lonely at the top

[Emerald_11]

Hi-

I have worked at my current commission based sales job for less than a year now (10 months) and have maintained in the top 3 sales people the entire time. For about 4 months in a row now I have sold more than anyone else there. I am the top sales person. Most of my co-workers work 40 hours a week and I only work 20 AND I still manage to sell more than they do even though they have double the opportunities that I do. Since we work on commission I probably make about the same or even more $ working part time as a few of them probably do working full time.

 

 

I have always been nice to my co-workers and have hung out with a few of them outside of work a few times. I like most of my co-workers and never hesitate to give them pointers but only when they ask me on different approaches to selling and also different ways to rebuttal customers who act like they might not buy.

 

 

However lately I can tell that they get annoyed when get along really well with customers and get sales. I am a very friendly people person & I seem to find things in common with customers a lot. The few people who work there that seemed interested in friendship outside of work when they first met me are giving me sort of cold treatment these days.-(ie leaving me out of conversations & stop talking when I show up, not asking me about how I am doing or my life anymore, giving one word answers to my ?s and walking away etc...) Sometimes when I have an especially successful day my co-workers roll their eyes and look at each other like they want to go talk about me behind my back or something.

One of my co-workers actually told me she hates me and wants to kick my ass!! My response was to laugh and I said coming from you that is a compliment and I told her I could take her anytime jokingly.....

I then revealed to her I have taken jujitsu lessons and look forward to it.-jokingly---however the jujitsu part is true- I love hand to hand combat! None of my coworkers knew that about me until that day.

She now avoids all conversations and eye contact with me....

I did tell my boss that happened & he just said she jokes around like that sometimes...

A few of my co -workers have worked there several years. One girl who works there will say things like "I cant wait til my shift is over I want to go home"....& she doesn't seem to care that it is a huge turn off for customers who hear her say that.

 

 

I do not rub it in their face when I sell a lot. The management insists on recognizing the top sales people as a "reward" for success.

I do not plan on selling any less- I go there to help people(the customers) and to make money- and I do. I always bring my A game to work with me and feel like I should not worry about other peoples jealousy issues.

 

 

I just expected to make friends at work but it isn't really happening due to this issue....I cannot prove it but I have a strong feeling that one of the girls who works there is saying rude stuff about me when I am not there or cannot hear her. I think this because I can feel this vibe and usually when I suspect something like this it is true. (the same person who threatened to "kick my ass")

I think she is actively trying to poison the other co-workers against me.

Should I just keep doing what I am doing and ignore this? Or does anyone have any helpful suggestions about how I should make this better....Right now I actually enjoy talking to the customers more than I enjoy my co-workers.

Edited March 19, 2015 by Emerald_11

[preraph]

I think when you're in that position, your only hope for cronies is in the higher-ups. And then the ones who resent you will hate you even more.

 

I took a job as a branch coordinator in sales. A friend of mine had had the position before me. I liked him a lot, but once I got to the office, I realized how disorganized and ineffectual he had been. He was a compulsive collector and my new office looked like one of those hoarder shows. Stacks of every trade magazine and stuff to where you couldn't even walk in there. On top of that there were promotional items (music) that needed to be disbursed to client buyers prior to release so they could decide what they needed and it was the best selling tool they had, of course. He had a storeroom of promotional copies that had never been sent out, plus one guy who had a used record store was coming in and helping himself and basically making a living off illegally selling these free copies.

 

Worse, his staff, no surprise, were lackadaisical because why not. The one he liked best (had a crush on her, he told me) just sat around talking about sports and really did very little except keep anyone else from working. Then there was a commission-only guy there I'd worked with in the past and did okay with in the past but who had settled into middle-aged alcoholism and degenerated a lot. He was always very snide and cynical and had always had a problem with authority, and now he had a real problem with me, a female he knew, being his boss and was undermining me left and right. Soon all the employees treated me like a buzzkill. My stipulation going in was hire/fire authority, limited travel and one other thing I can't remember now.

 

The girl who had been the old boss's favorite actually started crying for no reason one day saying she missed him. Well, yeah, a free paycheck for doing nothing is always nice. So needless to say I wasn't the most popular person there. And then when push came to shove, they wouldn't really let me fire and hire people on my own like was my verbal agreement with them.

