sophisticate" magazines in the men's room. And they're used.
5) This was a fun conversation:
    Customer: "I'm looking for a certain book. I don't know the title, and I don't know the author. I don't even know what subject it's in. But I know it was purple and had a cucumber on the cover."
    Me: "I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with that title. We have over a hundred thousand different titles here- do you                            have any other information about it?"
     Customer: "No, but can you go look?"
6) I love presidential elections. Conservative customers yell at me for hours for having too many liberal books. Then, liberals come in and yell at me for having too many conservative books. Then they start yelling at each other. If we're lucky, we don't have to call the police.
7) Homeless people spend all day in our comfy chairs. Some have died while sitting there.

So I'm used to dealing with the general public. More importantly, I'm GOOD at it. I'm not really worried about that part.

[drewstar]

You also get to meet exciting, verbose, intellectually stimulating conversasionalists like this guy:

Me: Come on in and make yourself at home!  I'll be with you in just a minute.
Mr. Excitement:  We're just looking.
Me: Great!  Feel free to look around and I'll be happy to help if you have any questions.
Mr. Excitement:  What do these run?
Me: Well, we've got 27 different models.  They run between $3000 and $12,000.  If you have a few minutes, I'll be happy to show them to you.
Mr. Excitement:  I'm just wanting to know what they cost.
Me:  $3000 to $12,000.
Mr. Excitement:  Well, alright....let us think about it.
Me:  OK.  Take care.

 

Folks should know that you can right click on someone's photo and select "View Image".  Some folks have better pics than others.

Niiiiiiice.




LMAO

[hottubdan]

DP,

If you have no spa stores in your town,
And you have 10's of thousand of dollars
And can qualify for a $100,000 line of credit
And you can sell and/or service
Not to mention deliver

Then

Contact Hot Spring and Sundance and see if they want a new dealer.

Otherwise, get yerself a job selling and see if you like it!

Dan

 

[D.P. Roberts]

DP,

Otherwise, get yerself a job selling and see if you like it!

Dan

 

Yeah, that's the question I've been asking about - aside from whether I actually enjoy selling tubs, will the job itself teach me what I need to know? Not just from my point of view (which is easy to find out), but also from the perspective of potential lenders and manufacturers? If not, what else should I be doing?

It does seem like getting a job selling hot tubs would be ideal preparation. However, there are only a handful of hot tub dealers in the nearest large city- if they aren't hiring (or just don't want me), would sales experience in similar big-ticket items be useful?