Posts Tagged “selling”

My daughter is a newly-minted Girl Scout. In fact, her first official troop meeting is tomorrow, after school. She’s excited about Girl Scouts for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that she’ll get to sell cookies.

That’s right. She’s excited about selling Girl Scout cookies.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

My daughter is a force of nature. She Who Will Not Be Swayed. She focuses like a laser beam on whatever strikes her fancy du jour, and can withstand all efforts to divert her attentions – gale-force winds, a pack of sled dogs, 20 Mule Team Borax, you name it. Having been down this obssesion road once or twice before, I’ve learned that it’s like the tide – no use swimming against it. I’ve also learned that every now and then, I can use this obsession to try and give her a little real-world experience in things within my area of expertise, in this instance, sales and marketing. So let’s talk about marketing cookies. Read the rest of this entry »

I grew up working for my Dad. He owns a music studio (a teaching studio) that had a small counter, where he’d sell strings, drumsticks, picks and a few books. No big deal. When I came along, I had visions of turning his operation into a “real” music store, complete with lots of stock, drumsets, keyboards, synths, guitars, amps – the works. My Dad was somewhat indulgent, but quite a bit less enthusiastic when it came to opening the wallet to buy stock. He was a child of the Great Depression, and believed that caution and prudence were rules to live by. No floor plans and going into debt for him, certainly not on the hopes and dreams of some kid who thought he knew everything. Turns out the Old Man was pretty sharp, for in the intervening years, I’ve seen more music stores than I care to think about asume room temperature when faced with recessions, big store competition, and lack of forecasting the fickle tastes of John Q. Public. 

What I learned, working retail for my Dad, could fill a book (and perhaps, someday will). One lesson that was brought back to mind today was what it was like working retail for Christmas. In many ways, they are some memories I’d rather forget. Read the rest of this entry »