The first time I ever remember selling anything was selling cookies and lemonade at the annual Fourth of July Parade at my beach town. I didn’t make any money, as my parent’s reminded me of the concept “breaking even” and although I was momentarily annoyed at this situation, I soon forgot and enjoyed the rest of my sunny Fourth of July. Since then, I have had many opportunities to sell, some that have gotten me to Europe, provided me with funds to buy clothing and items for my dorm, and even selling my skill sets to acquire my first job in sales. You could say that sales is part of me, and I am proud to say that “selling” is a talent I believe that I am naturally gifted with.
My first paid sales experience came when I was 15 years old. My parents signed me up to go on tour in Europe with my orchestra…the only problem being that the trip was extremely expensive and my parents are also mother and father to 5 other children who were in private school and a plethora of other expensive activities. So, I naturally did what came to my mind first: sell a service. Without my mother’s knowledge, I emailed over 100 parents who were all part of my private school community, offering violin lessons to their children for $20.00 per half hour. I advertised my qualifications, previous experience, and current participation in my craft. The responses were surprisingly, great! Soon, parents were email my mother and calling my home…you can only imagine the confusion my mother felt when she found out that people were coming to my home on Friday for their first violin lessons. Nevertheless, I did get to Europe and my first selling experience was a positive one and helped encourage my extroverted personality to keep trying to sell my skills.
During the summer, in the same beach town I had mentioned previously, I worked in a small boutique clothing store on the Main Street in town. There, I was an hourly employee…and eventually I would earn that plus commission. When I was switched to a commissioned position, I soon found that I could control how much extra money I would make. Cue the selling. I was naturally inclined to approach customers, suggest styles, and even get them into the dressing room to try their potential new buys on. Commission gave me the incentive I needed to improve my sales skills, which is a large reason why I currently am employed in the place that I will be after graduation.
The summer of 2015 was full of changes for me. I had taken an internship with PNC Financial Services by my home; little did I know that this company would become my future employer. The summer time was fun for me and I enjoyed the job that I had and worked hard. Upon completing my internship, I was offered a job as a Financial Specialist with PNC. The primary basis of my job? Sales! After I graduate, I will be selling PNC Products and Services to people in my area, earning commission on top of a salary, and I am extremely excited for this opportunity to exercise my sales skills even further. This class is teaching me a lot of what I feel will be useful in my career and I am excited to learn more tips and tricks of the trade. Based on my life experiences, I can say that sales is in my blood and that I am thoroughly enjoying this class, especially because I feel that it is so relevant to me, personally.
BoweryJE22
I think that some people are natural born salesmen, but I don’t think that means sales cannot be learned or even improved upon. Sales techniques can be learned and practiced by people with all different personalities and backgrounds.