Monday 2 March 2009

Building a Customer Base

Ron made a comment on my blog yesterday about building a customer base.
Such a good comment that I stole it for the title of this post.
After my first day and no sales I was feeling confused, not because I think everyone should love what I make and instantly want to buy it, that's not the way the world works and I'm fully aware of that.
But the whole day felt strange, all the time and hard work I had put in over the past months seemed to have come to nothing and on the Sunday morning I was hesitant about going back to the workshop.
But as they say in the Movies " Tomorrow is another Day".
So Sunday morning and I approached the day from a different angle in my head.
This is my workshop and if people want to come and have a look that's fine I just have to get on with what I want to make. Listen to what I want to listen to on the radio and just get on with stuff.
What a difference I was more relaxed and more Myself and I had a great bunch
of visitors 50 plus at least and I sold 7 pots, this was the start of
"Building My Customer Base"
What was also nice was the realisation that I had regained my Patience.
When I was a teenager as seen in the above picture, I was the most patient person you could have met at the time, but over the years I had lost that.
Today I had a lady come in the workshop with a young 9 year old girl who asked me every question you could ever be asked in one day, they were good questions as well like
"how hot does the kiln get ?" 1100 oc I replied " is that hotter than the Sun ?".
just lovely stuff .
But I gave her all the time in the world and really enjoyed it.
My faith in Mankind has temporarily been restored and in Myself and I have started to build My Customer Base.
"Thanks Ron"

4 comments:

ang design said...

what a day....sounds lovely, so glad you had an opportunity to 'regroup' our market is like that sometimes frantic and other times a lovely opportunity to chat..everyone here admires your pots when they do the tour of my pot shelves, just lovely balance and deco..

Ron said...

Hey Paul. Glad I was able to contribute (without evening knowing I was). Hope you're getting folks addresses and emails to start your mailing list.
Snow here today. Sarah's off work. Gonna make it hard for me to get in the shop. Have a great day.

Christine--RHP said...

Hi there Paul--I can totally relate! I used to have an open studio where folks could come and watch me work and shop at the same time, and I realized what a rollercoaster it would be every day. Sometimes I would have the most amazing folks and a great time with them, but no sales; or then super busy days with lots of $$ but no depth. And, of course, my mood at the end of the day was based on what happend with the studio that day. Best of luck with it all--it looks just lovely!!

doug Fitch said...

Howdy Paul, here's wishing you all the best. Many thanks for sending through the CPA newsletter, you're a star. Hope to see you soon. Cheers D

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