Friday 25 May 2012

Travelling salesmen

When we were young, oh so many moons ago, our parents bought us a set of Encyclopaedia Britannica. I believe we had the salesman come knocking, door to door, to make the sale. Boy do I admire people who can do that, it must be a tough thing to do. Not only are you competing with Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and Girl Guides for the time of the homeowner, you have to convince them they need encyclopaedias, which are less tasty (to some) than Girl Guide cookies, and won't save your soul (if you believe that to be true).

I'm glad that I'm trying to do my sales in a day and age where I can hide behind my website and emails. I know there's nothing like face to face contact to make it more difficult for people to say no, but I'm too thin skinned to face endless rejection.

Speaking of which, I contacted the store that I had approached a few weeks back. Their answer? Well it wasn't an outright no, but it's not fitting into their current inventory. So I'll just have to make a note to approach them again in six months to a year. After all, according to people in sales, it takes at least five attempts at a sale before you're successful.



4 comments:

  1. It is really hard to make sales pitches. I think that's why mom always said we would make lousy business people. But, it's good for us and our personal growth to face our fears and our worst traits and improve ourselves. So, kudos to you for going out and "knocking on doors"!

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    1. You are so right, it's good to face fears because more often than not, it's not as scary as you normally imagine it to be.

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  2. I agree with T. Good job going out there and marketing yourself. Rejection is hard, but be persistent! Afterall isn't it J.K. Rowling who submitted Harry Potter to 12 different publishers all of who rejected her manuscript? At least five is not as bad as 12.

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    1. Thanks Grace. It's a tough thing to do, but if I expect to make a living without having to work for someone else, then I had to learn how to grow thicker skin and suck it up right?

      Yeah I'll have to think like JK Rowling and just go forge forward. Thanks for the encouragement.

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