Renegade Conservatory Guy

I recently ran a story about Anglian Home Improvements appearing on the BBC’s Watchdog programme and since then there have been dozens of comments on the webpage. One of the contributors ‘Paul.com’ was keen to get his opinion across as an ex-Anglian salesman.

So, I asked Paul if he would be interested in doing an interview:

Hi Paul.com. Thank you for getting involved in the discussions on this website. Can you start the interview by telling us your background and how you got involved in the double glazing industry.

I was in a rut and looking for some way back into an interesting career path and I fell for the Kirby Cleaner advert which looked more like a van driving job. Although I eventually got ripped off by them as I think most people do it gave me some confidence to demonstrate a product to the public. Next thing I knew I had a job working for Diamond Seal as a “Demonstrator”, then St.Helens. People used to keep saying to me “How can you do such a soul destroying job” but at the time I loved it. How could you call that work after working 12 hour night shifts?

The novelty did wear off but it was more a feeling of “I’m doing all the hard work and the reps are going out reaping the rewards.” St.Helens wouldn’t let me progress to sales. They didn’t want to cut off the hand that was feeding them.

Thank God for Everest because they gave me the escape route and there was no hierarchy between canvassers and reps. Those were the best years of my double glazing “career” and I rapidly progressed to be a manager.

Which companies have you worked for and what were your experiences at each?

When I first started at Everest what impressed me was how professional the company was. Every Monday there was a sales meeting, you would meet up during the week and there was a real team spirit. You’re in constant contact with your area manager and even regional manager quite a lot too. Maybe it’s over professional because the faxing of reports gets ridiculous. You could be out with a customer till 12 at night and the manager would phone you and say his manager is wanting the reports.

Then all the managers that you really respected get fired because the demand is for higher and higher targets. No matter how much door knocking you do and what ever “self gen” results you get it’s never enough. You hear the same record over and over again. “Knock doors, knock doors” and I was one of the few that did. Most people nowadays can’t get any business from knocking doors. I wouldn’t even attempt it now. Nobody wants to know and I don’t blame them. Basically after a few years it was like a completely different company and all the people I enjoyed working with had gone.

Next I went to Anglian to sell conservatories because Tim Nagle the ex-conservatory manager for Anglian trained a few of us at Everest and we were flogging a dead horse. Mr. Nagle is back at Anglian now. Even though Anglian has offices it is noticeably less professional than Everest. The staff structure and management is shambolic but I was able to sell conservatories. I didn’t get paid for a long time and had to go to court over a conservatory sold subject to insurance. Eventually I got so sick of the boys, alcoholics, nutcases that were meant to be managers I asked for the job myself and things started going right for a few months. The Regional manager was a maniac with no idea about selling conservatories and had unrealistic expectations.

I refused to drive all the way to Hull on appointments as Leeds Conservatory manager then he phoned me to say 5 conservatory orders had vanished and I’d have to go and sign them all up again. Then he thought he’d found someone who could manage better than me. I kept struggling just as a rep under a succession of hopeless untrustworthy managers until they’ve just frozen me out as if I don’t exist. The Maniac regional manager went to work for Everest. He might have had good reason too though because the way Anglian are handling conservatory orders you wonder what’s going on which has destroyed my belief in what I sold there.

More recently you have worked at Anglian Home Improvements. How did you get the job, and what was the training like?

The training for Anglian was much the same as for Everest which were both good. The difference is Everest provide you with 5 star accommodation and meals and Anglian is 1 star. Dave Cook on the Anglian course was a really likeable bubbly trainer. The lie of course is that you’re going to earn full commission which I’ve recently commented on. I missed the how did you get the job part. I think I just walked into the old office on Easterly Road and said ” I want a job, I’ve been wasting my time trying to sell conservatories for Everest.”

Anglian showed us too many videos. They had loads of videos but they all seemed about 25 years old. There was not as much ongoing training. I once suggested to Max Fenner that we should have a Monday meeting like they do at Everest but he couldn’t think further than getting as much business in for the week on Monday to reach targets. The finance training at Everest was well organised and excellent. Only recently does Anglian seem to be getting anywhere near but it doesn’t work because the staff is so disorganised. It would get to the point where I’d sit through the same boring lecture with the GE Money lad because he ‘d driven all those miles and there was no-one else to train.

How did Anglian generate the leads you were required to sit?

How didn’t they generate the leads? In other regions there are successful footcan and telecan teams. In Yorkshire they just seem to have been a waste of money. We were promised for years that we’d get a conservatory showsite like they have in Derbyshire but it was all lies. Most recently we were supposed to take over from St.Helens at the Garden centre in Otley. Most of the leads are from the Yellow Pages, mail shots, TV ads, leaflet drops, website, existing customers, best 4 quotes, recommendation scheme. What you call company leads.

What are people’s perception of Anglian Home Improvements, and do you feel this perception is justified?

I think most people are very ignorant about window companies and not really interested until they want to buy some. So the only perception they really have is familiarity with the name and what I tell them which leaves most of them with a very good perception. I don’t know if this has changed with all the bad publicity that seems to be mounting.

I remember being in a house 3 years ago when a customer surprised me with the “Anglian windows ruined my home” site but they signed up for 30K of business that night!

I think most people feel Anglian windows or conservatory would be their first choice if they could afford them. That’s why most people will buy the windows and very few buy the conservatory. I would have to say that gradually over the last 6 or 7 months I believe less and less this perception is justified and would feel like I’d be selling them a lie now.

There have always been many idiot customers that won’t use Anglian because they just want a quote and don’t want to see a demonstration of the product or they expect a company to do all the work first without any deposit. I envy the Coral reps because their company does that but I don’t think it’s a good enough reason to write other companies off completely. It’s certainly an effective sales tactic and the profit probably outweighs the risk. I don’t know if it’s sound business sense or not. Did Anglian get to be as big as it is by making unsound business decisions?

Were you under pressure to achieve sales targets, and, if so, did this affect the way you presented your pitch to potential customers?

Yes, it made you work damned hard that by the time you came out of a house you would feel so exhausted. You would spend hours chasing lost causes . You could come out of one 3 hour long sit and rush to another one that you should have been at 30 mins ago and spend 4 hours there trying to “close that one”. The rule is to “love the one you’re with” and then go to another one 3 hours late and spend 5 hours there and come out at 1 am feeling either relieved that you finally got some business or like hell because you’ve now got to phone your regional manager (if you’re a manager) and tell him you still haven’t managed to sell anything in time for tomorrow’s deadline.

Why did you leave Anglian Home Improvements?

I left because I’m not respected for what I can do and there are a lot of idiots there that think they know more than me. I don’t have much faith in the service or quality of installations anymore especially in regards to conservatories.

Are you involved in the double glazing industry now?

No and thanks to having this opportunity to recount my experience of it I feel totally purged of any desire to.
This is much more fun. Thank you.