[ SHOWGSD-L ] HEART SALES
- From: Barbara Galasso <uwish@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2005 10:56:17 -0500
HEART SALES
by
Barbara J. Galasso
I think the hardest part of the dog breeding business for me has always
been the selling of my puppies and dogs. Some are in the business of
breeding dogs for just that reason alone.....it's a business to them.
Some breed litter after litter for this is a small livelihood for them.
In that case, the breeder is the salesman and the puppy or dog is the
"goods". Now I consider myself a good sales person, probably right up
there with the best of them. I probably could convince someone that the
dirt that they stand on if mixed with a little bit of warm water would
make a great mud mask and if used religiously every night would add a
youthful glow to their epidermis that time has long ago said good bye to.
To be a good sales person in anything, one must know their market and
also know everything there is to know about what they are trying to
sell. You better be ready with the answers to peoples questions, and
especially the ones that you least expect. I find in sales, if you love
and believe in what you're doing, your selling market believes it also.
Two educational incidents in my own sales experience comes to mind that
I'd like to share with you. Years ago when I was marketing my magazine,
I had absolutely no experience in this field, but took motivational
courses and went to lectures and classes. I built up my own self
confidence that "yes, I could do this." I marketed and positioned
myself correctly. When I went on those television and radio shows, I
was never prepared for what questions they were going to ask me. There
was no prep before the show. You just went out there and hoped for the
best. But I was so sure of my product that I was trying to sell to the
market, that everything they hit me with, I came back to them with the
answers they were looking for. I still have the video tapes somewhere
of those two shows, and it felt like I had been doing it all my life. I
had no fear, because I believed in what I was doing. My one girlfriend
always commented to me, "Barbara, you'd be great working on QVC." And
you know what, I think she may have been right and I'd be a lot richer
today had I taken her advice.
The second incident should help prove my point. I took a public
speaking course for college credits. Now everyone knows that public
speaking is on the top of the scale for being known as stress
producing. Well folks when I took that course I choked. I mean I
fumbled to try to find the right words when I stood up in front of an
unfriendly audience. My friends laughed and didn't believe me when I
told them this because they thought I was so confident and sure of
myself. Anyway, this is the lesson I want to share. In order for you
to pass this course, you had to pass two parts of the final exam. One
was the written part. The other part was the actual public speaking.
And what the teacher said was this, "when you give your speech, I want
you TO CONVINCE ME THAT WHAT YOU'RE SAYING IS TRUE". "DON'T JUST TELL
ME IT'S TRUE, CONVINCE ME THAT IT IS BY DEMONSTRATING SOMETHING TO ME TO
PROVE IT'S SO." We could talk about anything we wanted. I had
absolutely no idea what I was going to talk about. Then I came upon an
idea. I would give a speech about something that I was educated and
trained in and would do a live demonstration using one of the students
as my subjects. When I did this, I forgot about all eyes being on me,
and did what I knew how to do and was confident in doing it. When the
evening was over, the teacher gave out our grades. She told me,
"Barbara, I'm giving you 110 on your finals." I was floored. She told
me, "you see when you believe in what you are doing, then you convince
others, and you convinced me." Had I still had young dogs at that
time, I would have brought a German Shepherd in for my demonstration and
gave a speech about the breed. I just had two "oldsters" left.
So I deviated some here to drive home a point about selling puppies and
dogs. If you have a passion for what you do and believe in what you're
selling, you will build up your reputation and have repeat sales time
and time again. But even with the knowledge that I have, I still find
selling dogs the hardest sales of all for me. My husband used to walk
upstairs when I dealt with people because they'd get the third degree
from me. I didn't just sell my puppies to the first person who laid
their money down. Unlike other sales I've done in the past, selling
dogs was never about the money for me. It was about wondering and
worrying about them once they left my house going to their new home. My
other kinds of sales didn't keep me up at night.
In sales, there's two kinds. One is called the cold sale and the other
is the warm sale. The cold sale is when you have to convince someone
that what you're selling is what they need. The warm sale is the sale
that somebody already knows what they want and will even come out in an
ice storm to buy their favorite lipstick for. I never sold a product
that I didn't believe in and always felt good when I made a sale because
when I told my customers something, it came from an educational
background on that product. So I never cried if someone bought a $100
moisturizer from me (maybe their husband did though). But it was that
chubby little puppy, that although may have only been pet quality, had
already owned a piece of my heart. He I'd cry about after he left, and
in some cases, like a fool, in front of the people. Of the two kinds of
sales I mentioned above, both are sales done with the head. Puppy
sales, are heart sales, or at least they are for me. And no matter how
many years I've done it, it never got any easier for me. This wasn't a
jar being put on someone's vanity table. This was a living, breathing
part of my family who was planned for for a very long time before he was
even born. Hopefully, he came from a litter that helped me get the top
puppy that I was looking for when I did this breeding. And the money I
got from selling him helped me campaign a sister or brother of his. So
the biggest thanks I could give this little guy was to get him into the
best home that I could so he too could feel like he was somebody's pick
of the litter. I at least owed him that much.
By being a RESPONSIBLE breeder, we commit ourselves to doing everything
in our power to get them into the best homes that they deserve. Being a
responsible breeder means educating your prospective buyer about the
proper care and what it takes to raise a GSD. This breed isn't for
everyone, and unless you're sure that you've made the proper match with
the new owner and puppy, then you can prevent problems from happening
later on. I've turned down potential buyers because they were not what
I was looking for for my puppy. So definitely a different kind of sale
if you are in it for the betterment of the breed. A sales person never
turns down a sale, but when it's a heart sale, then it's a most unique
kind of sale, but one of the most rewarding kind also. Breeding a
litter of puppies should never be taken lightly. Every single litter is
precious and every single puppy is worthy of a good life, show quality
or not. His little life is literally in your hands. He may not be the
one you want to keep, but if you're a responsible breeder, he'll be kept
in your heart long after the door closes behind him and someone puts him
in their car and drives away. What other kind of sale compares? Breed
because you want to glorify the future of the GSD and maybe be
remembered in the history of the breed for your contribution to it.
Want to CONTRIBUTE to the betterment of the breed? Then do all you can
by getting them into the best homes possible, rather than finding out
that your little puppy that was born in your hands was CONTRIBUTED to
your local animal shelter instead.
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