Encounter a Problem: Sell the Idea

This past semester I have been working in the Carnegie Alumni Center as a hostess for the events that they hold.  This past Saturday, I was working from 6:00-8:30 pm for a  bridal shower.  I was actually pretty excited, because it is always fun to see the different kinds of decorations that brides have.  That is beside the point though.  The party was going to start at 7:00pm… and at this point in time it was about 6:35pm.  A woman from the event (not the bride) came down to the desk and asked where Bon Appetite was.  I didn’t recognize that they weren’t there, so I decided to give campus safety a call to figure out where the food service was.

Campus Safety immediately went to the SAC, found the person and charge and relayed information back to me that didn’t make any sense.

The BRIDE asked for them to put things in the Kitchen, but not SET UP ANYTHING.   The key issue in this was that the bride didn’t tell her friends this at all.  So now, I am stuck trying to figure out how to sell them an idea of decorations, food set up, coffee, water etc. in order for this bridal shower to go as smooth as possible.  WHAT.  Thank God I had experience in event planning and knew a little bit about how to make something look presentable.

It was extremely clear that all of her friends were a little concerned with why I didn’t know why Bon Appetite was setting up, but it was actually a miscommunication between them and the bride.  The main point to this post that relates to sales is …

WORK WITH WHAT YOU HAVE.

In more times than not, there will be a time when things go WRONG.  At that point, pull yourself together, and make it work.  For instance,  there aren’t any knives to cut a pie… use the pie cutter.  It was really sketchy, but I had to make it work in order for people to be able to eat it.  All together, it is extremely important to sell the solution to the problem at hand.