 

Despite all that plus an SEC investigation that put me making copies of everything in the office all through the Christmas season until late at night alone, for the first time this branch had sharp increases in sales under me. I was number one and number two the last six months I was there (and I was in Texas, so I was competing with NY and LA, who no one ever beat). Well, you'd think they'd have been ecstatic, but instead I was getting all kinds of condescending crap from the NY higher-ups, just insulting stuff insinuating that if we were No. 1, it had to be just dumb luck. And meanwhile they had promoted the guy whose office I had taken over and were happy with him, which boggles the mind. I liked him, and i'm sure he talked a good line, but he was too disorganized to get literally anything done. I got very tired of the whole thing after 2 years and left still Number 1 because I couldn't please the employees or the bosses, even though I was making them unprecedented money out of a branch that had never even really functioned before.

 

One year I tried working at an auto dealership, and what they do is they hire too many salespeople, mainly in hopes a family member will then buy a car from there and also so they don't have to pay out as much in bonus. So only 2 guys there did well consistently. One was a teddy-bearish kind of guy who had at one time worked as a male stripper in his better days. He just looked trustworthy. He didn't even try very hard. He just looked like you could trust him and customers gravitated to him. Every month, he was the high earner. Every salesman in the place loathed him and would badmouth him to me. I actually liked him just fine and he had tried to give me a couple of tips which I appreciated early on. Like it was a big lot, and I would run back to get the keys, trying not to keep the customer waiting. He told me it looked stupid and desperate and don't do it. And he helped me in other ways. He was not a braggart and there was no reason except envy that other disliked him.

 

So yes, it is lonely at the top, even when it's just the top of a sales floor at a car dealership. People can be very petty.

[ptp]

It is lonely at the bottom too.

 

Sigh.

[Emerald_11]

 

One year I tried working at an auto dealership, and what they do is they hire too many salespeople, mainly in hopes a family member will then buy a car from there and also so they don't have to pay out as much in bonus. So only 2 guys there did well consistently. One was a teddy-bearish kind of guy who had at one time worked as a male stripper in his better days. He just looked trustworthy. He didn't even try very hard. He just looked like you could trust him and customers gravitated to him. Every month, he was the high earner. Every salesman in the place loathed him and would badmouth him to me. I actually liked him just fine and he had tried to give me a couple of tips which I appreciated early on. Like it was a big lot, and I would run back to get the keys, trying not to keep the customer waiting. He told me it looked stupid and desperate and don't do it. And he helped me in other ways. He was not a braggart and there was no reason except envy that other disliked him.

 

So yes, it is lonely at the top, even when it's just the top of a sales floor at a car dealership. People can be very petty.

 

Yeah I agree the sales guy is actually running to get something does seem desperate....That was a good piece of advice.

 

 

The thing my co-workers miss out on when they act as they do is my help. Really we are all on the same team..it would be great if we could support each other at work together. Then maybe we could set sales records as a whole. Oh well....

The best sales people do draw people to them by projecting good vibes & positive energy.

Also just really listening to them & figuring out what they are looking for & hooking them up with good deals. & YES like you said gaining TRUST is so important...I do it by just being honest & giving my opinions if they ask me.

I don't LOVE my sales job or anything & look forward to finding a new job once I'm done with school.

Sales is part of any business so it is a good skill to have.

[loveweary11]

I have always been in your shoes throughout my career in other people's companies.

 

President parading me around at the company meeting, saying how great I am, etc.

 

There is something you're forgetting to do, Mr Top Seller......

 

Sell YOURSELF inside the organization.

 

You need to treat the entire company just like you treat sales, except there is no funnel. You must slowly and methodically align people with you inside the organization. Use the skills you use to bring in that revenue and turn them toward your co workers. Find things in common with them.

 

Start with your problem chick and any social leaders of the group.

[contact1]

The thing about sales, as I have done it before, it is very cut throat due to the commission aspect. So it is very easy for other to resent those that do well / better than them. As someone mentioned, it would be best to try to get along to the higher ups / supervisors. Especially given how well you are doing, it is sure to help advance your career.

 

On a related note, I HATE sales, good for you for being really good at it, not my type of job.