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Distributor Norma Girardin will celebrate her five-year anniversary with Mac Tools this August. She continues to use resources around her to exceed sales, even if everyone else talks about a down economy.

WHAT BAD ECONOMY?

“The news puts that stuff in your head — get it out of your head, just keep doing your job like nothing’s going on,” said Norma. “Don’t put your blinders on, but keep doing your job.

“Because sometimes, that ‘stinkin’ thinkin’ ’ can get in there, and you do start – even though you’re not doing it on purpose – you do start not selling, thinking that people aren’t going to buy because they’re not making money like they used to or they’re afraid they’re losing their job.”

Norma’s positive attitude has helped her continue to exceed sales goals steadily each month.

“Minimum increase has been about 15 percent, and I’ve had some months where I’ve been 30 percent over last year.”

She’s even had an increase in sales for big-ticket items, like toolboxes, which she continues to move frequently. With the downturn, she’s just had to find different ways to help customers set up payments.

“Financing has been hard, I will say that. And hopefully that’s something that’s coming in the future, when things get on track again in the world,” she said. “Financing has been real hard, so a lot of us have had to try and carry some of the weight personally. That does get tricky.”

When customers can’t get financing, Norma sometimes helps out herself.

“If you can pay $100-plus a week, then we could probably do it together. Then, I’ll charge an interest,” she said. “Everybody knows that whenever they do that with me, it’s my toolbox until that very last statement is made, just like all the tools that they take. I let them use it until it’s paid for. And that seems to work OK.”