Recent Experience in Sales

Recently, I had the opportunity to work in sales. It was nothing too serious, just selling my art at a craft fair hosted by the college. I design and paint on canvas tote bags and pencil pouches, as well as redesigning plant-pot bases made of clay into ring/jewelry trays. This was a hobby I picked up for fun a few years ago. It was hard to get into fairs as a vendor where I lived, I didn’t have social media, and I did not want to give my social security number to Etsy, so I didn’t really think about selling what I had made. Correction: I thought about it a lot, I just did not know how to go about it. That is why I got so excited when I saw a poster advertising the craft fair at Grove. I signed up to be a vendor immediately and asked my mom to ship me some of my art things from back home in Virginia.

At the craft fair, I thought about how I could get conversation going towards “the pain funnel.” I figured I could relate to other students by talking about school and eventually filter down into talking about bags or pencil pouches. (This did not end up happening, but hey, I thought about it). I did have one older lady come up and comment on the name of the business: “The Frog Pond.” She told me a story from years ago that related to the name and I was able to listen and respond. I even asked a few follow up questions about her family to try to see if I could funnel anything, but it turned out that she had no real need for any of my products. We had a nice conversation, and she didn’t end up buying anything from me, but I still hold the experience as valuable.