Chapter 2

Monday afternoon, I met with Courtney and Emily. They'd been talking, and wanted to take our partnership to the next level. They wanted to explore and experiment without the pressure or reputation they would obtain if they did this with a boy in their class. We didn't start fucking like bunnies, but they would spend time giving me hand jobs, and then blowjobs. I would return the favor and, as in any relationship, we continued to build trust, and take it a step at a time.

Emily chickened out on asking her mom, and asked me to drive her to the clinic one afternoon, so she could start on the pill. She was nervous, but Courtney went in with her, and I hung out in the truck. I offered to go in, but they both blushed, and said that they didn't want me there. Their mothers gave them permission to go to the beach with me, but I think that they regretted it when I left at 6:30 in the morning. It takes forever for me to wake up for school, but I always jump right up when I am heading to the beach to surf.

I stopped at McDonald's on the way to the beach, and picked up some Egg McMuffins. The girls were more awake, as we drove up the beach towards the jetty where the best waves were. My truck drove nice, and covered the sand to the jetty with little problems. After arriving, I got my board out of the back, a couple of chairs, and a blanket for the girls. A quick rub of wax on my board was all I needed before entering the water.

Looking around, I could see there were a couple of other girls on the beach, and a couple in the water, as well. I paddled out, and then sat on my board to catch my breath while watching the horizon to look for a good set of waves to appear. There was a nice offshore breeze that helped the waves stand up a little taller. In addition, the incoming tide helped, and the waves ranged from 2-3 foot with an occasional four-foot wave showing up. They take wave measurements from the backside, so with the trough in front, the face of the wave could be almost double that size. These were nice waves by Florida standards. The good waves meant more surfers, and I found the water more crowded, as the day went on.

I was a good paddler, and knew how to read the incoming wave set, so I could move myself in a good position to catch the wave, and have position on the other surfers. I caught and rode 15 to 20 nice waves. I also hung out, and talked with some friends. They all liked my truck, and asked about the two girls lying in front of it. I explained that they were my younger neighbors, and were too young to drive. I told them that they gave me some gas money for a ride.

When I got out, I was hungry and thirsty. The girls looked cute in their little bikinis, and they wanted to stay for a bit longer, and sun themselves. I grabbed an apple that I had in the truck before flopping down on the blanket to rest. Emily asked if I wanted sunscreen, but I declined. I never wore the stuff since it washed off anyways. My tan was permanent, and it didn't change much except in the winter.

We drove through New Smyrna on our way home to pick up a sandwich. I was driving back towards the road that would take us home. During those two miles, I noticed that I passed two hardware stores. The girls talked all the way home about the beach, meeting some of the other girls most of which were older. They were happy, and said that I could take them any time. Courtney's mom was happy to have them home earlier than normal, so she slipped me some gas money, and thanked me for giving them a ride.

My dad stopped me later to talk about my job. He told me that I could write off the mileage on my truck when I was making sales calls, as a 1099 employee. I thought about all the hardware stores near the different beaches in Florida. He asked about the commission deal I put together, and when I told him, I added that it would be great, because I wanted the sales experience. I wasn't going to find a job any other way, so I felt it worth the risk. I could always mow lawns or work at a fast food place, as a second job if it took me too long to figure it out. Dad thought that I was taking a big risk, and he wanted to make sure that I wasn't wasting Mr. Malone's time. After we finished talking, he saw that I was serious, and wished me luck.

Over the next couple of weeks, I studied some, and listened hard in class to prepare myself for finals. I finished the year with 2 A's and 4 B's. To add to that good news was I still hadn't slept with the girls or wrecked my truck. The Monday after the end of school, Dan and I went into Airflow Technologies. We went in different directions. I ended up in front of the sales manager. Mr. Tipton was around fifty and bald. He worried that I might not ever make a sale, but it wouldn't cost him anything for me to make sales calls. We spent the rest of the day going over the products and pricing. I asked about what I could and couldn't do to close the deal. I got a few demo filters, sales materials, and order forms.

