Andy Rooney (60 Minutes on CBS) I’m not.  However, I am from the generation that his “Greatest Generation” (Tom Brokaw) fathered.  This excercise in placing pen to paper (figuratively) in my rememberances, is specific to my experiences in my home country, the U.S.A.

There will be many “thoughts while shaving” posts that I will create, and they will be ancedotal and hopefully interesting, informative and perhaps useful.

In one of the “hats” I wear (this one of a salesman), I was part of a marketing organization that presented to a company the benefit of becoming a sponsoring organization of an existing credit union so that it’s employees could enjoy the benefits as members just like a conglomerate with its own credit union.  There were no hard costs to the sponsoring organization and the number of employees could vary from 5 to 500. 

Once I had the owner’s interest, I had to also integrate my terms with the presentation.  My function was to bring to my credit union  many sponsoring companies  and have as many of their employees sign up for membership as I could and to convince the sponsoring company to allow its employees to payroll deduct monies into a savings account.

Before banks were able to create their own financial/insurance services departments, I, as a licensed insurance agent, was able to generate my income through commissions with those employees that became members of my credit union.  Now, when I refer to this credit union as mine, I had no rights of ownership, but in showing  it that I was capable of bringing in new streams of revenue I was allowed to solicit and enroll many companies.

In addition to allowing employees to have monies deducted from their payroll checks, I also had these companies agree to allow me to conduct a general information meeting(s) and to meet individually with those employees that expressed an interest in joining.

Now, having laid the foundation and background to this business I was once involved in, let me share with you a particular experience of mine.

I had made an appointment with the general manager of a building contractor company with about 150-200 full time employees.  I didn’t normally meet initially with anyone but the owner(s), but in this case I made an exception.  It was a foul, rainy day and my appointment was early in the morning.  Well, as it turned out, the general manager I met with was in a mood to match the weather.  His hair was white, shortly cropped in a crew cut.  He was probably a military veteran and he was abrupt.

Got your attention so far?  Join me in my next post!