the art of selling

This has been a tough week.

• I call about 25 potential J. Hilburn clients. Not one returns my call.

• I meet a client — a very nice man — at his office in midtown. We spend about an hour together, and I don't get his new credit card information. I leave multiple messages (via phone, text and email) and he still hasn't gotten back to me.

• Another client I meet while he's on his lunch break. Again, very nice.  He asks for some fabrics to take home and we are meeting again, at his office, next week. I hope a sale results but I'm not certain it will.

• Someone else receives a jacket that is measured correctly, as a previously ordered jacket fits perfectly. I have been waiting five days for a return shipping label that still has not arrived. And, the fabric for this jacket is now out of stock and is not being reordered.

• I speak to someone on the phone. He wants a couple of suits. I pull fabrics and photos and send him the information. He doesn't call back. It takes me three weeks to reach him again. He tells me he wants to meet, and I should call him in two days when he knows his schedule better. I call in two days, three days, four days, a week later, two weeks later. I have been unsuccessful in reaching him and my calls go unreturned.

• A client in another state orders shirts based on the same measurements of his previous shirts that fit perfectly. But the new ones don't. I've been waiting for him to send me photos for the past month. My emails, texts and phone calls are ignored. And he, too, is a really nice guy.

• Another client orders a sports jacket a month ago but asks for me to place the order at the end of April.  I go to place the order today but it's sold out — for good.

Selling is hard. But I enjoy it. The quality of the merchandise is outstanding; the price point is excellent; and the people are great. It's a product I totally believe in. 

On Friday, there's an all-company big-news-announcement webinar.  After all the rah-rah dies down, and I read through the stuff that was skimmed over, I see that commissions, starting in June, will be cut dramatically.

What can I say?  To paraphrase a popular children's book, it's been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week.

And this is just the stuff I dare write about!