Sales was a part of my life since college. I was looking for a job in Minneapolis in 1997, as a student at the University of Minnesota. As I walked through Uptown, now familiar, but then a new experience, I passed a storefront with a Le Corbusier lounge. The black leather leaned up against the long chrome body, that simply adjusts with the shift of an arch. While the chair was an imitation of the original, I looked in that window and knew I wanted to work there. I applied and got the job.
That job probably changed my life. I was now in sales. I liked the furniture I was selling. I was fascinated with the shipping methods and manufacturing methods of the Danish furniture I was selling. I worked with some amazing people that I still admire today.
I didn't really learn how to sell then, but rather I learned to appreciate design and a customer who appreciated design. And while we sold a lot of other things, like Mexican pine armoires, Umbra Lamps, Amisco beds, stools, and tables, it was the Danish desks that I loved selling, because they made sense.
Years later, I would get a job at another furniture store (after I graduated from college with my art degree), where we had virtually every type of furniture under the sun. The place was huge, but they trained us well to sell in an efficient manner:
- Welcome the customer
- Gain Trust
- Needs Analysis
- Create a plan
- Sell to the plan
I learned very quickly that I should simply stay genuine in order to get past the first 2 steps of our selling methods, otherwise the rest of the sale would not be successful. It would either come back to haunt me or leave my customer unhappy with me all together, neither of which I considered a good time. I preferred to do it right and make sure everyone was happy, at least most of the time. It was a fine job, even if it had a strict system, but the only thing I wish I had was a decent collection of Danish office furniture, because I would have nailed 3-5 every time...
But no worries... they have IKEA now.
My life has come full circle, in a sense, and I've started learning the methods of Design Thinking in my graduate program at the U. It is a well designed method of empathy, ideation, prototyping and implementation. The ways of getting to a desired end are simple and achievable. Genuine, because you don't get far without the empathy part. You have to get past the "welcome" and "gain trust" before doing anything else.
I've always acknowledged my years in furniture sales as one of the biggest lessons in life, and I will never forget how much it contributed to my work ethic and philosophy today. Some of my most trusted collaborators... or conspirators ... come from those days on the floor. No BS. No wasted time. You get to what you want; leave with what you want. Reading that, after I typed it, made me think it's somewhat cold. But really it is about respect in a busy world.
And while I hope to spend my summer reading books at my own pace, gardening and preserving my family's harvest, playing and exploring with my children, I know I will also be working towards the creation of objects that the community will love: not because of what it is, but because of how it became to be. Public art, in this case, is about the welcome and trust, empathy and ideation, before it has anything to do with the final object.
“Everything you can imagine is real.”
I look forward to the Verso / Paper Mill project in Sartell, simply for the exploration of the community's stories and energy.
