The Story of the $80,000 Window Crank Handle.
I had a pretty good account that did a fair amount of business with me. Not as much as the Hungarians but still pretty respectable.
Initially my contact with them was through the two lead carpenters for the business but the real boss was a short thin woman I'll call Giggles because that's just what she did – almost to the point of annoyance. I think she was just shy and giggled her way through conversation.
In any case, Giggles said she had a friend who needed a crank handle for a Marvin window and asked me to go out for a visit.
Keep in mind these were very busy times and the thought of traveling an hour one way to look at a crank handle was less than appealing to me --
but I did it for Giggles.
I drove to Giggle's friends' house which was an extraordinary place out in the country but near the city. This town had the most expensive real estate anywhere and she was sitting on a ton of it. This was a four thousand square foot home on 6 acres of pristine land.
The door opened and there stood my client – four feet 5 inches at best wearing a small operator's style headset. She was way ahead of her time in the technology department due to her husband's job as a tech guru in the city.
Judging by the looks of this place he made a bundle. She would communicate to people through her computer and headset and seemed to float around the place as if she wasn't in direct contact with the ground. This trait alone should earn her a clever pseudonym in this blog but I can't think of one.
She showed me the windows and yes – all she needed was a crank handle. I took the information down, told her it was nice to meet her, and headed for the door.
"Do you have a minute?" she asked.
"Sure." I said.
"I have this sunroom out back that might need some skylights. Do you sell those?"
"Sure" I said.
A few moments later I was taking an order for not one but eight skylights. The crank handle sale was looking better.
"What do you think about the framing?" She asked.
"Looks pretty rough" I replied.
"Can you figure out what I need to tear all this down and rebuild it?'
"Sure". I said.
Seemed like if I said "Sure" a lot I could make out pretty well here.
After the sunroom project was done she hired some Irish carpenters to come over (from Ireland!) and build her a few very nice structures, materials furnished by yours truly.
In the following months she purchased over $80,000.00 worth of material from me, smiled the whole time, never priced me out against any other supplier, and taught me a very valuable lesson about not underestimating any sales call no matter how insignificant it may seem on the surface.
After that, any time Giggles asked for a favor I said –"Sure".
But what if that involved a trip to the Alamo?