Terry Zwigoff has a doormat at his home which reads ''Go Away.''
Who is Terry Zwigoff? He makes movies (Ghost World and Crumb, among others). I like his movies -- maybe because we're both from Wisconsin. But Terry has a disease: he hates selling. He probably hates people who sell as well. His welcome telegraphs this.
The attitude is all too common, even among people who could benefit from selling their own ideas. But why -- because selling is selling out? Because it's "commercial" and "corporate"? Because it's beneath an artist, especially one whose work should be recognized on its merits alone?
Politicians face the problem of selling themselves. Scientists (academics in general) face the challenge of selling themselves through publishing and grant husbandry. Writers must sell themselves. Even a job seeker must sell him or herself.
Who really wants to live in a world where these challenges don't exist?
46 comments:
As an introvert, I identify with that doormat.
That's OK deborah as long as you never feel like one.
Ah.
Selling, whether it's ideas, products, or theories, is a humbling experience and hard work. You have to think about other people, not just in the abstract the way you think they should be ideally, but the way they actually are, what they want - to hear, to feel, to believe - about themselves and other people. You have to think about yourself and/or your product or idea, not in the abstract ideally, but actually. Sellers put themselves in a position to be rejected.
It's also important that sellers abide by ethics. No one appreciates being sold a lie.
Is online shopping eliminating salesmanship?
More and more, do people only enter into market transactions as a buyer seeking to consummate deals anonymously with a mouse click?
Good post, Armatel. As an introverted eldest child, being in sales would be way outside my comfort zone.
chick @ 5:26, yes yes yes.
What items are resistant to online sales?
Unique items that have to be handled to be appreciated are best sold person to person. Get the product into the potential customer's hands. Then sell.
Selling is not easy and it can go wrong in an instant.
What items are resistant to online sales?
Liquor sales are inconvenient online. I imagine prescription and illicit drug sales too.
You said you'd never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but know you realize
He's not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And say do you want to make a deal?
I'm about as big a proponent of free markets as you could hope to find... but I hate selling and hate when people try to sell me stuff.
My reason is simple: most salespeople will lie to get a sale. Almost all of them will persist in trying to sell me something after I've decided I don't want it.
This is why I use Amazon and eBay for almost all my buying and selling needs. :)
Chick, one of fave Dylan lyrics ever.
My reason is simple: most salespeople will lie to get a sale. Almost all of them will persist in trying to sell me something after I've decided I don't want it.
I blame the playwright, Arthur Miller.
deborah said...
Chick, one of fave Dylan lyrics ever.
I should have proofread what I cut and pasted.
Having to sell must suck. that's just the way I feel about it.
You have to have something of a personality for it. a spark? born salesman. Some people aren't born salesman.
Rev, I think Armatel is saying that the honest salesman can be successful. And from what you say, somewhat rare.
On the other hand, there is this passage from Walden on commerce:
"Commerce is unexpectedly confident and serene, alert, adventurous, and unwearied. It is very natural in its methods withal, far more so than many fantastic enterprises and sentimental experiments, and hence its singular success. I am refreshed and expanded when the freight train rattles past me, and I smell the stores which go dispensing their odors all the way from Long Wharf to Lake Champlain, reminding me of foreign parts, of coral reefs, and Indian oceans, and tropical climes, and the extent of the globe. I feel more like a citizen of the world at the sight of the palm-leaf which will cover so many flaxen New England heads the next summer, the Manilla hemp and cocoanut husks, the old junk, gunny bags, scrap iron, and rusty nails. This carload of torn sails is more legible and interesting now than if they should be wrought into paper and printed books. Who can write so graphically the history of the storms they have weathered as these rents have done? They are proof-sheets which need no correction. Here goes lumber from the Maine woods, which did not go out to sea in the last freshet, risen four dollars on the thousand because of what did go out or was split up; pine, spruce, cedar- first, second, third, and fourth qualities, so lately all of one quality, to wave over the bear, and moose, and caribou. Next rolls Thomaston lime, a prime lot, which will get far among the hills before it gets slacked. These rags in bales, of all hues and qualities, the lowest condition to which cotton and linen descend, the final result of dress- of patterns which are now no longer cried up, unless it be in Milwaukee, as those splendid articles, English, French, or American prints, ginghams, muslins, etc., gathered from all quarters both of fashion and poverty, going to become paper of one color or a few shades only, on which, forsooth, will be written tales of real life, high and low, and founded on fact! This closed car smells of salt fish, the strong New England and commercial scent, reminding me of the Grand Banks and the fisheries. Who has not seen a salt fish, thoroughly cured for this world, so that nothing can spoil it, and putting, the perseverance of the saints to the blush? with which you may sweep or pave the streets, and split your kindlings, and the teamster shelter himself and his lading against sun, wind, and rain behind it- and the trader, as a Concord trader once did, bang it up by his door for a sign when he commences business, until at last his oldest customer cannot tell surely whether it be animal, vegetable, or mineral, and yet it shall be as pure as a snowflake, and if it be put into a pot and boiled, will come out an excellent dunfish for a Saturday's dinner."
