selling to Family and Friends

So the other day I wrote about being at Starbucks and eavesdropping on a particular sales training session.

 

What I didn't get to write about was what the mentor said to his student when the session was wrapping up and they were about to leave.

 

What happened was that the mentor told his student how well he had improved since earlier this year, but (BUT) he was not developing enough leads and so he had to expand his prospects list.

 

(Not verbatim) "When you meet up with your relatives, just like casually ask, 'how are you, what are you doing these days, how's life, everything good, ah, these days I'm doing this thing, let me share with you, it's really good,' then you explain to them..."

 

I'm not sure about the business and sales practices utilized by others.

 

There is no right or wrong about it, I suppose.

 

But doesn't such an approach ruin personal relationships, and dear me, in the world of adulting, aren't there already too few precious personal relationships as such to be risking what we still have?

 

Yes, it's okay to share what you do and so on, but it's kind of weird to worm in a sales pitch, is it not? 

With friends and relatives, I'm actually very quiet when it comes to talking about what I do. If they should ask, I simplify the lot into two lines and leave it there and then move on to other more interesting topics.

 

Such a decision wouldn't sit so well with the mentor above.

 

Well, too bad, that's just not my style. 
 

First of all, the industry I am in is so wide and so complicated that to really talk about it would dominate the conversation and I'm much more keen to listen to them than yammer on and on about what I do. 

In my case, it is possible to begin the conversation with a bit of talk about public relations but then that leads to animation and special effects. Then, after that there's the movies and then the games and you know, there are so many genres of games on so many platforms, and after all that, there's still all the future tech.
 

But it would eventually come out sounding like I was trying to solicit for business- which is the very thing I was never planning to do.

And if it came out sounding this way, then who amongst my friends and relatives would want to meet up with me and catch up after that?

 

Again, that's all right and good if one wishes to do so, but we now live in a world where sales and marketing efforts can go as global as one wishes to, so why continue on it during personal, non-business time?

 

Unless you have the solution to a friend or relative's need, which he or she so happened to share, then of course, your product and expertise and supply would be very much welcomed, but otherwise, worming in your product (and objective) whilst making the conversation sound like you were genuinely interested in the person not only would raise questions on the sincerity, but would also make the interaction very irksome.

 

I guess I'm someone who values my personal time and personal relations and friends more than meeting business needs, and so best as I may, may it never be so that I should call upon them for the need of business, and may it never be that they be seen as nothing more than business prospects.

Life is meant to be lived, and I wanna live it.

 

That being said, there is no rule that says business acquaintances cannot become friends, is there? :)