There are many long periods of boredom in the daily grind of a car salesman.

My typical day at the dealership starts at either 8:30 or 11 am, depending on the shift, and ends at 5:30 or 8 pm. On those mornings I'm at work early I attend the sales staff meeting where we hand out sales leads that have been generated from the internet or phone calls. This meeting usually last about 30 minutes.

After that I head down to the sales floor to check out the action or take a tour through the car lot to see what's new for the day.

Sometimes I make phone calls to my list of leads or send email if that's requested. Most of the time I leave a message for the contact because I very rarely talk to anyone at the listed number. Caller ID takes a lot of the mystery out of phone calls.

Once I've made a go at my list of contacts it becomes a waiting game. I walk the lot looking for fresh "ups" or anything else thats happening at the moment. My tour takes me back through the sales floor in a circular pattern. Along the way I stop to talk with other employees if I find no customers around.

Sometimes I actually get lucky and find some potential customer looking at a car. Most of the time I hear "I'm just looking" in response to my question "Can I help you find someone or something today?" Hell, if I had a dollar for everytime I've heard "just looking," I could drive a new Porsche instead of the truck I have today.

Its really not that exciting though, despite my attempts to make it seem glamorous. I stand around the lot doing nothing but watching the clouds pass overhead or peering into the cars trying to glean some little-known fact about the vehicle.

I wear a pedometer to measure my steps during the day. I average about four kilometers a day on my rounds through the lot. I get more steps in if I don't sell a car.

Last month I sold seven cars, one short of my eight-car minimum, in twenty-two days of work which is about one every three days. I wish I could make that one car every two days so I don't have so much lot time on my hands.

But, hey, I'm not complaining. I love my job. I love working with people and I love the rewards involved in the car sales process.

I just wish it was a little more exciting more than it is.