The Art of Selling

Some kid just stopped by my house trying to raise money for college by selling magazines. Or at least that’s what I think he was doing. I didn’t end up buying anything, and not solely because I’m cheap (you all know that I am), but more so because I was just confused. As I shut the door it dawned on me how crucial the ability to sell something is as a skill. And of course as part of that effective communication.

As I came back to my desk I was picturing the scene from Boiler Room where the main character gives the telephone sales person a lesson on selling. I felt like I should’ve done the same for this poor guy. What he gave me was some strange round-about speech about “have you been to college” and “do you have any advice for me for college” and then started handing me these laminated cards and he’s talking about magazines and earning points... and at that point I was just like “dude, can’t handle it right now.”

A more effective approach would be to get back to the basics and hit up the good ol’ Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. Ok, in this case he could probably could have struck the Where, but the others would have been infinitely useful. Allow me to illustrate:


Who: Hello, I am [name]


What: I have a dream of opening up a restaurant in Las Vegas and the first step for that dream is going to culinary school. Today I am out trying to raise money to help me achieve the first step of that dream. I am working with this project [hand first laminated sheet], which is a legitmate national organization.


How: Here [hand second laminated sheet] is a list of highly entertaining and insightful magazines that you can order through me. Each order that's placed helps me earn points that can lead to scholarship money for school.


Why: There are a lot of reasons to particiapte in this. First of all you will be helping someone achieve a life long dream. You will also recieve a magazine in exchange, which can bring you pleasure, education, or a little of both. You can also choose to purchase one of these magazines as a gift for somebody else. What are your interests? Maybe I can recommend a magazine from the list [which was quite long].


When: I have one shot at this program so I have to collect orders on the spot. I'd love to be able to give you more time to think about it, but that's not possible in this case.


Had I been approached like that, I would have been armed with all of the information necessary to make a decision, and might have felt more compelled to pick out one of the mags.


In fact, now that I think about it, there was a high school kid that came around last week raising money for his summer league. This kid was obviously younger than the fellow that stopped by today, but he had an intuitive grasp of the sales process. He started off by telling me his name and where he lived (Who and Where, if you like); that he was raising money for his high school's summer league team (What); he handed me a piece of paper and said that to contribute you could buy a car wash or pancake breakfast, or that you could simply donate money (How). The Why might have been the icing on the cake there, but I felt very informed very quickly and dug out $5 as a donation (I'm too lazy to take my car for a wash at the school's campus or go anywhere for a pancake breakfast).


There was also a difference in nerves between the two. The culinary school kid vibed that he was inconveniencing me while the baseball kid acted as if he was just doing his job. Going door to door isn't easy by any stretch, but I think you've got to approach it as if you've got something viable to sell (whether it's a charitable cause or some actual product) and that some people are going to want it and others aren't.


I think the baseball kid shows that some people have a natural ability for selling and just know how to phrase things to make them more palatable to customers. All's not lost for the rest though, because I think selling is very teachable and when you realize how much of life is selling -- whether you're selling a product or selling yourself -- there's a very strong case for nearly everyone learning how to sell.


Kopp