A personable approach to sales is key

10 years ago, I was very active in the music business, both as an artist and a label owner. My music-related activities greatly helped me pay my way through university. However, after university, I drifted away from it. Climbing up the corporate ladder and establishing a good career can be extremely time-consuming.

I tried to keep on playing and recording, but I didn’t have enough time. In fact, setting up everything for my new label, The Mustache Club, took me over 4 years.

4 years of working here and there on Pantaloon Descendo: recording a ukulele track one night after work, recording a vocal track on a Sunday afternoon while the spousal unit is out to get her make up done... All in all, a lot of isolated efforts here and there, but nothing concrete.

I’ve been working on it alone for 4 years. It gets lonely, and it’s ridden with huge moments of self-doubt… “Is it worth it?” “Will people like it?” “Will it just be a forgettable product?”

Despite the self-doubt, I kept on going forward. Fighting in isolation against procrastination.

However, over the last few days, Pantaloon Descendo and The Mustache Club have gained a lot of unattracted traction thanks to a recent reddit post.

It's been generating unexpected volume of traffic and sales, which is really nice.

Sales are great.

Ultimately, sales are the oil that fuels the engine.

I love making a sale. It’s the ultimate form of validation. It’s someone saying “I’m willing to give you my hard-earned money for something you did”.

I’ve been away from music for 10 years. I’ve been away from music sales for 10 years. I’ve missed it.

But most of all, I’m realizing that I really missed the one-on-one contact with customers, and the relationship that evolves through every sale. An e-mail inquiry often turns into threads of 5 to 20 replies that have nothing to do with the sale in the end.

I really missed that.

Let’s be honest, Pantaloon Descendo is not the type of band that will massive amounts of copies: I can handle a one-on-one approach.

I’ll definitely make it a part of The Mustache Club’s business model.