Sales increasing!

Damn I lost count of how many weeks I worked there already. So here goes.

This week got a little intellectual. Firstly, let's talk about the sales part. Week 1 was destroyed by a road show. Week 2 and the week thereafter should have no complains, right? Wrong! CNY's approaching and ppl are going to concentrate their spendings on decor and prep stuff. So wut brought me my sales? The answer: Bonuses. Quote from a customer "Eh, it looks like it's their new year instead of ours." I tell you, doing business wit chinese is the hardest. They compare everything and demand everything. If can they also want your whole store. Other races, on the other hand, are easier to deal with. They want to buy phone, the price is right, den start writing the receipt already.

But mostly my sales come from sellin small (cheap) phones la. I've sold a few big (expensive) phones too but those won't make my commission look like a fortune though. I do feel sorry for my colleague coz I seem to be sellin the majority of the phones since my arrival. Trying hard to share the sales la...

So come to the 'intellectual' part. I found out that dealing wit different ppl need different approach. The approach I picked up myself (which means unassisted, unlike some other skills that were 'taught' to me) was to talk with the customer, not talk to the customer. The difference here is that I'm trying to talk like them instead of juz being myself and talking my way. I try to blend into the customer's way of talking and that really made the whole working experience more enjoyable if not more fruitful.

If they speak good English, I try to present myself as someone that they can rely on and seek info. If they speak moderate English wit a slang, I try to do the same, speaking in their intonation and style. If they speak limited English, I also try to only speak limited english, aiming only to get the message across coz for these kind of ppl, talking too much equals making them confused and feeling that they cannot communicate wit you. It's a fun process as I do get to use slangs on actual ppl that speak that actual slang. African style, indian style, broken style, you name it. Communication is the key here. When you start communicating wit the customer, you noe wut he likes and dislikes and can sell the product that best suits his demand.

Another thing is the path of my life. Talkin wit actual ppl who are working really opens up my mind. The first one is that I should be learning something that I can use in real life. This is when I talked about learning japanese and aikido. In wut occasion am I going to apply these knowledge in life? Makes me wonder why I used so much time on nurturing PKBM last time. It's not like I'm going to march to get paid, right? Hrmm... My bad, I did learn a lot of stuff during that time that I can apply now.

The next one is whether to sustain my life on a skill or on something academic. I can learn a skill like repairing h/p, cars, or cooking, and earn a paycheck from it. OR I can study a degree on something and live as a professional. I dunno but I do enjoy doing stuff wit my hands rather than using my brains all the time. Hrmm... (aiks got a lot to say one, but forgot liao...)

As usual, the best (or only) pics of the week!

Dealing wit phones everyday is making me crazy. Somehow I feel that this model has some resemblance to a car, duncha think so? The speakers resembling the grill at the front of cars? Hrmm...

Gigantic lion head at Times Square.

How did I end up at Times Square? No I'm not deployed to Times Square. Went to KL today on my day off to get some new year clothes. Did most of my shopping at Money (or Gold) River, or more specifically, at one shop. Was a noob ma, but thankfully got the sales assistant to help me out and gosh I must say, I'm making progress! LOL no la buying clothes la only, not wit styling up. Aiks... Burnt a hole in my wallet definitely! Finally got a pair of jeans that is not going to restrict my lil' bro's growth!

Adios!

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Money Matters

**Since I'm updating once a week instead of the previous daily update, the updates are going to be quite lengthy. I do appreciate it if you guys could give it a read and perhaps drop a comment or two**

Second week into my first job and I'm having money matters already. Not that I'm in a big debt or what but I start to realise that money does play a key role in our life.

First off is makan. If I'm lucky, mom will be buying breakfast for me. Sometimes breakfast can be settled wit bread or something else. But when things dun go my way, I'll have to buy breakfast myself, esp these few days when I dun have an appetite to eat in the morning. I'm estimating Rm10 per day on food, or 15 if I'm buying my own breakfast. And since I'm eating off no paycheck at first, I had a deal wit my mom that she lends me Rm50 for food until I need more and pay her back when I got my wages. I took 150 from her already. And since I'm trying to preserve as much of my paycheck as possible, I'm limiting the price of food I'm eating. It's not easy when you're eating off your own money.

Then is working. At first is having less money than recorded in the receipt book. It happened once when we were having too much Rm50's and were changing to loose 10's. End of the day we realised that we were short of Rm10. Not a lot but when your job is on stake, better be careful. Than another is fake money in the market. It so happened that one of us received a fake Rm50 without noticing. So for that particular product, the company rugi Rm50 and this time it's not a small amount.

