Lukas Jenni joins the sales team

A new neighbour has moved into the area: Lukas Jenni drove up with his old Mercedes station wagon, which was labelled Werbewerkstatt 7. We hit it off right away and helped each other out here and there in a neighbourly way. Lukas specialised in trade fair construction and carried out smaller jobs for us. At our open day in '97, we hired him and his "mobile bar", which he had put on the chassis of an old truck, to cater for our visitors and the whole company. Time and again we ate together at the nearby Café Rorboz, run by Anne-Kathrin Glauser. I told him about my sales activities. After all, I managed to win a new customer for our vehicles every week. One lunchtime Lukas told me he would like to work for me. I regretted unfortunately not being able to do enough fairs to need more of his labour. He said that sales would interest him. He had studied our customers. He liked the product and was convinced he could sell at least as well, if not much better than me. "You?", I laughed. "You'll have to prove it to me!". We agreed that Lukas would get exactly one chance: he was to come by our office punctually next Monday at 08:00. He would receive all the addresses I had already processed. If he manages to sell at least one vehicle within a week, he is hired on a trial basis. If he manages to sell two vehicles, he will become our salesman. The expenses were paid. In case of a sale, a commission was agreed upon and for this Lukas was allowed to use the brand-new Mercedes Vito that had just been delivered. I had not yet driven a metre in the car. Lukas accepted the challenge.
On Monday, he turned up on time, sorted the addresses he had been given and started phoning them off half an hour later. By noon, he had already filled his agenda for the whole week. He grabbed his demonstration vehicle, circled around the brand-new Vito and practised loading and unloading using the homemade loading ramps. Order pad and sample pictures of happy customers with reference details completed his kit and he was off. Every now and then a phone call with questions he had to answer for the prospective customers came in, otherwise I heard nothing from Lukas.
On Friday afternoon he returned and full of excitement I received him, "How was your week? Did you sell a vehicle?" Lukas opened his folder and with a broad grin he pulled out a first order, then a second and shortly afterwards a third!
That was clear: in terms of sales, I had met my match. Lukas had sold three vehicles, to prospective buyers with whom I had been in contact before and to whom I could not introduce our CLASSIC! Lukas had his job and I had my new salesman. He had started, we just needed a contract.
We didn't sign a normal employment contract, after all he was self-employed. He worked on commission. We wrote the contract by hand on a notepad and put it in a folder. Every time something needed to be added, we took out the contract and wrote the corresponding lines.
Lukas was a brilliant salesman. Very quickly he was able to find common ground with our prospective customers. He could "read" the customers and their needs and respond to them precisely with good arguments. In writing he had his weaknesses. So, I, and later our secretariat, took over all the offers for him and the other paperwork that was necessary. From time to time, he would call me directly from a customer and describe over the phone what they needed to be happy. We agreed on a price, a delivery time and a solution and Lukas was able to close the sale immediately. We worked very well together. I had to do some paperwork, but had gained a lot more time again, as Lukas not only sold much more efficiently than I did, but his customers were also exceptionally satisfied and our best references. Not only did we have more work and more turnover, but I also had much more time for my other projects.

I learned along the way:

• Hiring people who are superior to me brings relief and freedom.
• It's fun to work with professionals