They also were keen on a USA based sales rep to work the circuit here. Same dealio. My specialty. They took me on for an initial 3-month contract, at $4k/month or so.
And so, my first day on the job I met my new colleague Neal from London, in the big city: New York City. We were to do a circuit of current clients to share software updates and also meet a couple prospective clients. Neal & I met at a java joint prior to the visits to meet & greet. Super nice guy, we got along great for our two days together pounding the pavement.
EXCEPT! And here's the 1st of 2 items that makes this trip notable. I was dressed in nice pants, dress shirt, blazer. It's NYC and we're visiting various agencies. They dress nice there. Here's what Neal was wearing: essentially a skateboarder's getup. Old t-shirt with a band name on it. Untucked. Old long sleeve shirt, untucked, unbuttoned, sleeves rolled up. Jeans, tennis shoes. Un fucking believable.
I finally asked him on day 2 what the deal was with the getup. He says: I want to project an image of a tech guy with cool software. I said: aha. Ok. Keep in mind he's basically my age. He's not a hepcat 25 year old.
Meanwhile, we had a 2-hour prezo in giant conference room with at least 15 project managers from multiple teams. Me in dapper blazer, Neal in skateboard loungewear. He & I also met the CEO of an insight's agency, def a sharpie, and I felt like apologizing for my colleagues insulting wardrobe choice. Plus a couple other visits in fancy offices.
Oh and: the other notable was the airbnb, around the corner from the morning's meet & greet. It was some girl's place, some dude sleeping on the couch even tho it was afternoon. Anyhoots the bed was up a ladder in this tiny crawlspace, I'm talking 2 foot gap. Mattress took up 1 foot, then I had 1 foot to the underside of the floor above. Flat above was a tiny dog with scratchy nails that walked over me all night, inches from my face. Having a tinkle during the night was adventurous. Actual pic:
Oh and: within a couple weeks I realized the software was not easy to use. Feature set helps always, but a bad UX is a deal killer when getting new users & licenses. I had access to it of course, and normally I do my own demos, but I couldn't figure out the workflow on this. Anyhoots after about 5 weeks Neal and the owner called me for a 'sales status' and launched into why my sales were slow. I had been there just over a month mind you. I interrupted them and said, 'I'll just make this easier and opt out of my contract.'
Neither saw that coming, at all. I still get a kick out of that: them thinking I would walk in the door and start inking deals. Then my saying 'see ya boys' when they're leaning on me for sales after a month. Sales doesn't work like that, unless you're repping a crazy unique 'gotta have it' product which rarely exist.