I started working at the food promo gig in August, 2023. At the end of that month, as a budding young salesperson, I reached out to a restaurant. We had a call and it was the first place that expressed interest in a bigger deal with us. I was so very excited.
I had literally done an Uber Eats pickup at the restaurant a day before. I saw how nice it was and sometimes you just really want to eat the food. At the time I wasn’t filming content yet, I was just there to sell. This call went really well, he wanted to think about it and get back to me.
He then said he was working with an agency and in January things would be finished up. I was a bit sad at the time, but I followed up in January. Another call took place in February. I finally sent off the invoice this week over 6 months later. There is a part of me in disbelief this is actually moving forward after all this time.
Relationships and timing is all that matters in sales
A lot of what I do for the restaurant gig can be applied to music. I’ve been gifted with a glimpse of a fully financed world, where people are willing to spend the money on the things they need to succeed. No shots intended here, it was weird to even ask for larger amounts at first because it feels so intangible in my regular life.
That myopic view ignores the fact that to many other people, money is not a problem. Our poverty rate says a lot more people are poor these days, but still the majority of people have some money. Or at least a lot of people understand how and when to spend their money.
In the example I opened this one with, it really touched my soul to be able to send off that invoice. I did my end following up. The gentlemen did not have the details of our first call on hand, but I quoted a few things he said back to him. I don’t always take detailed notes because there aren’t always detailed things to take notes on. This guy had thought about his brand a lot and I made sure to capture his essence.
All in all I represented our brand well and responsibly handled the sale. The last thing to wait for was them being ready to move forward. Apparently that came this week. When I checked the original contact date I realized this was the longest I’ve gone from first contact to invoice. This is a good thing to pay attention to.
Sometimes, everyone is on board but the timing isn’t right. You just need to keep your head down and grind out your grind. When the time aligns for you and that opportunity it will manifest. Either way, things happen in business. You need to wait until they have that extra cash to spend your way. Be patient and work that relationship, remember what matters.
Overpromising and under delivering can be painful
One time I oversold a concept for a video. It went beyond what I could produce and ultimately the client wasn’t satisfied. We had to redo the video. Now the problem here is that when we shoot a video, the restaurant will eat the food cost. Meaning each video shoot there is a cost.
In order to maintain the relationship, the cost of the food was paid by us. Then I went and ordered a couple of extra things I felt would make the video a little nicer. The mistake was over 100$ to deal with. Granted it’s a tax write off, and big picture the honour in this move may lead to other sales down the line. The reshoot went well and they were happy.
I learned a big lesson here. Make sure that what you sell, you can live up to. Otherwise the commission you make may just get eaten by the costs of making up for your mistake.
When dealing with people in the creative world, they may not always like your work. When they pay you, you are going to have to come up with something to make up for it. Perhaps you won’t, but reputations are everything in this world. I know that some of the restaurant owners I’ve talked to have spoken with other ones I’ve talked to. If you move foul, people will make sure that spreads around.
Don’t play with people’s money. You can come back from a lot of things, but if people feel like they wasted money on you, that’s a stink you can’t wash off easily. There is always a way to offer more to atone for your content making sins. They may not like it, and the relationship may be burned, but it won’t be said you offered nothing back.
Ignore the rejection and have some faith
Sales is largely a game of faith. The law of averages states that for every 100 people you contact, a certain % will buy. You can work to increase that % but rest assured, if you put that work in you will sell. Some calls will go bad and others will go amazing.
Sometimes people will let you send an invoice and never talk to you again. They just agree to everything to get you off the phone. This will play with your emotions but ignore it. Sometimes people just have life things that happen, and then they will appear 3 months later ready to go.
You will face rejection and it will suck. However the taste of rejection gets washed away pretty fast after your 25th sale. I promise you that much.
As long as you remember that as a salesperson you are akin to a gardener planting seeds, you will be fine. Some of them will sprout immediately, cash in hand the same day. Those are beautiful seedlings. Others will wait a long while and appear in a slower week making you have a much brighter day.
You can never control the timing of other people. You can simply be patient and trust the process. I’ve learned so much over the last 7 months and I’m grateful for this opportunity. Plus, now I can share food with friends here and there and get paid to do it. It’s a blessing.
Next up applying what I’ve learned to music and marketing that side of my life.
Live Long and Prosper Everyone
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