Taking it all in: Going to a sales meeting
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So it’s been a bit quiet blog-wise lately, mostly due to being very busy with a lot of exciting things.
One of those things was a sales meeting in Germany. This sounds really boring and sales meetings usually are, and we tend to think Germans have no sense of humor, well au contraire my friend! This turned out to be a lot of serious fun! next to learning so much cool and interesting details about gear; I could fill twenty eight blogs with this shit!
On Tuesday we drove 7 hours into Germany, where at dinner I had a talk with one of the manufacturers of wheels. Skateboard wheels, inline wheels and different brands of derby wheels. He taught me all (is it possible to know all and everything about wheels??) about wheels. The why, the how, the do’s and don'ts; I will write a blog about that soon, don’t fret.
The next morning bright and early was the start of the sales meeting. In a big boxy room the brand people, distributors, producers, manufacturers and some shop keepers from all over the world sat down to listen to a series of presentations. Presentations about the brand, the sales waves, product innovations and marketing strategies and what not. Usually this stuff is boring and dry to the bone. But when the CEO’s do a serious marketing presentation all dressed up as politicians and do intentionally bad imitations including high heels, fake tan and an orange wig… boring numbers become so much more interesting I can tell you. Maybe not all mericans* were amused, but when the Indians are laughing and not just being polite it’s a good joke for sure.
In the evening there was burgers and party. Dancing to silly songs and beer. Much beer was had. The beers weer still noticeable the next morning. Attendees came in late, presentations were spiked with jokes about the evening before and the new IT guy lost his train of thought while explaining about some new storage bla bla…
In between all the official information, I had many talks with so many interesting people, learning about plates, pivot cups, why wheels have grooves and where flat spots come from. Yes, after searching for that for years, I finally found the answer! It’s heat, and abrasion resistance or the lack there of. I will write the blog; again, don’t fret...
Thank you to everybody I met, talked to, learned from and special thanks to GT, Erik and Kid for inviting me!
And one more important thing I also learned is that to be a great CEO of a big international company, you need passion; passion and humor and love for what you do and who you work with. Passion can make the great greater! (insert cheesy campaign laughter)
