This morning, myself and several other students from Sales and the Startup were able to put our selling skills to the test by helping represent the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at this year’s Junior Preview Day. It was helpful to be able to implement in real life some of the sales techniques we discussed in class.
Asking questions
Talking to so many prospective students highlighted the importance of guiding the sales conversation by asking questions. Every student was coming from a different background and with different goals. For example, a good number of students were interested in majoring in Entrepreneurship; however, most students I spoke with were interested in other majors such as mechanical engineering or economics. Directing the conversation through questions made them open up to talking about themselves, what they wanted to do, and exactly how I could provide them with more information. If I had jumped blindly into a sales pitch, I would likely have only gotten a few students to show interest. But knowing the students’ backgrounds helped me know to highlight particular aspects of the program that are attractive across disciplines.
Secondly, while this was a networking event, many of the students were not totally comfortable with walking up and making a conversation themselves. Asking them questions helped them open up about themselves and showed that I was interested in more than just getting them to come to Grove City or study a particular major. It built trust, which is vital in the sales process.
Standing out
While we haven’t directly talked about this in sales, the need to stand out in the crowd was very clear. Some students I spoke with had no idea what they wanted to do and were holding a large stack of information sheets from a variety of majors. But what made our booth unique was that we were also handing out branded cake pops and had between 5 and 10 current students standing there ready to talk. Handing out cake pops meant we were able to reach a large number of students who otherwise would never had thought to look at the entrepreneurship booth. Among all the different departments, students will probably remember the entrepreneurship table–and that’s the goal.
Josh Elverson 
Ethan David 
ChloeGuntrum
Hey there nice job! The junior day made for an incredible opportunity to use all of the sales tactics we have learned over the past months. Being able to sell a college is similar to all the other types of sales we may see so it is a great opportunity to take advantage of.
This is awesome, David! I’m glad you were able to be such a positive influence on those students. Touring a prospective college can be intimidating and I’m confident you were able to make them all feel comfortable and relaxed about the process!