I hate sales

I find the very idea of being a sales person shudder-worthy.  I don't have anything really against sales people, except the pushy ones who spray me with perfume or corner me in display rooms and start asking personal questions about my home life.  I just don't have any drive to be a sales person and think that that at the very core of my being, I am the total opposite of a sales person. Which since part of my self-definition is "artist" is pretty sad, I don't sell much art.

I'm telling you this to explain how bizarre it is that at this stage in my life, with a 3-year-old daughter and 14-year-old marriage, I'm now making my living in sales. If you can call it a living. I'm making some money, not enough, as a sales person.

In my working life I have been at various times:

  • A free-lance journalist/photographer
  • A photo-lab tech
  • An retail outlet clerk
  • An overnight worker at a home for developmentally challenged adults
  • A temp
  • A receptionist
  • An artists' model
  • A bartender/waitress (I am a truly terrible waitress)
  • An animal shelter kennel worker and supervisor
  • A telemarketer (business-to-business)
  • A legal secretary
  • A marketing manager/ad specialties manager
  • A veterinary technician assistant
See anything in common there?  Well other than working at whatever job I could get when I needed one, I was never a sales person. Now in the evenings and every other Saturday I am a business-to-consumer telemarketer for a mortgage bank and whenever possible I am an adult entertainment web cam model. Both of these jobs absolutely require that I be a sales person.

I am the lowest of the low when thinking of telemarketing. I am the person who calls when you have the keys in your hand and are walking out the door, or when you have just sat down to dinner, or when you are sleeping in on a Saturday morning after a grueling day at your Monday-Friday during business hours job.  I ask for the Mr. or Ms. of the house and inform you that my call might be monitored and/or recorded before I begin my script. I am friendly and try to be engaging. I listen to the background sounds of the call and comment on your dog or bird or children. If you are not the person I was calling, I apologize and try my pitch anyway. I am the person who gets sworn at, belched at, whistled at, yelled at, and hung up on, hundreds of times a week. But I am still a person. And to all those that yell this before slamming the receiver down, I do have a real job. You just don't like it.

I've been at my telemarketing job since April of 2011 except for two months in 2012 when I had left after being offered a full-time job that was later terminated because I was overqualified. I was overqualified for that job, but couldn't get hired anywhere else fast enough and couldn't afford day-care, so I went back to telemarketing. Think on that for a moment. I've been thinking on that for months.

I feel like I should back up here again. How did I end up telemarketing in the first place?

In 2009 I had a baby. My first, and more than likely only, a daughter.  My husband and I had been thinking about having a child for a little while, but for about a year I had a health condition that prevented us from pursuing reproduction. Then we were able to, and we had her.
I know it is trite and you've heard it before, but the moment that baby was in my arms, nothing else in the world mattered. She became my everything. Within weeks I knew I couldn't go back to the job I had before she was born. The hours where too chaotic, I wouldn't be able to pump breast milk during my shifts with any regularity and we would have to pay for day care. My husband got a retail job in addition to the small business he'd been running for ten years. And I handed in my resignation to become a stay-at-home-mother.

Two months later we got the foreclosure notice. My husband hadn't been paying the mortgage in order to pay the other bills and our delinquency had become unbearable. The stress of trying to save our home almost destroyed our marriage. There was a time I lived with my parents. Eventually, I had to get a job, any job, to try and bring in income. I applied to veterinary hospitals and retail stores. And then I saw an add for telemarketing with hours that would allow my parents to watch our daughter while I was at work. I would work for 20 hours a week at $10.00 plus commissions. It was something.

The job sucks. I cannot express this enough. There was a silver lining though, the people I was working with were pretty awesome. There were some exceptions. There always are. But all in all, I looked forward to seeing my manager and co-workers every day. And it turned out I did a good job. Not stellar, I never won any of the quarterly awards, but my numbers were strong enough to have the support of my manager and to be pretty much left alone to do my job. And I got to spend every afternoon and evening and weekend with my daughter, who was growing like a wildflower and the most amazing person I had ever met. Perfect!

Eventually it became obvious that this wasn't enough income and I got a full-time job and left the telemarketing position. I went back into veterinary care, but the job was not what I expected. I performed my tasks to the best of my ability and was punctual and stayed as late as needed and was friendly and responsive. But I was overqualified. At the four-week mark, I was terminated without having any warning that anyone was unsatisfied with my performance.  Needless to say, I was stunned. I had put my daughter in day care for the first time to have this job, I had bought uniforms and shoes and was driving crazy miles. It was probably a blessing that the job didn't last.

After a month of trying to get another job, and fighting to get my deserved unemployment, I decided to contact my old telemarketing manager. And was welcomed back with open arms. Except this time I went to the night shift so my husband and I could split watching our daughter.  He has gotten a promotion with a new schedule and I was now only driving ten miles each way to work as long as I stayed home. We could share my more fuel efficient car for our daily commutes and I could start teaching our daughter how to read and write as she wants. Ideal right?

Well we still aren't making enough money. And once again we are behind on the mortgage and juggling bills. Every time I turn around there's yet another overdue bill or surprise expense.  My mother-in-law has passed away and we keep hoping there will be an inheritance or my father-in-law will offer more financial assistance than he has, but I don't know if that will happen. So we need more income.

Enter the webcam. 

A friend suggested webcam modeling as she was going to be trying it and wanted to work with a company that would give her portion of my earnings if she referred me. I did some further research on my own and found a different company that seemed more legit. And signed up. I wanted to be able to still be at home with my daughter and have a job that has virtually no expenses for me. No commuting, no uniforms, no special equipment. You get the idea.

I've been doing it for about a week now. Not every day. Not for very many hours. And I've made about $100. I haven't gotten a check yet, although my "reports" say a check was cut last week. But my research leads me to believe it is on its way. In the mean time, I'm getting naked for strangers and trying to save my house.

So that's the background as to how I ended up a sales person. Not glamorous, probably not unique, maybe not even interesting, but it is my story. And I feel the need to tell it. Hope you enjoy. 




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