Selling Derby Duckies

Since class was so different today compared to all our other classes, I thought I would talk about my team and I’s experiences trying to sell Derby Ducks for the ABT’s. My initial thought when Professor Sweet first told us we were doing this, was that it was going to be a breeze, and I could just tell all my friends to buy some ducks and we would win. Well obviously, it was more difficult than that. Our strategy started off by going to the places on campus where a lot of people congregate – Sac and the library. We went to sac first and tried some of our sales tactics. Every time I started talking to someone, all of the things we learned in class left my brain. I got so nervous, I was stumbling over my words, my face was red, and most of the time the people bought the ducks mainly because it was helping women with cancer, not because I was doing a great job at selling lol.

After we did as much as we could do in Sac, we went back to Hal because we figured most of the other groups went to the library, so we would grab all the professors. For me, I was expecting to just walk right into their offices and get the sale because they are adults who will support their students. But we found that most of the professors were either in class, talking with a student, or too busy to talk at that moment, and told us to come back later. That really led our sales to decline a little bit, because we spent a good chunk of time walking around Hal when minimal adults were able to hear our pitch. For those who did though, we got sales from almost all of them.

I think going into this activity, I definitely overestimated how easy it was going to be. I also noticed how it was a lot easier to get someone to buy a duck when you pinpointed their emotional side and engaged in some conversation with them before even talking about the sale. I know now though, for the future, that I should practice my lines before talking to someone and ask more questions instead of spilling my candy in the lobby.