Why I Probably Won’t Be A Politician

This past week I had one of my most significant sales experiences. I was running for a position on SGA. I’ve learned that running for a public office takes a lot of energy and intentional conversations, and what more is sales than intentional conversations that result in mutually beneficial exchange?  While walking around campus, I utilized a few of the sales techniques I learned in class. For example: Starting with an opening question instead of just talking someone’s ear off, never answering unasked questions, and building people’s trust in me through my ability and intent. (Trust=ability+Intent). Though a lot of campaigning is marketing and putting your face out there, a large portion is conversations too.

The Worst part of all of it was that it often felt like I was selling features and benefits. When I would talk to people they would ask things like, “So what do you do” and “What do you plan on doing for us”. What I said seemed to resonate with most folks, but I always felt like I was just giving a shopping list of things I do. (this might be a good thing to ask Professor Sweet about.)

The campaign was good practice because it was essentially all cold calls. I learned that I’m not as good at it as I thought when it comes to selling myself instead of a product. In a product, I can exude enormous amounts of confidence, I think because it has none of its own to begin with, but when I’m selling myself, I have to be much more intentional about displaying confidence in myself and in my ability to do the ‘thing’.

When it was all finished, I did end up being elected by the students for the position. It was honestly pretty stressful, but I’m glad I did it. It was a great sales experience and I’m looking forward to doing the job next fall.