At the end of the day, business is all about sales. You might have a revolutionary idea for a business or a product. You might even be a genius. But if you can’t sell, you might as well just leave all your brilliant ideas in your desk drawer.

The art of sales is a particular skill. And it doesn’t come naturally to everyone. That’s why Reece Theriot started up his company, Fulcrum Sales & Marketing. 

Fulcrum is a professional sales staff who you can hire to sell your great idea or product. The benefit to you as a business person is, you don’t have to hire, train, and pay a full-time sales staff. Reece and his team at Fulcrum set up meetings and pitch your product for you. In a world of out-sourcing, cost-cutting, and increasing specialization, it’s amazing nobody around here has thought of this before. 

Marcus Descant has the polar opposite take on sales. Marcus is a horticulturalist and the owner of a company called The Urban Naturalist.

Marcus was on Out to Lunch back in 2016. At that time he talked about his unique landscaping and gardening business that flipped the traditional concept of planting flowers in the front of your house and fruit and vegetables in the back. It was a concept he was calling the Edible Garden. Marcus hasn’t totally quit doing landscaping but he’s scaled back that side of his business. Now he concentrates more on selling plants. He grows and sells up to 40,000 plants a year. His nursery is open 24 hours a day. And here’s the final statistic – the number of sales people Marcus employs. Zero. Marcus dramatically cut his overhead by disbanding his sales staff and selling his plants and garden products on the self-serve honesty system. And, guess what? Sales have increased! 

Photos over lunch at Spoonbill restaurant in downtown Lafayette by Lucius Fontenot.