It was just a normal day for me, I had just got out of my 12pm class and was grabbing a quick lunch in the student union before I headed to Sweet’s class. I had my airpods in as I usually do when I walk from class to class so I had no other intention but to just get my lunch and head to class. When I first walk into the student union I notice that there is a table advertising for a summer camp with a girl sitting there. I did not think anything of it because I have an internship for the summer and a summer camp does not seem interesting to me.
I start to walk by the table and I am looking the opposite direction when I hear a muffled voice through my airpods and look over and I can tell the girl at the table is trying to talk to me. I did not want to be rude so I took out my airpods and engaged my attention towards her. She had asked me if I wanted to spin a wheel for free to win a prize. I am never going to not spin a wheel, especially when it is free and I could get some awesome prizes like a bag, a frisbee or even a gift card to local restaurants. I spin the wheel and the girl starts asking me questions about what my major was and what my plans were for the summer. I answered that I was a business management major and that I had an internship already lined up this summer.
She stayed positive the whole time through this interaction which threw me off guard because I expected her to immediately lose interest in me as a potential prospect for the camp. This made me invest more in the conversation because it was clear that she was still interested in who I was even though I had not answered the questions with the responses she was hoping for. The wheel then stops spinning and I collect my prize and I was excited because it was free and I had a good experience with the girl at the table. As she gave me my prize she did not try to interrogate me more or keep me at the table because I had already showed that I was not interested. After I told her that my friends liked being outside in the summer she then transitioned to asking me to tell my friends about the opportunity. The girl did a nice job not being too pushy as a sales person and showing interest in me as a person and not giving up after saying I was not interested.
BoweryJE22
Hey there nice post. I found this very entertaining and interesting to read about. This is how you connect with people because maybe you were not interested but because of your great experience you may tell someone who does have an interest in that and what they have to offer.
This is a great example of how a salesperson should interact when prospecting (especially in SAC). The fact that you remembered the interaction and think positively about it means that, while you may not be “sold” yourself since you already have plans for the summer, you are likely to give good PR for the camp even though you have no interest in working there yourself. If one of your friends said they were looking for a camp to work at over the summer you would likely point them in the direction of this camp because of your positive experience.
So I think this post illustrates very well how you can be persistent as a sales person, but not leave a bad taste in someone’s mouth so to speak. Even though you were not interested, inherently making you more prone to be annoyed with her, you still came away from the experience positively because of how nice and pleasant the girl was.