Selling the Ducks

Today in class we sold rubber duckies to students and faculty on campus.  My group and I were pretty thrown off when we walked into class and were told what was happening. This was a great opportunity for us to sell in a real life scenario for a great cause. Immediately we were forced to come up with a sales strategy. My group decided to head to our residence halls to sell to our friends. It was more difficult than we thought to ask our friends for donations. Although we wanted their business, we also did not want to pressure our friends into buying something that they did not want. Additionally, Prof. Sweet added an interesting wrinkle to the assignment. He said that we could charge or ask for a donation that was beyond the standard prices of $2 for a small duck and $3 for a big duck. This brought a bit of an ethical element to our strategic planning. When we got to our hall we split up and got to selling. As we were selling to our friends, we tried to use the tactics we have been learning in class. We were even able to implement one of the Sandler rules on my roommate. Luckily for us, our friends were very generous towards the cause and bought some ducks. We were fortunate enough to have very few rejections. In total we ended up making $20 for the cause within the 30 minutes we had to sell. We sold four small ducks and 2 big ducks at various prices. Overall, I enjoyed the opportunity to sell in a real way to our peers. It was eye opening to implement some of the tactics we have been learning in class. They really do work if you use them at the correct time, with the correct tone!