Imagine my surprise when I started practicing law and it dawned on me that sales was involved. If I wanted to become a partner in the firm, I needed to find a way to build my practice. I gave a “lot” of community education seminars about Wills.
Then I joined a bank and – lo and behold- discovered that banks are sales organizations: shareholders don’t want to see the same revenue year over year.
And now I own a cupcake business – and have trained as a therapist – and, yes!!! Sales and sales.
I’ve learned through all this that it is easier to think about “sales & service” than just “sales”. Because if even a small number of people somehow drift into a business, firm or store, and feel well-served by a good product, friendly service and convenience [or whatever the benchmarks are], it takes the pressure off continually getting brand new customers: the old ones come back and they also tell their friends to go.
But still. Sales are hard and one way or another it is something we are always thinking about at PGB through website changes, social media, email blasts, and new ideas and products, like the amazing new polka-dot boxes that will be launching in a couple of months.
We didn’t go looking for new boxes…in fact when the new box company approached us, we politely said “no thanks” to the offer to do a quote. But through very friendly and creative persistence (i.e “how about we just quote on a cake box that you don’t currently have?”), we ended up meeting and one thing led to another…
The whole new-box process reminded me that getting new customers always involves creating a need and then giving a solution that is perfect. I didn’t think we needed new boxes…until I saw what the latest trends are in bakery boxes…and then we became a new customer.
