Selling Stuff
The other day I was waiting patiently for my beautiful bride to meet me for lunch when I noticed a "Going out of Business" sign at a store nearby. I live in Orlando, and for those who don't know, it's kind of a big deal in the travel industry. That means that there are plenty of places to eat and shop that fall within an entire rainbow of quality. Near the International Drive area (where we were having lunch) there are plenty of craptastic stores, filled with every type of lousy tourist trap gift you can imagine. The shop I was near (that was "Going out of business") tried to make a business of selling a whole lot of statuary (I'm talking about giant lions and dolphins you would place in your backyard) to the tourist folk. But it seems they sadly couldn't find their market. As the owner of a smallish business I see that type of shop and go "What makes them do that?", what makes a person go, "You know what honey, all that money we have in savings? We're going to open a shop that sells 5 t-shirts for $10 to the tourists!". Maybe they do it for a love of selling, the art of the sale has always intrigued me, when I published Touch of Death, I quickly became publisher and huckster all at once. The publisher bit was easy, the seller was a bit tougher to slide into. I guess it's a self confidence thing, good sellers are confident that what they've got you've got to have. It's building up that confidence that the seller has to do in order for any chance of that business succeeding.Discussion, links, and tweets
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