Working, living on commission
For Bill Craft of Winnebago, every one of life's little situations is an opportunity to sell a cell phone.
"I was just at a birthday party, and a few of the parents found out I work for Verizon Wireless, and I spent the rest of the party answering questions about texting and Bluetooth," said Craft, the retail store manager for Verizon Wireless on East State Street in Rockford. "Believe it or not, a couple of them are coming in to buy phones."
Such is the life of a salesperson, whose earnings depend on how much time and effort they put into selling themselves and their products.
As the U.S. economy begrudgingly shifts from manufacturing -- making things -- to one more reliant on shipping and selling, the need for salespeople grows. Jenny Grass of CareerBuilder LLC in Chicago, one of the top online employment sites in the U.S., said the company has more than 100,000 sales jobs on the site, and it has stayed steady despite the weakening economy and rising unemployment.
The lure for most salespeople is money, the chance to make more of it, sometimes much more, than their counterparts chained to a machine or desk and a steady paycheck. The drawback: Along with the peaks are valleys, and unless you've prepared for the weeks where you bring in little or no money, the valleys can crush you.
Pat Carter of Rochelle knows the pressure of having to produce. After running a home-based day care for 15 years, she started selling cars, first in Sycamore and now for the past seven years at Rock River Hyundai, a part of the Anderson Automotive Group. A single mother raising four teenagers, she can't afford to have many down times.
"My late husband saw an ad for car sales in Sycamore, and he said I should try it," Carter said. "I said 'Honey, I know nothing about cars.' He said 'It's your personality they are looking for.'"
Carter has stuck with it through boom times and bust, working Mondays through Saturdays, sending past customers cards for their birthdays, Christmas, even on the anniversary of when they bought cars from her.
With nearly eight years in, Carter said she has a strong base of past customers steadily coming in for trade-ins or referring her to friends and family. It's the referrals that keep the money coming when the industry slows, and 2007 was one of the toughest of the decade. According to statistics from the Illinois secretary of state's office, the number of cars registered locally after being sold was down more than 13 percent through November when compared with 2006.
"It's a glamorous-looking career on the outside. You dress nice and get to drive the newest cars all the time," Carter said. "But the hours are hideous. And you really have to be a good money manager. I know I have four teenagers at home, so that keeps me motivated to keep going. They are the wind in my sails."
Mike Sartino of Rockford has been selling cars even longer, 16 years, first at Fran Kral Lincoln Mercury Volvo and now at Lexus of Rockford. Living on commission is a way of life for the 37-year-old.
"You have to be a great communicator, and by that I mean you need to listen more than you talk," said Sartino, who remembers his first sale - a 1992 Mercury Cougar.
"You also have to be able to tell them why that car, truck or SUV works for them, and you have to be truthful. You want them to remember how easy you made the deal for them."
One thing Sartino said most car salesmen have to battle is the image of the slick salesman looking to make a deal at any cost.
"Lexus caters to a different clientele, so I don't see it as much," he said. "But you still have to win people over. There are certain personality types you just click with, but you're always selling yourself, then selling the company you are working for, and then selling the product."
While car sales have been struggling, real estate sales have been going through the toughest readjustment. After five straight years of record sales, the housing market cooled off as lending institutions raised lending standards to combat a flood of foreclosures resulting from the home-buying wave.
It's keeping an eye on success rather than dwelling on failures that get a salesperson through the slow times, said Rachel Elliott of Dickerson & Nieman Realtors in Rockford, the Rock River Valley's top-selling real estate company.
"Working on commission is very scary, but if you're going to be successful you have to thrive on the competitive challenge," she said. "You have to budget because there's no guaranteed paycheck, but you can't dwell on what is or isn't coming in. You have to keep working on that next deal."
Many people who go into real estate have a strong network of friends and family to help them get started. Elliott, who worked in the restaurant management industry in Freeport before moving to Rockford to sell real estate, knew no one when she moved here, and she worked hard to build her network.
"I became active with the American Heart Association. I joined the YMCA. I got into a running group in the community. These people introduced me to others, and that helped me get my name out there. I'm always listening, and if I hear someone talking about selling their house I introduce myself. You can't be afraid to approach people."
Craft started out selling cars but, as a self-proclaimed tech geek, he moved over to Verizon Wireless in one of its call centers, then to customer service before going into sales. He has a bit of a fallback because he has a base pay to go along with commission and, unlike auto and real estate, the market for cell phones and the latest and hottest new technology continues to grow. Still, it's the chance to make as much as he can that gets him excited in the morning.
"At some point, you look at everything as an opportunity," Craft said. "I love to interact with customers, and you start to get identified by what you sell. Even with my family, when I show up somewhere they say, 'Hey, it's the network.'"
With a wife, two kids and a third on the way, Craft also stressed that you must be able to keep yourself from overspending in the boom times. But the great thing about sales? The better you are, the more you bring in, and you can indulge occasionally.
"Two years ago I had a really good quarter, and we bought a 60-inch TV. It was top of the line. I love the fact that I control what I make."
Alex Gary can be reached at agary@rrstar.com or (815) 987-1339.