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News from Earth and Fire -- April 17, 2008 Big do-ings in Leesburg this weekend. It's time for the Annual Flower and Garden Show in Leesburg. This is probably the biggest event of the entire year, and it really is something to see. The weather looks a little iffy for Sunday, so it looks like Saturday will be the better of the two days. Hope to see a lot of you out enjoying the festivities. New pots, new pots, new pots! Please check out all the new goodies on the website from these new artists: Ray Morales Willem Gebben Jane Herold and the new work from: Allison Severance We get by with a little help from our friends. In one of my former lives, I was a sales rep for an office machine dealer. I had to cold call on offices and try to find the ones that were in the market to replace their typewriters (yeah, I'm that old). If I called on an office that wasn't in the market to replace their typewriters, my job was to explain to them why they might benefit from replacing their typewriters. When I started that job, I knew nothing about sales. I figured people bought the best products. My boss quickly told me that wasn't true at all. A superior salesman, he said, could sell an inferior product. He taught me a lot about sales. He taught me that a customer first buys the salesman, then the company s/he represents, and THEN the product. Basically, if they know you, trust you and like you, you'll have a much easier time getting your message across. That made sense to me and I guess that part of sales comes fairly easily for me (except when I'm in a room full of people I don't know). One thing I was never very good at was "asking for the order." Any of you that are in sales know what I'm talking about. You ask the customer to buy ... and then you… close your mouth. I know how to get out of the way when a customer is considering a purchase at the gallery, (the "close your mouth" part), but I just have never been good at the "ask for the order" part of that equation. I get an email every week or so from a local art house movie theatre, Cinema Arts Theatre in Fairfax, VA. The emails are written by the owner of the theatre, and they are very informative. He tells us what movies are coming and going, and he lets us in on a little bit of what it's like to own a movie theatre. This week, for example, he told us how Cinema Arts had been completely shut out of the distribution of a particular movie. No explanation from the Big Wigs.. just… nope.. you can't have this movie to play. When one of the big chain theatres not far from him is playing an art movie, he'll specifically ask that we please patronize his theatre instead of the nearby big chain theatre with the 24 screens, a huge lobby, and stadium seats. I live almost 45 minutes away from Cinema Arts Theatre, but you know what? Even if a movie I want to see does happen to be playing at one of the big chain theatres that is only about 10 minutes from where I live.. I will make the effort (and burn the gas!!) to drive further to Cinema Arts. Why? Because I like movies that involve character development and a good story to engage the viewer, and generally the only place you can find movies like that are at art house theatres like Cinema Arts. If Cinema Arts weren't there anymore, I'd have to drive about an hour and a half to get to the next closest art house theatre. I want Cinema Arts to stay in business. So I patronize it. When I read the newsletters from Cinema Arts, I know exactly what the guy is doing. He's selling himself, his theatre, and THEN the movie. And he's asking for the order. My newsletters were actually inspired by his, because I thought they were so well-done. They made me see him as a person, and care about him as a theatre owner trying to make a go of his business against some pretty big obstacles. I thought I could do the same thing for the gallery. I think I have done well selling myself and the gallery in my newsletters, but I don't think I've done a good job asking for the order. I'm going do that now. Ask for the order. If you can think of an occasion you've got coming up when you'll need a unique gift - a wedding, a birthday, a housewarming, or you want to plan ahead to have something on hand when you need a hostess gift, a thank you gift… Even if there's a mall close to you and you could pick something up quickly that would "be OK"… I ask you to drive the extra miles (or hey… just click, and I'll ship!!) and please patronize Earth and Fire Gallery. Now I'm going to close my mouth. Are you caught up reading Today at the Gallery? Back to the Newsletter Archive list Contact us to join the mailing list or inquire about a specific piece.
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