Tuesday morning I left the house, and I just drove. I came to my first store, and walked in asking for the owner. A man came out, and asked how he could help me. He thought that I was looking for a job, and was already sizing me up. I introduced myself, and asked, "I'm interested in the air conditioning filters that you sell, and wanted to see about becoming your supplier. I think we could work together to increase your sales and profitability."

"Your selling air filters?"

"Yes sir. I represent Airflow technologies, and I noticed that you had a lesser brand in your displays. Why do you sell filters in your store?"

"My customers need them, so I sell them."

"Most stores use filters, as a loss leader. They put them in the back of the store, and then those homeowners that want to protect their units have to walk by all of your other stuff to find the filters. Typically the mark-up is less than 10% instead of the 100% for your other inventory."

"That's right. I buy them for ninety cents, and sell them for ninety-nine cents."

"And they do a lousy job. Airflow filters use a high tech fabric along with baffles to increase surface area. It traps up to ten times more dust and particles that the average home owner is trying to keep out of their system, and when you check the filter, you can see the dirt."

"How much is this super filter going to cost me?"

"Right now you are making nine cents for each filter. I could see you're selling ours for three dollars, or two ninety-nine each, and you're making fifty cents each. I think you should take a couple of cases, and see how they sell. Once your customer sees the difference they will gladly pay the extra to keep from replacing their expensive AC units."

"So you want me to spend twenty-five dollars a case instead of ten dollars a case?"

"Order a case in each of your four most common sizes. It will be the best hundred-dollar investment you ever made. When they sell out we can talk about expanding your order to the other sizes, and getting rid of the fake filters you now carry."

"I like the way you think, and I will invest my hundred dollars, as an experiment. What are the payment terms?"

"I'll turn in the order today and hand-deliver the filters tomorrow. They will send out the invoice with thirty days to pay. I guarantee that you will have re-ordered a few times by then."

"You sure are confident. Does your dad own this company or something? You look too young for someone who is selling hardware supplies."

"I saw the product, and wanted to let everyone else know how good it was. We use these filters at my house."

"I need to return to work, so what do I need to fill out?"

I signed him up, and then stopped at five other stores in that area. I got a total of three orders or fifty percent close rate. None of the orders was huge, but the main thing was that I got them to sign up. I drove back to the office to turn in my orders. Mr. Tipton looked up, and said, "Don, what can I do for you?"

"You didn't tell me where to turn in the orders. Do they go to you or someone else?"

"Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while. Let me see the order."

I handed him the three orders totaling four hundred dollars. He looked at them, and smiled. "This is a good start. How many doors did you have to knock on to close three?"

"I called on six, and I have to go back to two of them. One the manager was busy, and the other one wanted me to come back when the owner was there. The last guy called me a punk, and told me to fuck off. I thanked him for his time, and left. I told the three sales I made that I would drop off the first order personally."

"That is a lot of service for the commission. You made eighty dollars before taxes or overhead today."

"My brother made thirty-six at $4.50 an hour, and he has two more hours."

I was in the warehouse working with my brother to process the order, and place them in my truck when Mr. Malone walked out.

"Don, I heard you made three sales today. That isn't a bad way to start."

I thanked him for the compliment and then asked, "Why aren't your products already in these stores?"

"We've never gone after the retail market. We sell directly to maintenance companies that service office buildings."

"I guess that means that I should sell, as fast as I can before you send the rest of your sales guys after me and my business."

"I might have to hire some more, but the other sales guys have plenty of people to call."

"Just give me a head start."

"You have until the end of the summer, and then I can no longer protect your sales territory."

"You'll have to build a bigger factory by then," I joked.

"I only wish," was his reply.

