Sales

I've been in sales as part of my income since somewhere around August of 1995. I've sold handmade items ranging from costuming to junk jewelry and I've always been pretty good at it. The interesting thing for me is that I really don't sell anything. I've never thought it was a good idea to try and talk someone into buying something that that they might now want. I've always thought of my sales style as one of holding a customers attention long enough that they come to realize that whatever item it is that's holding their attention is really something they want. I let the customer sell it to themselves, with a little song and dance to hold them their while they do it. The song and dance is service, assisting with trying things on or giving a litany of potentially interesting information, sometimes just telling them to take a walk around and see what else is around and giving them some places to go for comparison. Sure, they might find something else they like better but it is a rare customer who forgets the guy who told them what else was out there, potentially losing a specific sale. Maybe they don't buy from me today or ever, but at the least they'll bring their friends.

So I don't sell... or more to the point, I don't close sales. A nudge or two here and there, but no pressure. At least, not usually.

Times are lean, so the news media and everyone around me wants to persist in saying. Lean, lean, hungry... which leads to greed and to a loss of that perspective that I feel has served me so well over the years. I realized that this weekend when some of the customers were leaving me feeling wrung out and in some cases outright used... was I being used or was I using them? The two usually go hand in hand. If I need something from you, you have control over me, a lever, an in... Where if I can take or leave whatever it is you're offering and the same applies to you, then we're equals and can behave as such.

It's not so much sales or Capitalism that leads to evil, it's the sense that he who takes the money wins and he who spends the money loses that causes problems. Money is a means to an end, not a goal in and of itself. While the things I sell are not necessary to life, they should add to someone's happiness... if they don't, and if I know they potentially won't, it really behooves me to let that sale go. If they come back on their own, they'll be happier and so will I.

It never fails to make me smile to see someone proudly wearing something I sold, something I made, or even just a product that I'm affiliated with and proud of in its own right. I often see things that were made by one of my companies that I work with and know that I likely had nothing to do with the item in and of itself, but it makes me smile just to know that in some vague, peripheral way, I had something to do with that tiny increase in their overall happiness with life.

I'm writing this to remind myself. I feel like I've somewhat forgotten this, and instead of focusing on how I might make someone's day better, I've been letting the unhappy people make my day worse. I need the sales, it's true, and times are a little leaner and meaner than they have been. Still... it's not worth being unhappy, or the potential of buyer's remorse to try and break through the resistance that some people develop towards ever being happy with the money they spend.