By Bill Adams
Everyone knows the Raisin Squad is an informal group of white hairs, a bunch of past-their-prime firemen (mostly volunteers). “Firemen” is what we called ourselves before the era of political correctness. We routinely get together for morning coffee to tell lies, relive the past, and pass judgement on everything and everyone.
At a recent trade show, I was verbally accosted by another white hair, a former apparatus dealer. He busted my stones saying I never write about older fire apparatus dealers and some of the B.S. (not bologna sandwiches) we had to put up with. I really think he was at the show passing out his resume so he can feel important again, but that’s not going to happen. Once you’ve gone over-the-hill, it’s a tough climb back.
Later, I asked a couple former dealers what they thought of the idea. They were all for it. One actually berated me for not doing it before. And I thought these guys were my friends. We told each other stories of selling and interactions with customers, including some we referred to as “obstinate” purchasers. I ran it by one of the real raisins at morning coffee who concluded that I and they were certifiably crazy. He said: “Who gives a hoot about what you has-been salesmen say about selling,” and “What the hell are you going to call yourselves—The Prune Crew?” I didn’t think it was funny. He thought it was hilarious.
Obstinate Purchasers
The people that used to walk into fire stations peddling fire trucks were called dealers or, my favorite gender-neutral term, salesmen. Today they’re called sales professionals, sales personnel, factory direct sales staff, account managers, account representatives, and probably some non-sexist name that hasn’t been invented yet. Regardless of their handles, I wonder if they must contend with what we called the “obstinate” members of apparatus purchasing committees (APCs). Instead of APCs, back then they were called truck committees. But today some people get their noses out of joint believing a truck committee only buys ladder trucks. Times have changed.
A dealer’s biggest challenge was diplomatically telling the truth to a prospective purchaser without losing the sale. The second biggest challenge was resisting the urge to grab an intransigent APC member and, while trying to shake some sense into him, scream into his ears: “Do you have any clue what the hell you’re talking about?” I’m sure dealers today don’t face similar challenges…or do they?
Many situations caused severe angst to us and occasional heartburn to the apparatus manufacturers we represented. One was dealing with a purchasing committee or one of its members that was 100% convinced they knew more about fire tru