During my time last summer as a counselor at Point Guard College, I was responsible for beginning to sell an experience. It was a great process for me to learn, to be able to understand what I was selling, since there was no tangible items that I was selling to the campers and parents, yet selling was something that was emphasized at every stage throughout the week of camp. In my first week as counselor, I was taught that every part of the experience for these campers and parents alike was special. We were taught that even something so small as a smile in the first “touch” was crucial. Point Guard College referred to interactions as “touches”, and the first was often the most crucial. With the amount of competition is a lot of markets, especially the summer camp market, it was important for Point Guard College to be different in many ways. Not only did the camp appeal to athletes, but it also desired to appeal to it’s other market, the parents. Not only does the camp hold a parents meeting at the start, but it encourages coaches like me to know the parents names at the beginning of the week, and to focus on conversations with parents on the first morning, rather than the athletes. Ultimately, PGC wanted to embody that it was about relationships and communicate that to parents and athletes alike.
At the end of the week, as parents came back to their athletes, and were able to see what they had accomplished throughout their time with us, they received plenty of touches from all of us as coaches. We would interact, talk about their son or daughter to them, and include how they improved during the week. This was meaningful to the parents, as they were told how their money was spent, and that it was spent wisely with their decision to bring their son or daughter to camp. Selling in general was new to me this past summer, but I think that starting with selling an experience made it easier to learn and adapt. Just like any sales positions, relationships could make or break a future sale, and I learned that every encounter was important to that relationship.
BoweryJE22
I definitely agree with this. Even if you don’t get the sale right away, laying groundwork can lead to sales down the road.
It’s so true that, with experiences, the sales process does not end at the purchase point; it is vital to continue to sell the value of the purchase throughout the process and experience, in order to further customer loyalty and repeated sales. Especially with something like camp, word-of-mouth opinions spread in the wake of the experience are almost more powerful than the initial sales effort–PR is so important in these contexts.