Tis the season of gaining five pounds off of Girl Scouts Cookies. From age 8 to age 13 I was the highest cookie box seller of my Troup. Some may ask how? How can someone be so successful in such a competitive industry. My only answer is that I knew how to read my audience. In sales it is necessary to observe EVERYTHING, like we learned in class. As I walked, up to a house I made sure to observe their environment which gave me many clues and hints about their business and behaviors.
Another aspect that helped was my conscious mimicry of each person I met. There were many benefits from this and some disadvantages. When meeting someone I often would mimic their body language and often their accents, if they have one. The problem is that, in many ways, this was offensive. At the time, my 8 year old self didn’t understand that.
Being the extravert I am, I feel like I could have done better if I had understood the needs to make fewer assertions and ask more questions. I had the difficultly of not talking a ton. I needed to listen more. With any awkward silences, I had to fill them in order for the experience to not become uncomfortable, so I would continue to ramble to fill the empty space. In many ways, this actually scared away the customer because they didn’t even have the chance to say hello. Many sales people lose their customers because they aren’t able to read their comfort level and personality causing them to scare away the potential customer.
BoweryJE22
This is just a thought but over the summer, talking with my manager and hearing about other salesmen, the salesmen who leaned harder towards being a complete extravert were great at building rapport and the initial connection. However, when it came to closing the deal, that is where they struggled compared to others who weren’t such hardcore extraverts. As you said, the problem of talking too much and not listening enough may have been there problem too?
It is so important to realize that there is a place for both extraverts and introverts. Its understandable that the introvert would be better at closing because they would give the customer time to think and actually decide about their product instead of pushing it on them, or seeming to do so. I too struggled with letting the customer have time to think and being comfortable with silences. Now it is a bit better but I try to take the silence and observe.
Though you were young at the time, this is such a valuable experience to look back on and think about with a more mature and analytical mind. Your insights on talking less and listening more seem simple in theory, but are difficult in practice (especially as children). It is so great that as young adults we have the chance to learn from these past mistakes and put these principles to work. Thanks for sharing!
I love Girl Scout Cookies and am jealous you got to sell them for so many years. It is funny to read about your mimicking skills back then and really cool that we are learning similar concepts now in college. Maybe you’re a natural seller (if there was such a thing). Thank you for sharing your experience and really incorporating the concepts we’re learning about so we can all relate!