While taking this sales class, I have been thinking about some of the best and worst sales experiences that I have encountered throughout my life. I’m going to break these down into why I feel this way, and what actions or events took place during that particular sale, that made it great or not so great for me, the consumer.
I will start with the best sales experience of my life first. I really think that the best sales experience i have been a part of was in non traditional sales. When I was looking for a place to go to college, I had many options and was open to a lot of them. I was getting recruited by some smaller division 1 schools for football and a lot of division 2 & 3 schools around this area. I went on some over night visits to some places and really liked them, until I spoke with Coach DiDonato at Grove City. He got to know me and built the relationship with me which made me feel comfortable talking to him. He really learned what I was looking for and sold me on those points. I didn’t feel like i was talking to some big intimidating college football coach, I was speaking with someone who would look out for my well being.
The worst sales experience I had was also on a recruiting trip. I was visiting a larger school in Ohio, and they asked me to come up for a visit. When i got there, they did not answer my phone call and I had no idea where I was going to meet this coach. The whole trip was unorganized and I did not feel like they wanted me to be part of their team or school. It made me feel unwanted and there was no sales relationship made there.
BoweryJE22
It’s interesting that you say that because I had a similar recruiting experience, but with baseball. Other schools were very disorganized and Grove City was very well put together and the coach kept in constant contact with me and made me feel wanted.
It is interesting to me that both the best and worst sales experiences you’ve had revolved around football. Obviously, you are very passionate about football, and it clear that when your excitement was heard, understood, and reciprocated, you were much more interested in what they had to offer .Similarly, when people don’t match your excitement and level of care for it, it gives you a bad taste in your mouth. I think this is pretty much universally true when it comes to sales.
This is an interesting contrast between the two schools. I remember when Coach DiDonato came into class to talk, he said that a main reason the football team has become so good is because of his experience in sales. It sounds like he really has made an excellent recruiting program, especially when compared to other schools.