This past week my housing group and I were selling tickets for the 34th annual Extravaganza. We were trying to sell as many tickets as we could to get more people to attend.
During the whole thing we were being very pushy and sort of forcing tickets down peoples throats. We would call out in the SAC all week saying “get your Ganza tickets, for free” and “last Tuesday to get your tickets before the dance” and things like that. It was a lot of heckling and being pushy. But as we were doing this I was thinking about my Sales for the Startup class and how they said selling should be done. We were doing the exact opposite. We were being the pushy sales people from movies that nobody likes and it was really getting me to think, why does this still work? I realized that the reason that our method worked so well for the circumstances was a few things.
- Tickets were free. This means people really didn’t have to commit to coming right then and there and they could get a ticket without any consequences for their future.
- The event was already well known. All returning students had heard of or been to the amazing event and knew how great it was and freshman would hear a lot about it and decide to come.
- We had free food, prizes, and selling points. If people weren’t convinced we could tell them about the other great things that we had that wasn’t just dancing like shrimp, cheesecake, and mocktails.
Though these selling points were good they could only convince people to get the free ticket. There was a limited number of fastpass tickets that were $2 per person that you could get as well. These tickets sold out capped at 100 because they were so popular. They would get people to go to the front of the long line and get in sooner. These were highly taken advantage of for people that time was more important to them than the low cost of $2. Many people would often try to get these fast passes later because they heard about the line but it was too late.
So I learned that even though we weren’t being the best sales people sometimes this is a good approach to doing things if the circumstances line up correctly.
BoweryJE22
While I didn’t mind the heckling because I knew you guys, I do agree it was kind of the opposite of what we’ve been learning in class. But it is interesting how certain aspects can still make such a tactic work in today’s world, and I think that’s why many people use such a method to sell things. They believe the features of their product will sell it, but neglect trying to establish a connection with their customer. Nice post, Zack!