A berry interesting topic…sales + = !

I wanted to take a moment to talk about one of my passions — sales.  I started out, in my pre-teen years, selling berries at my homemade wooden stand on the side of the road.  The country road I lived on was connected to a bigger highway, so the traffic was plentiful on a hot summer day.  The wood on the stand was a little rough, put together with spare scrap wood that was lying around.  The boards were spray painted white.  I nailed on a secondary, larger sign across the front in ripe, red letters that read “BERRIES FOR SALE.” My dad would drag me out of bed while the roosters were still sleeping to go drive an hour to the country to pick  the delicious berries.  Once at the berry patch we would pick for endless hours.  My fingers stained with the evidence of my hard labor and my knees scratched from the thorns and my lips parched, we’d depart for home.  I would place all of the blueberries and raspberries in the fridge, set up my stand and sit at my road-side stand for hours until every last pint was sold.  I learned excellent customer service at an early age.  Aghhh, back in the days when there actually was excellent customer service.  You get to speak to a real, live person.  No, I will not place you on hold.  No music, I promise.  This is me, the berry gal!  Please and thank you were essential, as were, “And your name is Ms… ?”  I learned my clients’ names and wrote them down and committed them to memory.  When they would return the next summer, I’d be that much further ahead and on the ball.  ”I want that pint.  That one has bigger, juicier berries in it. ”  “Sure.  Thank you for coming.  See you next year.”  Next year would come and I would have the same repeat customers and additional, new ones.   Word of mouth was wonderful.  This was in the 1970′s way before the brilliance of social media.  Aghhh, if I could tweet about it now, those berries may be gone in a sweet second.  I loved the thrill of sales and building those relationships.  All of my clients were my new best friends.  More friends=more sales.  Those words echo the same reminders today.  It does not matter what you sell.  For one class, later in life,  I had to read the PDR (Physician’s Desk Reference) every day.  How could you miss it?  It was the heaviest, reddest book there was.  I became interested in each drug and what pill did what.  I was enthralled with the pictures and some a horse could not swallow and some that were micropills.  That added to my interest of science even more.  I am interested in pharmaceutical sales.  I have a business background, but the point is — I/we can learn anything with hard word and dedication and endless hours of memorization.  Relationship-building helps.  Creating memorable experiences helps.  More interests=more to talk about=more friends=more sales.   Something to leave you with on this berry important topic.

Happy holidays to all and to all a berry good night.

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