After that is profit judging. For AP handphones market, you are allowed to bargain for the price of the phone. The hard part for sellers is that if you dun want to go lower for your customers, you lose the customer. However if you gave a price too low, you lose profit and sometimes even rugi. AP phone sellers are not making that much of a profit as once previously thought. The profit gets lower when customers demand for so called 'original warranty' and when these so called 'original warranty' dealers label our phones 'local made', which makes matters worse as consumers are not as informed about h/p as the dealers themselves. Almost everyone (or should I say everyone) who came to my store can't really differentiate b/w 'original warranty' phones and AP phones. I'll talk about that some time later.

The worst part is when you come across customers of a certain nationality/race. I dun wan to label or specify coz I dun wan to be deemed a racist or some sort. Ask me in real life and I'll tell you. These ppl act as if everyone else in the world is cheating on them. Seriously. The way they bargain is if we are making a 200% profit. Example: you gave a price of 260, the guy can ask for 150. You say geng or not. Sometimes they can even ask for 80 or 90 of the same phone. Colleague says that different ppl have diff culture. Maybe in their culture, the rich often rips off the poor.

Money matters aside, I think I'm getting used to the job. The wake up schedule, the break times, the entertain customers part and stuff. Sometimes I can even relate the job back to my dad's. He's dealing wit percentages, I'm dealing wit direct prices. We both have to deal wit bargaining customers and comparison to other companies. Often we lose customers to another company that offers what seems to be a lower profit but customers who know the market better do come back to us. Now I'll understand the hardship my dad went though. Sounds gay, but it's real. No matter how many times I said it, I'm still going to say this, I'm gonna fcking appreciate every fcking minute of the studying days I'm going to have.

I promised some photo, so here goes. It's juz shows how bored I was when there were no customers.

Praying that your PC is ok does help, sometimes.

Wow, how many life times do I get with this product?

Someone recommend me a restaurant nearby that I can have affordable food everyday, please?

Oh yea, my day off is Monday. So I'll most likely update the blog on a Monday. Adios!

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My first job

LOL tot for a while about wut title to put. Since this post IS going to be about my first job, so it shall be the title of the day.

First things first, LOL dudes if wanna find me when I'm working, walk along the corridor of KFC and you shall find me. 1.30 is no good, lunch time. 6.30 also no good, dinner break. Anytime in b/w, very good. But must buy la, or at least reload la...

So here goes...

Started on Monday, woke up at 8.30, got on the bus at 10 and reached there at 10.15. Looked for Jason and talk a bit b4 his boss arrived. Den i waited beside my stall for my boss la. 10.30 started to wait. Hrmm... Ok loh get The Sun and read for a while loh. Around 10.45. Shiat going to start work already, start to get nervous liao. 11 liao. Get ready. Mana tau 11.10 boss also not yet come. I thought maybe that day off day? Damn... But then 10 minutes later they all arrived and I start to work liao lo. Basic only la the operation. Arrange the things there and prepare the booth. Den wait for customer loh... My colleague taught me about the precautions while operating a stall loh, like how to prevent certain stuff from happening, well, you get the idea.

Den from Day 1 onwards is a steep learning curve. So much to learn in so little time. There's practically no time to have 'training' as you're running a business here. Sales no good, you kena. The target sales for the day (i guess it's the same for all other jobs) is that you can compensate your own basic salary plus the rental for the day. It's not as easy as you think ya noe. 3 out of the 5 days I worked were under par. Here's where the pressure comes in. There're peak hours to look out for. When you make no business during the last peak hour, you're dead...

I also realised that there're this element of consumer psychology involved, a lot of it. Basically you're studying consumer psychology while working here. There're 'signals' to look out for whether a certain customer is valuable of your entertaining time or not. And different ppl give out different signals. Time plays an important role here coz if a customer is taking too much time but not buying, you might lose potential buyers that were waiting for you while you entertain the previous one. I'm not at that level yet la, but I'm still learning.

When I thought that my sales weren't good, I was introduced to another colleague. He's working at another booth, juz nearby. He started work a week b4 me. He told me that his first day itself he sold 5 phones. And it kept increasing since day 1. He wasn't juz BS-ing as he showed me the receipt book. Damn this is another pressure source. If the front stall is making sales while you're not, you have a big problem.

So dudes if you're gonna tell me that my job is easy queezy wit no pressure and pathetic, why not you come and take my job and try it for a week. Diff jobs have diff demands, and I sure have picked the wrong one to start my working experience as I have no marketing experience beforehand whatsoever. Jobs at stalls are wayyy different from jobs a fixed shoplot. At a shop, customers come to you wit a definite desire to buy from you. At stalls, they can come, take 1 hour of your time, and leave wit "think about it first". It's not easy to secure a sale wit a customer when working at a stall you noe. Yea yea "resign la idiot" or "work at another place la idiot", right? Thought of it, but neh, I'll get through it.

Working a 6 day week, resting on Mondays. I think one of the interesting things about this job is that you get to meet different ppl. Met ppl from Mauritius, England, and of coz all the foreign workers that are having a slice of the economical pie of our country. Best of all, right in front of my stall is this shop that has leng luis working in it. To be exact, only 2 is nice to my eyes la. LOL play the staring game wit them even though have yet to say a word to any of them (yes I noe pathetic, but you have to find fun in something you're doing, right? 苦中作乐 ma...). There's also this never-ending supply of eye candies walking pass everyday. LOL.

