Sales reps are easily pleased...

...and by sales reps, I really just mean me.  Your mileage may vary.

Yesterday was a series of fortunate events that started me thinking how big things are the product of a lot of small things.

For starters, the weather was ideal - blue skies, a breeze and spring temps.  Believe me, this is important when you're calling on several accounts in a pedestrian mall where you park once and walk from one to the other.


Charlottesville, Virginia - Downtown Mall

I got lucky on my first stop - a retailer I needed to re-connect with - as the owner was actually in the store!  (Fellow sales reps will appreciate this)  She accepted the catalogs I came armed with from other product lines I represent.  By dinner time, she emailed me with what I assumed was a reorder for a product line she already carries.  But no - it was for a completely new line for her from one of the catalogs I left.  Not only had she looked at my catalogs, but she shares my enthusiasm and sees how my product will make her money.  

The next stop was a retailer whose winter appointments were derailed twice by winter snow storms.  It turns I was right - they needed candles!  Guess who left with an order?

The afternoon brought a brief game of phone tag that resulted in a new Paddywax account.

All this was followed by a late lunch at Chipotle, which is always a little bit of heaven for my taste buds.  Oh, and I bought 2 tee shirts on sale at Old Navy.

But wait - there's more.

All day, I thought the highlight would be meeting the writer Jon Acuff and having him sign his new book.  It turns out it was dessert instead of the main course!



Highly recommended

As I was mentally composing this blog post on my drive home last night, it made me think more broadly how easy it can be to make retail customers happy. 

It's not always necessary to pull out all the stops with a great promotion, a flashy display or deep discount.  Sometimes you can win loyal customers by attending to the small daily details - convenient store hours, accepting the credit card they wish to use, efficient checkout once they have decided on a purchase and packaging it with care.

Here's to creating more of these small, daily opportunities that add up to so much more!