The prospect of selling has evolved constantly over time, going from catalogs to door to door selling, to moving progressively more and more online. Online ads and emails and billboards take over newspaper and radio advertising.
One type of selling that has remained constant and unchanged has been that of in person selling.
It retains the excitement of the game so easily lost in remote and online selling, it forces you to make yourself interesting and inviting. In person selling brings people together and fosters connection. In a world of phones and emails and zoom meetings, being able to start a conversation and lead it to a selling action are valuable skills to cultivate.
The first week of October brought homecoming and with it my first time working at the Venture Village. Running an e-commerce booth meant that people came to buy, but even more than that alumnus came to engage and challenge entrepreneurship students in their marketing and selling skills.
It was an awesome experience, and I received plenty of tips through talking to graduated or self-made entrepreneurs. After missing homecoming in fall of 2020, the excitement was palpable. Venture village had been online the previous year, so for those visiting their alma mater, it was all the sweeter getting to promote the traditions they helped start.
Getting to practice selling techniques on people who successfully built their lives off of what you are only now learning is a humbling experience. You give them the hook, bring them to your table and stumble over your value statement, trying to win over a self-made millionaire into buying your six-dollar handmade bracelet. These circumstances were constantly evident, so keeping up the self-assurance sometimes became difficult.
I’ve experienced selling my artistry before, knowing the value of my skills, and peddling them to the public. There is a decidedly more professional method associated with selling for a class. The stakes are higher too. Instead of being in it for the money, it was selling for the G.P.A., engaging for a good grade. To some extent it made the motivation more urgent.
All in all, it was an exciting weekend. It exhausted my voice and my feet, but the experience I gained through it will have lessons that benefit me for years to come. Going back to the excitement of in person selling, the satisfaction of a sale far outweighs the nervousness it took to sell in the first place.
BoweryJE22