Mental loose ends
I have a confession. I actually enjoy television advertising, at least some of it. I've worked in sales long enough to appreciate a really well done pitch. Then there are the ads that make me wonder what were they thinking. I love Starbursts candy, but their new ads are just ridiculous. One features two guys who drop their candy accidentally into a vat of acid. One guy reaches in to retrieve his candy and comes back with no arm. He then reaches in with the other arm. Then the other guy does. Yeah, that really sells me. Starbursts -- the candy that makes you totally stupid. I think I'll buy Jolly Ranchers instead.
I enjoy selling. I enjoy the challenge of finding out why my customers really need and then getting it for them. I like meeting people, and if gas were actually affordable, I'd enjoy the travel in my job a whole lot more. However, I'm truly an introvert, and I have to prepare myself to sell. I have to marshall my energy and focus it outward. I have to be very alert. I imagine that my mental preparations for a heavy sales day are similar to an actor getting into character. I'm not creating a false persona. I'm just tapping into a very specific mode of myself. In preparing myself, I know I can prepare myself for somethings, and others are just not going to work. Yesterday, on a cold call, I stepped out of my car and got hit with a wave of nausea so intense that I dropped to my aching knees and immediately spewed in the parking lot. Something like that is one of those things which just can't be overcome. You just can't talk your way around that. It was one of the few times in my life I've appreciated SUVs. They're great when you need something to hide behind, and my mid-sized car slipped out of that parking lot as quickly and hopefully as unobtrusively as it slipped in. I've got a print in my home office that says, "Blessed are we who can laugh at ourselves for we shall never cease to be amused." I know it's true.
I think I've fallen in love with a gadget. The Palm handheld and I have had a longstanding thing going on, but I think it's being edged out by my new phone. I changed mobile phone providers and the womanchild and I both have the same phone now (a two for one deal). It's a camera phone that will take short videos with sound, and it has an mp3 player. My husband got a more basic model. In all honesty, he'd be happier if we had only one wall mount landline phone. While the womanchild cannot stop text messaging her friends, I can't stop downloading music. My playlist changes daily, and I wonder what it says about me that both Rockapella's Amazing Grace and Rob Zombie's Dragula have their place today. This moment though, I'm soundly back in the musical arms of Van. Into the Mystic is absolutely perfect for me now.
It's been a beautiful, cloudy, misty, rainy day, and it's good to be home now, with my hair down, my bra off, a cat knocking me in the head with her tail, and a candle burning. I've dropped the emotional tool belt which helps me sell, and I'm mellow and relaxed. I might not have a weekly list of ten good things, but I know that I've had my share, and I'm feeling them right now...even without a xanax. 'Tis good.
I enjoy selling. I enjoy the challenge of finding out why my customers really need and then getting it for them. I like meeting people, and if gas were actually affordable, I'd enjoy the travel in my job a whole lot more. However, I'm truly an introvert, and I have to prepare myself to sell. I have to marshall my energy and focus it outward. I have to be very alert. I imagine that my mental preparations for a heavy sales day are similar to an actor getting into character. I'm not creating a false persona. I'm just tapping into a very specific mode of myself. In preparing myself, I know I can prepare myself for somethings, and others are just not going to work. Yesterday, on a cold call, I stepped out of my car and got hit with a wave of nausea so intense that I dropped to my aching knees and immediately spewed in the parking lot. Something like that is one of those things which just can't be overcome. You just can't talk your way around that. It was one of the few times in my life I've appreciated SUVs. They're great when you need something to hide behind, and my mid-sized car slipped out of that parking lot as quickly and hopefully as unobtrusively as it slipped in. I've got a print in my home office that says, "Blessed are we who can laugh at ourselves for we shall never cease to be amused." I know it's true.
I think I've fallen in love with a gadget. The Palm handheld and I have had a longstanding thing going on, but I think it's being edged out by my new phone. I changed mobile phone providers and the womanchild and I both have the same phone now (a two for one deal). It's a camera phone that will take short videos with sound, and it has an mp3 player. My husband got a more basic model. In all honesty, he'd be happier if we had only one wall mount landline phone. While the womanchild cannot stop text messaging her friends, I can't stop downloading music. My playlist changes daily, and I wonder what it says about me that both Rockapella's Amazing Grace and Rob Zombie's Dragula have their place today. This moment though, I'm soundly back in the musical arms of Van. Into the Mystic is absolutely perfect for me now.
It's been a beautiful, cloudy, misty, rainy day, and it's good to be home now, with my hair down, my bra off, a cat knocking me in the head with her tail, and a candle burning. I've dropped the emotional tool belt which helps me sell, and I'm mellow and relaxed. I might not have a weekly list of ten good things, but I know that I've had my share, and I'm feeling them right now...even without a xanax. 'Tis good.
Labels: advertising, gadgets, sales
posted by Cynthia at
9:15 PM
7 Comments:
I was in sales for three years when I first moved here, and I NEVER got used to the cold calling. It twisted my gut, and the rejection made want to cry all the time. Loved the matching, as you do, but it wasn't enough. It was with a massive sigh of relief that I eventually got out (to raise my son who needed lots and lots of doctors' visits as a baby). You are a stronger woman than I, Miz Cynthia. My hat is off to you, that you can do it despite the waves of nausea. Attagirl!!
Vicky xx
Sounds nice and relaxed day.
I know what you mean about marketing. I like SOME of them too, the ones I can look at and think "Damn, that was creative." But the Starburst get the same reaction as you said. What were they thinking? They're just annoying. Like Old Navy lol
Nice post :o)
~Lily
I think it is amazing that you manage to overcome such trepidation most of the time! I hope you have a wonderful Mother's Day weekend.
My father was a natural salesman who could sell ice to the eskimos, as they used to say. I, on the other hand, had to be convinced that the purchaser was in such dire need of my product that they'd perish without it ~ generally I'd just wind up apologizing for taking up their time. And then I'd buy their girl scout cookies.
I love commercials these days! My faves right now are Jack in the Box and the Travelocity Roamin' Gnome. And Outback, featuring the 'semi-veg' Aussie. Adorable.
PS ~ Your phone sounds more talented then I am.
It's always well to find an Irish troubadour to soothe your soul.
The Dairy Queen commercial where the Mom and Dad shrimp are munching popcorn and then look at each other and gasp, "Where are the kids?" leaves me a little cold. And then there are the ones for the new Toyota Yaris(?), where the car mashes a spider made out of gas pump nozzles and then sucks up the splat of gas it makes...manages to pack violence and gross-out all in one fifteen-second spot.
The cold calls would probably make me puke, too...
Speakin` of SUV`s & Ads....Chevy just did a great job! For SUV ads, you must have a woman talking. They thought of covering both sexual bases by hiring Susy Kolber [sp] of ESPN Sports, pretty & highly respected, to do the Ad. Perfect!
V
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