Sit back and enjoy the salesmanship

About once every two or three months, I get a call from a wine saleslady from California. She represents a winery that offers some great wine. But so do a lot of other wineries. Also, within a few miles of my home, I can buy some of her wines as well as thousands of others at a good price. But I buy from her.

I buy from her because:
She has passion for the product
She has great knowledge about the industry and product
She is honest and will recommend against some of her offerings based on her taste
She is empathetic to my mood and will offer to call back when I have more time
She gives me a good price, good enough that I can't rationalize going elsewhere
She fixes things when they've gone wrong (i.e. a shipment didn't arrive)

I buy from her because I like her salesmanship. I'm happy to see her do well and profit. What a great example of being a salesperson--she profits and I do as well. Sounds simple, doesn't it?

Barry LaBov
LaBov & Beyond
www.labov.com