The Art of Selling

Jim noticed that I love watching old movies. One of my personal favorite is “Les` Miserables”. I think, I had watched the movie several times and every time I watch it, I cry, aha! Corny, lol! I love watching romantic comedy, lighter drama and true-to-life stories too. Thanks to NetFlix for having such a great selection.

My husband suggested that I might as well watch the movie “The Death of a Sales Man”. A very sad movie. A story of a person who is imprisoned by his own false pride his entire life. Well, it’s a tough job.

Last week, B went to AZ for a meeting with the buyer to one of our major accounts. He’s really a positive thinker and had a “never say never” attitude which is very good. A very motivated, pushing-himself- too-hard-kind of guy but he’s young and successful. He’s only a year older than me. This is the time where I can really appreciate his contribution to the company. I’m no sales person at all. I had been to conventions with them (my husband) and sometimes they just leave me alone talking to customers. Really what they were doing was to test my sales talent. I don’t think I got one, hahaha!

So, when B together with Rech left the office, I asked my husband what Rech is doing to the company since he’s been around here lately. He said, he’s our new rep. What? What happened to D? Apparently, D was fired. The buyer knew Rech better. Rech used to work in a big company for almost 20 years and had put a lot of money into the company, multi-million. He’s one of the top guys in the company for sales and when the economic crunch hit, one of the company’s solution was to fire him since he’s making millions every year. He’s paid through commission. He was pissed when he got fired and so he’s trying to annoy the old company. Well, it always happens in business.

They say that when you’re not stressed out, you’re lazy and when you’re a businessman, you’re all about money. During conventions or trade shows, I’m always so cautious and had an open-mind about business as much as possible. I’ve met different personalities, there are people who are kind of beggars (come to the show and ask for left over products), a lot of drunk people at night but they still manage to get a deal. There’s one friend that was bragging about how much he got from day one, tons of orders but really what it was- just a mere possibility of a PO. Then, he went out and enjoyed the rest of the show, bought a 100grand-Porsche. Surely, he’s making good money but he also spend his money like crazy. I’ve heard his business is hurting these days. Rule number 1, don’t count your chickens before they're hatched.

Anyway, we always make sure we have a dinner with a new buyer or touch base with old and loyal customers during trade shows. One of my favorite business associate is our big distributor in Europe. It’s a family business and they’re way 9 times bigger than our company. Yet, they remained very humble, not extravagant, nice and real people. Real to me coz they always make sure family is the top priority. I realized not all businessman is all about money; not even my husband. He’s a tough guy when it comes to decision-making and he always does what is right. He’s a lover of justice.