Taking this job also makes me miss my schooling life (that's 4 words starting wit 'm' consecutively. Cool...). Every single part of it. The studying, the friends, the activities, the conflicts etc. I find a lot of pleasure when seeing friends coming to my stall and have a chat or two. Seriously it's that badly I miss skool life.

Sry no photos this week coz good employee ma :-P. I guess I can get a few by the next update, which is going to be in 7 days time. Until next time, adios!

P/s: Oih, keep the comments coming la...
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Let's not screw this up

Continuing wit my job looking thing. Yesterday Jason called me up to see if I wanna look for jobs or not. At first didn't want to coz he said his friends are coming along.

Den this morning he called again and asked the same thing, this time his friends not coming. So I was like yea why not coz it's not like those 2 shops that I gave my number to are goin to call me, right? So right after breakfast took a bus and off to IOI.

At first went to Maxis centre. Too bad they ain't hiring short-term workers. But the supervisor there was good enough to recommend us to her friend's h/p shop for an interview. We got there but they only hiring one. Jason also shy shy like that, say he didn't noe a lot about h/p, so 'gave in' to me. Filled in the form, but told the person I needed some time to think about it first. So walked around la.

So as expected Jason bitches about it the whole day la. Say that I owe him one and stuff. Aiks walk wit him around the mall to look for another job loh. Got to another h/p shop, this time he filled in the form but have to wait for confirmation. A while later we had to part ways coz apparently he was to meet his girl friend there. I followed him to the meeting place la. Walau... LOL cannot comment here coz he's reading my blog. But honestly didn't see clearly la.

At this time I walked around to think about the job offer at the phone booth. Den I decided to give it a try and confirmed wit the boss. Monday can start liao. Hrmm... Cool, I guess?

After an hour or so met up wit him and waited for his friends to continue the job search. Intro-ed each other and good to go. Literally walked around the mall few times. Top floor to ground floor and up again. Bunch of friends gave their particulars at a few computer shops.

Jason found one at 2nd floor, a clothes shop. Cool coz if I need to buy jeans or stuff I can find him, or if he wants to change h/p he can find me. Mutual benefit ma...

Juz hope not to screw this one up. I mean, this is my first working experience la, dun wanna screw it up ma...
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Early morning in IOI

Today went back to secondary skool to pass the unused exercise books to a friend. I think I accidentally ripped him off... I dunno the market price, juz simply say a price. Hrmm... Masuk tabung la...

Was also the orientation day for the Form 1 dudes. Didn't really pay attention to the population. Good thing they not havin a remove class this year. Went to the office to see if can get forecast results or not. Aiks too busy coz everyone's wit the F1's.

Took the bus back to IOI balik. Mana tau met a friend who's goin to IOI too for work. Hrmm maybe can pull a few strings. Reached there around 9.30 only. LOL it's a whole different place when there's so little ppl and the shops closed. Wait wait wait until 10.30 only the shop open for public. Went to ask got vacancy or not, mana tau sudah full... Aiks. But gave name la juz in case got ppl cabut or wut. Went to another shop to ask also. So now I'm waiting for either one to call. Let's hope one of them calls... I'm bored at home...

I'm lookin for a job wit a 'work-to-pass-time' mentality. Even though it's only 1 month after finishing the SPM, but damn I need to get moving! Bored till death doin same meaningless routine everyday. And since I'm a newbie in the working environment, I dunno much about the whole employee system. Wages, leave, commission etc. Taking it as an eye-opener only la. Take a look at the world, learn something about something instead of lettin my brain rot lookin at the monitor day and night.

I guess that effectively kills off aikido from my plans...
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I noe it's 2008, but it's def not the Rat Year yet...

Hey Happy New Year it's 2008 already! K la nothing much to talk about also. Went countdown wit mom's 'aunty gang'. LOL I forced a friend of go or not I'll be bored. Had my first and second glass of beer as soon as it stroke 12. I must admit, drinking beer like drinking water (as in gulps and not sips) really makes taste like water, unlike soft drink where it burns your throat beyond recognition.

LOL juz now the news reported about the actor in the recent johor DVD thing. Really unexpected that it was who is was. *Watch news afterwards or read the papers tml la* So old liao still can ah? I predicted someone younger...

Hrmm... As typical as it gets, here's my new year's resolution for 2008:

1) Be a good boy and get disciplined.
2) Get a job / use the 5 months b4 F6 doin something useful.
3) Finally set my eyes on one of the occupational fields.
4) Either forget about this girl-boy thing, or get a nice decent one, for real.
5) Tone up.

Can't think of anymore for the moment. Hell yea I'm gonna own this year!
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