Last summer I had the opportunity to intern with Here’s Howe. Howe’s is a company based in Grove City that is a candy retailer, and coffee roasting business. I was tasked with updating their website and working alongside their SEO supervisor and the candy retailers who are in charge of creating the product descriptions. The biggest lesson about sales that I learned from this was two fold, 1) What the buyer wants, we need to aim to give them just that, and 2) writing product descriptions for candy is way tougher than it sounds!
Howe’s provides thousands of candies and when you add in their coffee as well, you are looking at an extremely large quantity of products. What I decided to do was choose their top sellers and optimize those descriptions and product pages. At first I was more concerned with ensuring people understood what the product was, but then I realized that most people who are looking to buy bulk candy already know exactly what they are looking for. The trick became giving them a reason to buy from us. I had to convey how delicious and decadent caramel cremes and gummy bears are, in less than 50 words. I started to see that there are only so many times you can use the word “yummy” and “delicious” before it gets really old and repetitive.
Thankfully, I only had to optimize 22 products. Before I even started working on the product descriptions though, I looked very critically at Howe’s website. I asked my parents, my co-workers, and friends what they thought about the website and if they would change anything. I learned from this that everyone is looking for something different from a website and from a company. This led to me discovering that the biggest role a salesperson need to play is someone who can adjust to any situation that is thrown at them. This is part of why sales terrifies me. I’m someone who values routine and clear expectations, so working a job where I have no idea what might be coming my way sounds horrible! I have great respect for salespeople because they are the ultimate chameleons. More power to you my dear salespeople friends!
testacr22
As someone who also greatly values having a set routine, I totally feel this. That’s really cool that you did have the opportunity to expand and get out of your comfort zone to appreciate the spontaneity of the sales world.
I think your experience serves as a great reminder of the close relationship between marketing and sales. In order to improve Howe’s sales, you asked people like friends and family what they wanted in a website experience, and you then sought to deliver an experience you thought would suit their needs.