I now have all of my cards from the printer and the organza bags and I've created the tags. It appears that I have a good and unique product and that my price point is right. All that's left is sales. I have to do some work on my web site to track aspects of the business that I can't track today. There's always more work... but there is movement. I sold 7 Connection Packs yesterday without really trying. People saw them and wanted them. Paying the $12 was a no-brainer. Less than two years ago I painted my first painting and since that time, I've worked to find a way to make art my living. It's been a bumpy road, with turns I didn't expect. I learned a lot about myself that surprised me. I recorded some of what transpired here on my web site. If there's a skill that I find most valuable in life, it is listening. When I listen - really listen - life is easier. Rather than mete out my way, I adapt to what life would have me to do. Listening helps me to move not like a bulldozer, but like water. It's a gentle act. It's also hard to do well. So now I am ear to the market. I've learned that tweaking is more powerful than a new direction, and a'tweaking I will go. The market will tell me how to do this. I'll find the right channels and the right approach - as long as I listen and adapt. I read Jeffrey Gitomer's "Little Red Book of Selling," and in it, he opens with this: "Why do people buy?" is a thousand times more important than "How do I sell?" No, let me correct that... it's one million times more important than "How do I sell?" No, let me correct that... it's a billion times more important than "How do I sell?" Get the picture?It never ceases to amaze me that companies will spend thousands of hours and millions of dollars teaching people "how to sell," and not one minute or tens of dollars on "why they buy." And "why they buy" is all that matters. "Why they buy" is listening; "How to sell" is forcing my way into the market. Big difference.In Dorothy Leeds' book, "The 7 Powers of Questions," she gives this story: The most successful salesperson who ever worked for Equitable Life Insurance sold more insurance than any other employee for more than twenty-five years. His approach was short and simple. Larry would sit down with his prospective clients in their living room, lean in close to them, look them in the eyes, and say, "Tell me, why do you need life insurance?" They would tell him, and within no time, they had sold themselves a policy. Listening is such powerful stuff.I am ear to the market. Lots to do ahead... |
