Sales Pitch or Rugby Pitch?

I am a pretty tough person to sell to because I hate spending money. When I do decide to splurge I already know what I want before I hit the front door of the store. I honestly can not think of a time when I was sold something I had not already known I wanted in one sense or another, but if it has happened it is because someone I know or at least have some positive relationship with convinced me on its perks. The relationship opened the door for those sales, not any techniques. Even though I do not have example for a purchase I do have one for non-sales selling.

When Coach DiDonato came in and spoke on his job and how it was non-sales selling, he really emphasized that caring about the client and their needs was crucial. It is the harvesting of a positive relationship that really makes the non-sales sell. My friend Emi England the best non-sales seller I have ever met. She convinced me in two days and only two days to join the Rugby team at Grove City. This was after I had only know her for four days prior.

Emi found out I had played sports in high school and right away went into her Rugby pitch. She talked about how she played Soccer and Basketball in high school just like me, which built a connection between us. She asked me what I loved about sports and told me how Rugby had fulfilled all of that for her. She confronted my worries about having never played before and not knowing the rules. It was honestly more of a conversation than a sale. It turns out that because the Rugby team needed girls the current players made a competition of who could bring the most new girls to one trial practice. Emi won with five girls and all five stayed the whole season. Also two of Emi’s recruits brought new girls with them to the next practice.

The sale didn’t end at getting us there however. The entire practice Emi was at our sides showing us the ropes, answering our questions, and being the teammate of the year. She made each girl feel like they fit in even with every mistake we made. It was an experience I couldn’t forget. Emi’s skills were honestly impeccable. She convinced me to disobey the wishes of my parents to play a sport I knew nothing about, where the injury rate is astronomical, and to attend practices that started at 11 o’clock at night. Honestly, that has to be one of the toughest sells I have ever heard of, but Emi had another quality that Coach DiDonato talked about to help her sell. She truly believed in and loved what she was selling. I could feel her excitement and it made me want a piece of it. More than just her excitement for the sport, I felt that she had an excitement for me and more than anything she wanted me to be on the Pitch scoring tries with her. That was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. More then selling Rugby, Emi was selling the relationships and experiences that come with the sport and she sold it very well.