Let me first say, I hit the sister’s jackpot. 

She not really my sister- she’s my best friend. During our years of studying textiles in Nagold, we were nicknamed ‘the twins’ - though she’s four years older than me, got dark hair and brown eyes.

She’s the Goldstar for what I’m about to tell you.

My husband Jürgen is always looking forward to having dinner with my origin family, not only because he loves everybody, but because he can’t wait to see what happens when we order our meals.

One day in a restaurant the waiter said: "For every change you do to what’s in the menu is 2 € extra."

We left the restaurant.

Jürgen’s ears usually perk up when the ordering starts.

He will not show but I know he is shaking his head on the inside. I can see in his eyes that he pities the server seeing them sweating, fingers typing and typing.

He looks in the menu, picks something as it is – boom - done.

„I can bet that there’s still garlic in there“, my sister usually says after the first bite, holding her meal under my nose. 

“Here, exactly here, garlicky, smell this!“

Last week Jürgen invited my family to his favourite restaurant, a beer brewery in Hamburg, (all wearing masks of course) where he knows the chef pretty well.

Everything was phenomenal. 

Except of course all the trouble until everybody of my family has their own - extra this - exchange this - with that - and without that - kind of food.

THIS chef had plenty of Siegel’s. He even nodded understandingly, noted everything carefully, he didn’t take it personally.

Try not to.

When somebody wants this article but with an extra print on left leg instead of the embroidery… and the label in printed – not woven, yes, exactly like Princess Blue 19-4150 TCX but only a nuance darker, and with a different contrast colour inside, - oh wait better send a new sample totally in plain with a bigger embroidery liker the earlier sample from 2 weeks back but 0,5 cm smaller in length not width…

When somebody is making many changes, adjustments, tweaks, extras, remember that.

There’s always going to be buyers like this. A bit complicated ones.

- What’s something that happened to you?

- Do you get nervous, or have you juggled through various situations?

Share in the comments or email heike@smartgarmentexporter.com. 

Love to hear from you!

Talk soon,

Heike Siegel

PS Oh wait... occasionally extra Ketchup! That’s Jürgen.

PPS What’s your #1 struggle when it comes to getting new customers right now? Let me know - click here – and I’ll make sure to cover your question in my free training.

There's an art to cold outreach to RMG buyers. And a science. And we're going to cover both. Let's get you some new buyers, shall we?