Back at the Music Store - How a Sales Pitch Almost Cost a Customer Her Dream...
Back at the Music Store... Every Monday morning, I showed up to our weekly sales meetings clearing cobwebs from my head. If I was lucky, we’d had gigs all weekend. If I was less lucky, we’d spent hours practicing in my buddy Ron's basement. Let me introduce our sales crew. First, there was Dennis, the store manager, who was deadly serious about his career. Dennis was a music major who originally dreamed he would direct a high school band. I'm not sure where reality diverged from his dream, but there he was, running a store and showing fifth grade kids his skills on the clarinet and saxophone. Then there was Dean, who once wanted to be Billy Joel, but instead of becoming the Piano Man he became the piano manager. He was responsible for making sure all of the pianos were ready to go, and it was his job to assess a buyer’s needs and help them decide which piano to buy. Dean had planned to be a pianist and a performer. He graduated from The Ohio State Univ...