I did not get the promotion. My previous manager referred me.
It would have been interesting to see if I could manage people. I am quite good at managing resources. Efficiency is a moral standard of mine (I do not like wasting my time and effort). So I tend to be good at noticing things that are inefficient.
Last year I won a trip to the Bahamas. I did well in sales numbers, I generated my own sales leads, I created a checklist, so I almost always hit all the points we are scored on, and I had perfect attendance. Generating my own leads is a silver bullet (I basically email everyone I can, my previous sales, I email people on payment outbound call lists, and I make a log of folks that call in). My current manager thought that I did so well last season because my previous manager gave me strong leads. I also found a hole in the money bucket (not the one below) that greatly improved efficiency for 3-7 hours per day during our busy season (mostly 3, but up to 7 when it counted most).
The start of this season was difficult. I was 11/70 in conversion, 22/70 in sales, and 44/70 in calls. I was able to email people and generate sales, but I was not getting calls. This was the big game, and I was on the bench.
I can see the logic in thinking that I was not good at my job.
Asperger Syndrome logic hurt me (trusting authority figures, and thinking they must know what they are doing). The phone system measures sales calls, and they are compared to actual sales. Other agents (a handful) were transferring non-sales calls to me. I asked my former manager (my manager at the time) if this would negatively effect my metrics, and he informed me that it would not. As the calls that were originally coming from a sales number, and I was effectively being passed automatic failures. The phone system also passed out turns, and these calls were replacing my turns at (possible) actual sales. On paper I was doing horribly. I had to figure out what was going wrong, and tried over and again to explain it. I was quite mad when I figured it out. I could have lost my job. I lost commissions. I did not get a raise.
After I succeeded in explaining what was wrong, and that I was doing quite well, I started getting a great many more calls. I mean 22/70 in sales when taking 44/70 in calls is something.
It is apparent (and flabbergasting) that people do not know how things work. I am good at figuring out how things work. I have found several areas where we were loosing money (possibly a great deal of money). I pointed out a handful of important areas that need attention, and they are getting attention.
I recently pointed out a hole in the money bucket that may potentially be worth a lot of money. It seemed obvious to me, but I did not know how anything worked (still mostly don’t). I think if I knew how things worked that I could find more areas of improvement and/or money.
I am not sure if noticing this second hole in the money bucket will win me MVP, and a trip this year, but I hope so.