On the way home, I stopped by one of the store, and delivered his first order, while I took the rest home with me, so I could drop them off in the morning. I was never in a hurry, and always made time to listen and learn about what made their business run, and how I could help them improve their business. The rest of the week was similar to my first day of sales. I worked on Saturday to make it a five-day sales week since I'd spent Monday in training. I focused Saturday on only four stores in the Titusville area. Since it was close to the beach, I brought my surfboard and bathing suit with me. I closed three of the four stores, and ended up with sixteen accounts for the week.

As I learned the sales business, I repeated and refined the model that I'd used for the first store. On each sales call, I talked to them about the product and the benefits that they would see in their bottom line by changing over to my company's products. Before I left, I set them up with a small test order, and a promise to buy back what they couldn't sell if the decided to pull out. Overall, I really liked meeting new people, and helping them.

There was a guy in Melbourne, FL that built a soccer goal out of PVC pipe and some netting. He had the plans drawn up, gave them away free, but to satisfy his customers, he was selling the materials right and left. I mentioned this to some of the other stores, and they liked the idea, and then came up with some of their own projects to promote. The projects didn't have anything to do with air filters, but they appreciated me taking the time to help them improve their business.

I was still playing with the girls a couple of times a week when our schedules matched up, and Courtney's mom was at work. The girls had decided to wait a month for the birth control to kick in before they took it to that level. I was having fun, and getting better at my other methods of bringing them pleasure that I was happy to take my time, and wait until they were ready.

My third week in sales was one that I'll never forget. I had just received my first reorder. He actually called it in to the company, and not me, but I still got credit since it was my account. I had an idea on Monday, and thought about it all week before I acted. I was thinking outside of the box, and came up with a way to help my prospective new customers.

Since I was in my truck driving around all the time, I listened to the radio, and the commercials between songs. There were ads from time to time about air conditioner annual service. I wanted them to use my filters when they serviced the units. I had an idea, and put it all together. The hardest part was getting a box that held twelve filters instead of ten. I ended up cutting up two boxes to make one. I called over to Bell Air, and scheduled a meeting with Mike Bell the owner.

Friday arrived, and I walked in to my meeting with Mr. Bell. It turned out that he wasn't that old, and looked around late thirties or early forties. Over the years, he had built the largest air conditioning company in central Florida. When he saw me, he felt caught a little off guard, because I was such a young person. I was also one of the few people who actually called, and scheduled an appointment, so I didn't have that much trouble setting it up. He kept looking behind me, but after I closed the door, he shifted his focus to see what I wanted.

After some quick introductions, I asked him to tell me a little about his business. Most businessmen like to talk about themselves and their successes, so he went into five minutes of history, and a description of his business, and the services they provided. I congratulated him on his success, and asked if I could show him an idea that I'd come up with. He nodded, and looked at his watch.

I explained that I saw his trucks everywhere, and heard his ads on the radio, as I went through my day. "Mr. Bell, you've worked hard to build a brand, and a reputation for quality. If a circuit board dies in ten years, nobody looks to you as the problem, but as the solution. If a unit just doesn't work well then they look to you as the possible source of the problem. I want to talk a bit about the filters that I represent, and how those filters can make you money."

"I'm still listening."

"Mr. Bell, Airflow Technology filters use an advanced material, and increase surface area to collect more dust that will clog up, and strain the HVAC units. I want to help you put together a campaign that will combine a few things that will make your annual service, as consistent as taking out the trash. When you install a new unit or do a service or annual service call on a unit, your technician will leave behind three things. First, is a refrigerator magnet with your company name and phone number for any breakdowns or repairs? Second, is a box of twelve Airflow filters. During the first visit, the technician will put the first one in the unit, and leave the remaining eleven. When you look in the box, the last filter will have a note reminding them to call, and schedule their annual check-up and service. Again, the box would have your company name and number on it. Last, is a calendar with the days marked when they need to change their air filter. These three things will put them on a cycle to have them calling at least once a year."