Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Distributing flyers

Two days ago, I had a 2nd batch of flyers printed out at The Mall, next door. It cost me RM0.80 a piece for 300 pieces. Collected the flyers the same day, and decided to distribute them within Villa Puteri's buildings yesterday while Emille had her afternoon nap.

I started off on level 4 and worked my way up. There are 34 floors in D block and 40 floors in C block with connecting fire escapes between the two blocks. One would think slipping flyers under every occupied apartment would not be such a big deal. At least that was what I thought! I decided to give up til the 22nd floor. I felt like I just finished one session of my dance classes in mYoga with sweat patches on my top and all!

It was a very weird feeling giving out those flyers. At that time, I really feared bumping into people as don't want to be seen as the cake lady who is busy chucking her flyers in your apartments! When I did bump into tenants, I would just walk pass as if I was heading for a friend's/relative's house! DUH! My PR memang fail!

Anyway, out of those 18 floors I did yesterday, I received 3 calls enquiring about my cakes. The 1st person was a bit weird. God knows where he's from, but definitely not Malaysian. He placed an order and 'deleted' it (that was his term of cancelling) a few hours later. I could barely hear him with his funny accent plus noise of kids/women/whoever they were shouting/talking in the background. I'm quite glad i didn't get to do business with him. Now I understand Kim's reluctance of dealing with outsiders because not all customers are normal/nice.

The 2nd person was a Singaporean dude who was quite interested in the Midnight Fruitcake. He was very well spoken, polite and friendly. He kept asking if my Midnight Fruitcake was, what they call it at home as, Kek Kukus (which means steamed cake)? My Midnight Fruitcake was quite similar to his description of Kek Kukus except that i don't steam it, i bake it. He also asked me whether my Cappuccino Velvet Cheesecake is nice. Of course I said 'Yes'. I am not a person of many words. So promoting my cakes verbally is slightly a problem. As Ruby once said, the first time I wanted to sell cakes to her, I had this my-cakes-are-not-that-nice-but-I-am-saying-that-it's-nice kind of look. Get it? She said that I should sell it more confidently because they are absolutely-orgasmicly delicious. I prefer to let people judge my cakes for themselves, i.e. where the samples come handy, then again I can't afford to be making samples all the time!

Ok, moving on...The 3rd person was a lady married to an Englishman. She also enquired about the Fruitcake, asking it whether it's a steamed or baked one? What is it with steamed fruitcakes? Maybe I should do some research on it. She was thinking of ordering for Christmas, but will have to ask her husband as to which cake they should choose. She's quite keen on the Choc Cheese Wave. I think all the cakes looked so yummy on the flyer, she's having a hard time choosing! But I did say that the bestsellers are the Caramel Ruffle Brownie and the Choc Cheese Wave. I also promoted my to-die-for Velvet Cheesecake and felt like dying because selling is just not my thing! Why do you think I've got resellers to sell for me?!

So that was my story of my 1st few interations with my own customers. I actually felt quite good as it reminded me when I was working in retail for eSCENTials while expecting. I totally enjoyed my time there in Bristol. The only problem question will be the "Is it nice?" question. If only I could say "Have a taste?" *offers a small slice of cake* =)

4 comments:

kim said...

Pretty mama makes pretty cakes

Caledonia said...

Hehehehe Thank you Papa =)

Unknown said...

Maybe they wanted Christmas pudding cuz those people kept on asking whether the fruitcakes are steamed

Caledonia said...

That could be possible although they didn't mention anything about Christmas Puddings. Then again, I've never had Christmas Pudding before so am absolutely clueless as to how it tastes like. Being a non-fruitcake fan doesn't help either. I only know Christmas Puds are black and loaded with fruits and alcohol =)