And now the hangover season

It’s March so that means that we are starting the hangover season for toy companies and their salespeople.   No, it’s not from too much to drink although a great deal of that does go on in New York and Hong Kong.  It’s from disappointment.  Disappointment that all those orders they thought they were going to get after working that latest trade shows just aren’t going to happen. 

What brought it to mind was a phone call I received from a very experienced salesperson.  He called me to share his disappointment that what he thought had been a fantastic Hong Kong show was going to turn out to be far less than expected.  So, I asked him:  “Will you do less business than last year?”  He stopped, thought for a minute and said:  “When I think about it, it will end up pretty much like last year.”  “Was last year a good year for you?”  I asked.  Yes, it was he replied. 

He didn’t do badly.  He just didn’t do anywhere what he thought he would.  He, like most other people in the industry who sell products, no matter how long they have been doing it, go through the same thing every year; Tremendous optimism and than the crash. 

So why do experienced businesspeople that have been going to these shows for years continue to have this annual letdown?  Is it because they are delusional, goofy, naïve? 

Hardly!  It’s because they are relentless and eternal optimists.  Optimists are people with the wonderful ability to forget past failures and disappointments.  They forget that every year buyers come in and every year buyers act like they pretty much love everything.  They forget that that every year the buyer says: “We decided to go in a different direction” (the buyer version of its not you it’s me”).

And what about buyers?  Are they just pretending to like what they see?  No, they do like what they see.  It’s just that by the time they are finished they have seen thousands of products and from those thousands they have to weed their selection sometimes down to a handful. 

So, it’s no surprise that so many people have hangovers.  What is a surprise, and it’s a wonderful one, is that the toy industry possesses such resilient citizens.  It’s our secret weapon.  The ability to believe every year that our products are the best, that everyone with a brain will have to have them and that this year will be the best year ever.

Well, on behalf of every salesperson and company who, like all those football teams that didn’t win the Super Bowl, like all those baseball teams that didn’t win the World Series and all those hockey teams that didn’t get to hold up the Stanley Cup, let me say: “Wait ‘til Next Year!”