So, in a mad dash to think of some other sales experince I had gained over the years I received an email from Professor Sweet. The email was about Entrepreneurship students coming to help with Junior Crimson Day. That’s when I realized that ever since I was in high school I have been selling the Institutions I attendned.
I went to a private high school and I was an Ambassador. My job was giving tours to prospective students and being shadowed by those students for a day. However, in my high school career I didn’t know anything about sales. I was really good at explaining the value my school offered and I often sold people with my enthusiasm for the school, because I really did love it. The problem was I would only use yes or no questions, and I didn’t ask nearly enough questions anyway. I think I could have done a lot better at my Job if I had known the principles I have learned.
In retrospect there were some really good selling techniques that my school did use. Firstly, my school was very good with relationship and repport. Because we were so small it made the school feel homey and the Faculty and Administration actually cared about students and the best options for them. I feel like when it came to sitting down and speaking with the Administration this was evident and even if you were barely looking at the school they would stay in contact with you and make sure the families they spoke with were doing okay. This rapport was great because when students weren’t happy with their schools they would come straight to my school.
The second thing my school did well was expecting consistent quality and character from its students. Each student was held to extremely high standards of character within the school and when we left. Each student new they were a representative of the school and were expected to act as such. Many people spread the word and were impressed with the level of maturity the students had. That is a huge branding idea and its something that really sells the school. I believe Grove City is very similar in this regard and so knowing how to sell yourself and represent an institution are skills I am learning here and I find very valuable.
BoweryJE22
i agree wholeheartedly with this post. I did a very similar thing in high school, and even when I wasn’t giving tours I was talking up the value of it. Institutions that truly care about their students are really easy to sell, in my opinion. We learned how to sell without the explicit title of “salesperson.” Great post!