Bro can I interview you?

Gabriel Unger
Nov 6 · 3 min read
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

During this month, each week I will take some time and interview someone in the following fields of Business, Sales, Marketing, Operations, Customer Success. For this first week, I took the opportunity to interview my friend Billy. I met Billy three years ago when I went to college. Billy and I met through mutual friends because we were in the same field of study. Billy went on to graduate and is now working in the sales for a company based out of Jacksonville called Parliment Building Products. He is currently a sales representative and his sales territory is the panhandle region of Florida.

How do you stick to a moral code in sales?

This is a question that I have pondered about for a while because I believe I have a strong moral compass and have always viewed sales as this manipulative sort of job where people are lead down a rabbit hole for the salesperson to make some commission. Well, a few bad apples don’t represent the whole bunch. Because Billy said it well “I have my integrity to keep”. He has to keep the trust of his customers because they continually go to him and he goes to them so he can’t lead them down the rabbit hole for the sale. He went on to say I believe very well “there is no line it not even an option to cross the line.”

How did commission come about? did you set it?

He makes a base salary and commission is based on when the company makes he makes money. In this, some months are better than others. He mentioned that this approach is very different than others but is something that works for the company and its employees. The company has to make money first and then they pass that on.

Do you travel?

He works Monday through Friday. He is based out of Jacksonville like the company and he drives through the panhandle Monday through Thursday and sees clients at that time. On Friday, he regroups and goes over what he has done with his manager and interacts with customers that maybe he didn’t see that week, turns in receipts from the weeks travel and does anything else necessary for the preparation to do it all again on Monday morning. Friday, as he says, is a regroup day.

Is there a team aspect to your role?

The company Billy works for has a pretty good sense of a team with a support staff that makes calls to suppliers and gathers knowledge in order to provide the best knowledge of their product. As well they handle all of the invoicing and financial side of things. His Manager also touches base with him on Fridays and talk about new products and other things going on in the business.

Best way to cold sale email or phone?

Billy never really had to do any; just a little in the beginning but not much. There also was a database that they had of their customers so he just plugged into that to find their customers and expand on what they currently had.


All in all, it’s always great getting the chance to talk to Billy. He called me the other day which is where the title came for this story. We had spoken about his sales role before but it was great to get to know a little more about it. Sales is a great field to get into as he mentioned to me before the customer interaction and the relationships he has built are like nothing else.

Gabriel Unger

Written by

Individual with strong interpersonal skills with passion for problem solving. Proven ability to work with many different people and sites while being bilingual.

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