Once again, this instalment of everyone’s favourite series for the site is late, and once again, there has been a complete lack of new content (which shall be addressed today, by various devious ways and means). And once again, yer very ‘eavy, very ‘umble servant can only blame a crushing work schedule for that fact.
I was on a business trip earlier this week, which involved helping three different people sell projects to various clients. Let me tell you, anyone who thinks sales is easy, has no clue what it involves. The amount of due diligence you have to do for your client before you even get in front of him for a brief chat, is simply not funny.
It all brings to mind that CLASSIC scene from the superb David Mamet film, Glengarry Glen Ross:
If you have never seen it before, go watch it tonight. It is a brilliant movie, a great study in human behaviour – and especially in the Socio-Sexual Hierarchy. When you see it, you will be able to spot the Alpha, the Bravos, the Deltas, and especially the Gammas instantly.
There is one thing I will say about sales:
One has to walk a fine line between being passive and pushy. Too passive, and you’ll lose the client. Too pushy, and you’ll scare him off. It is a difficult and very tricky balancing act. But, there is nothing quite like the rush of actually closing a sale with a real-life client who wants your skills and abilities to deliver on a project.
Then, of course, comes the really hard part – delivering on what you promised. That is usually much harder than selling the project. Salesmen have a bad reputation, for very good reason – they make lots of promises that other people then have to fulfil, simply because they need to hit their numbers. Whereas, the people doing the actual work, often get the shit end of the stick, and then have to deliver on something that turns out to be completely unworkable.
Be that as it may, selling is a skill, one that you can build through practice. It sounds really obvious, but the ability to tell a story, to spin a narrative, is critical to success in just about any field – yet, it is one of the hardest lessons I have ever had to learn. It really is something you have to practice – the art of storytelling is difficult, but worthwhile to study.
And that is about it for the life lessons today. Let us get on with the actual reason you are here.
This week’s specimen is Evgenia Sivaeva (Евгения Сиваева), age 23 from Minsk, Belarus. She does “model stuff” – whatever that means – and is also apparently a TikTokist, which supposedly is a thing among the kids these days. (Cue “grumpy old man” noises.)
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