Commerce and sales are not quite the same, the difference being between want and need, I think. But that is a fine line.
The gift of gab would be important, Lem.
Sixty, are you referencing your bowls? I still would love to see some examples.
deborah said...
Sixty, are you referencing your bowls? I still would love to see some examples.
Sixty, you're welcome to advertise and sell here.
For goodness sake don't advertise any wares on TOP.
You saw me working there - never let 'em see you sell.
I took a lot of classes in selling and it is not easy. I am not kidding about seeing a sale evaporate right in front of your eyes.
The gift of gab is real important, but so is the gift of knowing when to shut the f up. It's a fine line.
As for seeing my work, I don't know how to approach that. Do you have any ideas?
I hate "selling". I cannot even go to stores that have active salespersons. The less interaction the better. I don't even like when store employees come up and ask me "are you finding everything o.k.?" If I require assistance, I'll ask for it.
Short of emailing one of us pics, have you considered starting a blog?
I had a church friend once who gave each of us fellow choir members a cooking spoon he'd made. Mine was in walnut. It took a while for me to learn that the dark color was in the wood, and not stained :)
Deborah, if you can contact Darcy I trust her not to do anything silly, assuming you trust her as well.
Darcy's contact info is in her profile. I think she would be happy to work with you.
I'll send her a link and then she can send it to you - that should work.
Thanks :)
Did some kind of deal just go down here?
In the words of the great salesman Alec Baldwin, Always Be Closing!
Just so we're clear, I'm the one who closed :)
Let me know if you like what you see. Keep in mind that most of those objects are sold, some are currently in the homes of people who read and comment here.
Yes, my products are currently enriching their lives. And isn't that what selling is all about?
The problem with most selling is that so many people who sell don't really believe in what they are selling. Even if it's a good product there often is not a clearly good reason to buy this one over that one. On top of that a lot stuff is just crap, and it seems the crappier something is the harder it is sold, and the more it gets in your face.
I have been remodeling a lot lately, so I've been in Home Depot most nights. I get approached by sales people who want to sell me remodeling about 3 times per visit. I'm just to point where I have to tell them "no" as soon as they look at me. It really makes my visits to Home Depot unpleasant. Besides all you have to do is read some of the online reviews of the work being done by contractors working for them and you don't want anything to do with it. I prefer to use friends and do a lot myself. Sure I often have to pay them to do it twice, and feed them, and pay them even when they are eating or drinking beer, but I can bitch at em, and call them pussies or fags, and that's worth a lot to me, especially around the holidays.
I don't wanna bowl, but
I want a bowl. How do I shop for a Sixty Grit bowl? I don't mean a sixty grit bowl, I want one a little smoother than that. I don't mean a smooth transaction, although that would be nice too, but a smooth bowl, not a smooth smoking bowl, but smooth to the feel.
Wait, what were we talking about again? Oh yea, a bowl. I want one.
I love wood, but don't get started on that.
Sixty Grit said...
In the words of the great salesman Alec Baldwin, Always Be Closing!
The actor and the playwright are both outcasts!
Yep, the left is unforgiving, that's for sure.
Yes, my products are currently enriching their lives. And isn't that what selling is all about?
Yes! So buy my stuff too! I haven't yet resumed print production, but I've plenty of originals available.
Palladian, Is the picture of the darkened room with light coming through the opened door, shown here one of yours? I can't tell if it's a photo or a drawing. How did it come to be?
Will do, Sixty.
Palladian, Is the picture of the darkened room with light coming through the opened door, shown here one of yours? I can't tell if it's a photo or a drawing. How did it come to be?
MamaM, it's a digital collage I made, based upon an illustration from a book of imaginary Baroque architecture called Fürstlicher Baumeister, Oder Architectura Civilis by Paul Decker, published in 1711.
it's a digital collage I made...
I like it a lot. It's other worldly, so quietly beautiful and unsettling I was momentarily taken aback when I first found it.
Thank you, MamaM.
To me it's the portal between states, the door of perception, a metaphor for creation, divine light gushing through a doorway, the illuminating mystery beyond the beautiful, dark, familiar world.
To me it's the portal between states, the door of perception, a metaphor for creation, divine light gushing through a doorway, the illuminating mystery beyond the beautiful, dark, familiar world.
I was thinking more like Nick Spinelli POV, peeping through a tiny hole, realizing that he was one room short of capturing evidence of cheating for a client.
I guess that shows how warped and twisted I am.
Yep, the left is unforgiving, that's for sure.
Whereas the political right likes Alec Baldwin and is eager to employ him? :)
Well the "one room short" captures part of it, but I prefer Palladian's description. It's what I sensed without the words, while experiencing a mixed feeling of sadness and joy.
I'd not heard of Paul Decker's designs before and appreciate the connect as the engravings are amazing to see. The designs, however, were purely from the hand of young German architect Paulus Decker the Elder (1677-1713). His designs encouraged the imagination of those who followed him, rather than restricting them to his original ideas
I've always appreciated the totality of Palladian's work. That entire collage would make its own fantastic piece.
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