One Page Wonder 104 (Connection) “Welcome to the dark side”. Those are the first words spoken to me by my insurance agent this week when I met with him to discuss the insurance I need to be self employed. Having resigned from my job for the last 9 years I am going into a whole new world. Having always been employed by someone, this is such a new experience. Sometimes in life you have to be bold and brave to be able to make a difference and as small businesses keep the community ticking along, it is my time to shine. What I am going to do in the future is for another story, however I have to say that though it may be daunting to start ‘driving my own bus’ at my age, it kind of excites me. Out of all of the trainings and learning that I have taken part in over the last couple of years, come great awareness and the vision to see many opportunities, which augers well for our future. In recent weeks my role at the company had changed so with my resignation I see a break in the link of many long term associations. When I first became a Sales Rep in 1990, my boss at the time, a great mentor to me, sent me out to call on Croatian builders because I was at the time playing soccer for them. Ethnic people are interesting and they do so much business on trust and loyalty. In that area I really cared because they were people I had great respect for so business grew rapidly. Ironically, we rarely spoke about business, always about soccer, however the trust and connection was the key ingredient in our relationship. As my time on the road grew, I remember asking the top Rep at that time what do I need to know to grow my business outside of my Croatian friends. His message was very clear, develop that trust and be very genuine and your customers will become lifelong friends. This was no more evident when I swapped companies 9 years ago and was able to retain about 95% of my customers. This was because they had trust that I could provide the solutions they required. The thing that I really now understand clearly is that people deal with people. They are connected to the companies that they deal with through the people they communicate with. I received an email from one of my customers this morning on hearing of my news which simply summed it up perfectly. He said “You started out as a Sales Rep and ended up as an old friend that I rang for building supplies”. In a nutshell, that is it and we will still catch up for coffee when we can. Many of my customers have dealt with me for the whole 23 years and some have slotted in along the way. In many cases I have seen them become parents, know their wives or partners and have seen those children grow up, and some start their own families. I have seen many become apprentices to their fathers and have been DJ at many parties, engagements and even a few weddings. There has always been an unusual link where even though they started out as customers they became trusted friends. I even know who they support in footy. It has been a wonderful association with a great group of people that has surely enriched my life because builders and their sub contractors (whom I know many of) are real people. There is no aloofness or lack of integrity within them, they are simply people who want to be part of the dream you have for the finished product to transform your lifestyle. They are people you can have a joke with, or someone you can confide in, some probably swear too much but overall I have nothing but wonderful memories. On the odd occasion something may go wrong, you fix it and there is never a grudge or vendetta to make life difficult thereafter. I have been fortunate to witness so many marvelous constructions transform from a piece of dirt, into something that wow’s the owners. Often tradies get a bad rap in some circles; however from my point of view I was lucky enough to deal with a great group who always appeared to have great integrity. Maybe that is what I am good at, connecting people to quality people who give the clients a great outcome. Maybe there is a business there for me now. For a guy who owns barely any tools and am only safe putting up picture hooks, it seems bizarre that my calling ending up being the building industry. I have many great memories of fun times in working with these teams of great people and should we run into each other in the future let’s have a coffee together, a chat and a laugh and see what transpires. To all of those builders I have worked with, thank you for allowing me to be part of your team. Your humility has enriched my life. Have a great week Rodney Tattam 28th July 2013
Posted on: Sat, 27 Jul 2013 20:39:40 +0000
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