24d • General discussion
The Salesman handshake 👍🏻
🇿🇦 STAN, ME & 250,000 KM OF SOUTH AFRICA 🚗💨
Long before GPS, Google Maps and WhatsApp locations, there was Stan and me, a company car, a road map and a boot full of samples.
We were cigarette salesmen, and South Africa was our territory.
Between the two of us, we must have travelled well over 250,000 kilometres — from Berea and the streets of Johannesburg to Paternoster on the West Coast, and just about everywhere in between.
Small towns. Farm stalls. Corner cafés. Hotels. Shops. Long stretches of road where the next town couldn’t come quickly enough.
We sold cigarettes, yes — but looking back, the real business was people.
You learnt how to walk into a shop where nobody knew you, shake a man’s hand, start a conversation and earn his trust.
You learnt that every town had its characters, every customer had a story, and sometimes the best sales meeting happened leaning against a counter with a cup of coffee in your hand.
Stan and I saw a South Africa that you don’t see from an aeroplane.
We saw it one kilometre, one town and one customer at a time.
And somewhere along those 250,000 kilometres, without realising it, we weren’t only learning how to sell.
We were learning about people.
Those roads taught us lessons that stayed with us long after the sales bags were packed away.
And believe me… Stan and I still have a few road stories to tell. 😂
Who remembers the days when being a salesman meant getting in the car and actually going to see your customers?
#Boerengees #SouthAfrica #OnTheRoad #SalesmanStories #OldSchoolSales #TheGoodOldDays #StanAndGilbert
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The Salesman handshake 👍🏻
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