Just this past weekend, myself and an assortment of students from across all majors at Grove City attended and volunteered at the Junior Crimson day. While working and talking to prospective high school students at the the Entrepreneurship booth, I decided to employ many of the lessons and techniques taught in the Sales in the Startup class. What is interesting about talking to prospective students is that they not only want to know about the major you are representing, but they also want to hear about your personal thoughts on the college as a whole. In addition, their parents are usually present and have an entire different level of concerns and questions that they are seeking answers to.
One of the techniques that seemed effective with students across the board was by first talking about the business program as a whole, and then narrowing to talk about the specific advantages that the entrepreneurship department provides. By asking a variety of leading questions, I was able to gauge the interests of a the majority of the students and their parents, and would follow by personalizing my pitch to cater to the aspects they were most interested in. In reality, it was funneling them through the sales process that has been discussed at length in class. I found that many of the students liked to hear not only about the program but also about student life. By asking questions about the kind of experience that they wanted out of college, it was easy to think of personal stories that related to their questions, and also applied to the major itself.
Talking about student success and personal stories was something that most parents liked to hear, and increased their interest in the college as a whole. They wanted to make sure that this institution would be different from others that they might have visited, and what would make their son or daughter stand apart from the rest after attending. I found this whole experience a perfect opportunity to try out different sales techniques, and hone my personal conversation skills. It was definitely an accepting and open place to use different aspects of the sales funnel. and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to ease their way into the sales process.
BoweryJE22
Great post, I really enjoyed how you shared your personal experience in selling and using techniques from this class.
Awesome post! I really like how you linked what you are learning to an experienced you had over the weekend. This goes to show that sales itself is not just limited to the officer or professional space.