My first experience helping my son with sales was when the YMCA guides group we go camping with told us about their annual wreath sale.
The wreath sale is their only fundraiser and it helps to send kids with special needs go camping. I wanted to help with this fundraiser…
The first thing my son and I did was come up with a script for when someone answers the door. He and I worked on it and came up with, “Hi, my name is Joshua Di Gennaro, I live on Mulberry Dr, and I’m in the 2nd grade at Baker Elementary. I’m selling Christmas Wreaths for the YMCA. Would you like a small wreath or a big wreath?”
Asking if you’d like a small wreath or a big wreath is a little bit of a sales tactic where you work to prevent the, “no”. It’s a little gimmicky, but under the circumstances I knew it was going to be fun to see how people reacted.
The first house we stopped at the Dad immediately saw through the close, but invited us in and bought a large wreath. On top of raising money for a good cause, it’s also good to make contact with your neighbors.
The lessons I wanted to teach my son was to make eye contact, to speak loud enough, to learn how to quickly build rapport, and, probably the biggest lesson I wanted him to learn was rejection. We ended up selling about a dozen wreaths in an hour and called it quits, but it was a great first step into selling and being able to go up to a house and recite a script at age 7 is definitely brave.
This past weekend I was in charge of a raffle and I had Joshua selling again. I reminded him to make sure to make eye contact, to smile, and to speak loud enough.
I do feel like some people are born with natural sales abilities, but that anyone can learn good techniques if you want to. Making eye contact, smiling, and speaking loud enough are three life lessons that will help get you wherever you want to go in life.
Sales And Money 