As Dr. Sweet says, sales is everywhere. I have been around it at many points in my life and at many different levels. I have in retail sales in the Grove City Premium Outlets, I have sold life insurance, I have been a sales rep for a knife company and partook in many different sales environments. However, i think my best sales experience, and what taught me the most about sales was doing a fundraiser in high school for my varsity football team.
The Mathews High School football team in Vienna, OH has one fundraiser a year which pays for our teams gear. For example, we get hoodies, warm up gear, and team shirts and shorts. Each year, the team partnered with local companies and made a discount card that was like having a coupon for the whole year. For example, you could get a free drink with and order at one of our pizza shops in town, and subway offered 30% off your order if you used this card. There were like fifteen different companies that had these coupons or discounts listed on the back of the cards.
Each player was tasked with selling five cards, which were ten dollars each. The best part of this fundraiser was, if you sold more than 5, you got money for each additional 5 cards you sold. As a broke freshman in high school, I was excited to earn some extra cash and help the team as well. I started by riding my bike around my town and visited over 200 different homes in my area. I wore my jersey so that people in town would be more likely to support me. It was interesting how what i said really sold the card. If i asked them to buy it, they almost never did. On the other hand, if i asked them to support the kids in our community by purchasing one of these cards, they sold like crazy. When it was all said and done, i ended up selling 97 of them in 2 weeks. I earned myself about $180.00 and sold way more than anyone else on the team. I learned what it’s like to have to pitch and present a product and how to get comfortable talking to strangers in a sales environment. It also helped me learn from and accept rejection at some level.
BoweryJE22