Filed to story: Finding the Secret Daddy for My Baby Novel >>
Apparently, Erica had come into work early and started her job at the front desk. She had brought lipsticks as gifts for the other receptionists, who were easily won over and got along with her right off the bat. She wasn’t short of money, and because of that, she had given them all limited edition lipsticks, thereby collecting brownie points.
After she settled down at the front desk, Erica picked up the receiver and found Anastasia’s extension before dialing it.
“Hello, who’s this?”
“I’m working at your company now! Are you surprised?” Erica bragged with a smile on her face.
Anastasia was rendered speechless. Looks like Dad didn’t tell her how she got the job in the first place. “In that case, make sure you do your best and stop making Dad worry about you incessantly.”
“Like I need you to point that out to me? Don’t tell anyone in the company that we’re sisters; I don’t want them to think that I only got the job because of you,” Erica said snidely.
“I should be the one saying that,” Anastasia replied dryly.
With an indignant scoff, Erica hung up the phone.
When the call ended, Anastasia put the receiver down and got up to leave. She had to go into the shop and see how things were going, but just as she was heading out, Felicia told her that the competition was fierce. Both her rivals would soon start rallying support from friends and relatives, and Anastasia was advised to do the same.
However, there was no way Anastasia could rally support when she didn’t even have that many friends or family to begin with. All she had on her side were luck and innate talent.
Meanwhile, in the main conference room at Presgrave Corporation, the man who was chairing the weekly meeting appeared somber as usual.
“That’s all for the weekly report, President Presgrave. Is there anything else you’d like for us to do?”
Elliot scanned the executives in the meeting and loosened up in his seat to assume a more casual stance. Then, he said in a low and grave tone, “I need all your help with something.”
The audience immediately stiffened at this. All this while, they had only ever heard disparaging remarks from him for their incompetence, but never a request for their help.
“What is it, President Presgrave? We’ll be sure to help you in whatever ways we can.”
“I have a friend who works in a jewelry store, and she’s running a little low on sales this month. I need each of you to drop by her shop once, and your expenditure must not be less than a million.”
Upon hearing this, the executives in the room let out a collective sigh of relief. This was the first time they had heard the president make such a strange request, but given their annual income, it was easy enough for them to do as he said.
“If you know anyone interested in buying jewelry, it would be great if you could get them to drop by the shop as well,” Elliot added.
“That’s no problem at all, President Presgrave. We’ll drop by your friend’s store and give her sales a boost.”
“Don’t go all at once, though,” Elliot interjected. “Rey, draw up a schedule for Lance; we want those sales to look credible.”
“Yes, President Presgrave,” Rey replied as he tried to keep himself from laughing. There were several moments where he had to clap a hand over his mouth and look down to hide his amusement. President Presgrave is pulling out all the stops just to rally support for Miss Tillman! All she wants to do is compete for the position of associate director, and President Presgrave already has all the executives in the corporation on board to boost her sales.
While this was happening, Anastasia dropped by the shop and spoke to the manager about the sales for the past two days. Due to the less-than-strategic location of the shop, their sales weren’t looking so good.
“Is there no other way we can gain more sales, Miss Chastain?” she asked the manager.
“Miss Tillman, if you’re suggesting that we advertise, then we’re going to need a much more flexible budget. That said, if your company is willing to fork out the money, you can consider getting one of those socialites or influencers to market the jewelry, but you’ll have to be able to pay them for it.”
Anastasia fell into deep thought. She knew this would be a gamble since there were plenty of examples where hiring influencers to market the products ended up as a failed venture. Besides, she would have to pay out of her own pocket if she wanted to go along with this, for the company would never approve a budget for something like this. She had always been a mere designer, and right now, she was being confronted by her lack of marketing skills.
At the end of the day, the competition for the position of associate director was starting to feel like a competition to see who had more friends that were richer. The one who won in both of these categories would already be at an advantage, and this didn’t include their actual sales from the store.
Anastasia learned the hard way that she was falling behind. She had been abroad for five years, and she hadn’t kept in touch with any of her old friends and relatives for a while now. To add salt to injury, even if she was able to get ahold of her friends and relatives, they might not be able to afford the expensive jewelry.
She sighed as she sat in the manager’s office and browsed through various marketing strategies, only to conclude that most of them would not work out for her.
Presently, six cars had pulled up outside the Bourgeois store, and men and women dressed in different styles came walking through the doors.
The sales assistants who were chatting among themselves broke apart and sauntered over to greet the customers. What surprised them the most was that these customers had chosen jewelry pieces from high-end collections.
Not even ten minutes later, two of these customers left with millions worth of jewelry, and within half an hour, the sales for the store shot up to a staggering eight million.
“Miss Tillman, great news! There was a group of customers who came by the shop earlier, and they took an interest in the items from the main collection. Our sales broke through to eight million just now! We’ll have to get more inventory from headquarters, pronto.”
“What?” Anastasia was so stunned that she stood up. No way. Am I really that lucky?