BUSINESS

When buyers are rude - how to react.

Design is personal to any designer. It is hard to accept when people tell us, oh don’t take it too seriously; it’s JUST business.

We agree that it is business, hence when we are told that our products are NOT a good fit to a store, we understand completely. You can not expect a Kmart to carry designer prices when they are used to made in China prices OR vice versa. We all have to know who our buyers are. The more we know about them, the more forgiving we are of their comments.

Despite all that, sometimes comments could still come off as rude or insensitive. ie. “Oh your designs would NEVER sell at my store… but I guess they are cute?” Or placing a Starbucks coffee on top of your display samples, when you’ve spent the entire week making them. Or having you wait for an hour before they see you on a sales meeting and then spend another hour haggling over pennies.

One of the worst comments that have been thrown at Mel Lim over the years, is a buyer telling her that her products would do really well in CHINATOWN. Another comment by a buyer when walking into the tradeshow booth screaming, “Your stuff made in CHINA!!?” with an audience of other buyers to hear. It’s slander and a total discredit; when Mel Lim’s products are made in US for quality assurance. By far, the worst is when buyers walk away in mid-sentence while we are explaining our product line to them. Call it an attention span of a walnut if you will, but you name it, we’ve seen it. Sometimes people even say that they’re just New Yorkers, since our shows are mostly in New York based. This is just not true. We’ve seen it everywhere. So many buyers with so many different sorts of “colorful” personalities exist across states, races, cultures and even countries.

The solution; BUILD A THICK SKIN! Over time, you begin to realize that you can not take things too seriously. However, we do have to learn to stand up for ourselves. We must love and take pride in our own work. The more we empower ourselves the more we build our brand. We all know that great companies like Kate Spade and Jonathan Adler did not make it overnight. They have shown us grace, dignity, self-respect and that designers can be ethical business people.

Let us rise above the pettiness and show them thatwe have class. After all, buyers need us as much as we need them.

© 2008 BACE - Business & Creative Exchange.