Perspectives
Will you
buy my popcorn?
Part 1 of 3
by Jeff Persaile
|
Can you sell training and consulting like this boy sells
popcorn? |
“It’s time to sell Scout
popcorn, Dad. Today’s the last day.” my
nine year old son said.
I knew he was right, but
it was Sunday afternoon and the football game was about to start. An inner voice told me to forget about
selling for the afternoon. A second
voice, however, sounded like my own dad reminding me that I was raising a boy
into a man and not to take that responsibility lightly.
How could I ignore my
son’s enthusiasm in exchange for a football game? Especially when it wasn’t even the
playoffs. “All right.” I said. “Get your uniform on and we’ll go.”
For seven years I had been
running my own training and consulting business. The last three years I had been a Cub Scout
dad leading my son, Jacob, through the Scout ranks. Each year at each level Jacob was asked to
sell fund-raiser products for the Scout Pack.
It was the beginning of Scouting lessons and also adult lessons about
how to sell my own training and consulting services.
The Ultimate Sales Challenge
Jacob really hadn’t showed
much interest in selling our most important fund-raiser: popcorn. Now let me assure you that popcorn can be a
tough sale to make. There are 9
different popcorn products priced from $9 to $50. That’s certainly higher than any grocery
store variety. The other problem is that
there is no product to show the customer.
All you sell from is pictures of popcorn and all money is paid in advance. No samples.
No popcorn aroma. Only a promise
that “we’ll be back in two or three weeks to deliver the popcorn”. It sounded a lot like trying to sell
behavior change training.
In previous years he sold
enough to get a patch for participation but not much more. This year was different. This year there was a new prize sheet with
new and better prizes for different sales levels. Jacob stepped out and announced his goal:
$600 in sales to win a real hunting bow and a couple of arrows. Yikes!!
Was it a good idea for a 9-year old to be armed and dangerous? I was imagining an arrow sailing across our
backyard fence into the neighbor’s pool or backyard. I could see the headline now: “High-selling Scout’s Dad Arrested for
Reckless Parenting”. Six hundred dollars
would be a 400% increase over what his previous best. Was $600 even possible for him? How were we going to make that happen? All I knew was that my son was looking to me
for help.
How Do You Spell Expert?
It sounded like a real
business challenge I definitely wanted to solve. Having my own training business, I should
have been an expert on selling, but I didn’t feel like one. Most of my clients came through referrals and
relationships rather than a set marketing method or sales approach. While I was a pro at designing and delivering
training, the sales aspects of business were a challenge for me. If we could figure out how to sell popcorn,
perhaps I could use the same principles to sell my own training services.
The Cyclops Principle
The first principle we
discovered was: Keep your eye on the
prize.
One thing Jacob wasn’t shy
about was announcing his goal and the prize he was working toward to me, the
family, and all the other Scouts. Like
the one-eyed, mythical giant Cyclops, Jacob saw only one thing. So what if the other kids giggled. So what if his older sisters were
skeptical. He shrugged off the skeptics
and kept going. He just knew he could do
it.
Was I this bold about
setting goals for my training and consulting business?
There is plenty of
research that proves goal setting works.
The SMART acronym of specific, measurable, achievable, results-oriented,
and time framed definitely helps. A
reasonable sales deadline automatically set by the Scouts also gave us a special
sense of urgency to reach the goal.
Jacob certainly was motivated to knock on doors rather than watch a
football game. What was different was
that he saw the goal not just as a number but as a prize. The prize from the catalog was very real and
tangible to Jacob. Right from the start
the prize pictures were burned into Jacob’s brain. He looked at the prize sheet practically
every night and pondered his choices at the different levels. He talked to me about the prizes endlessly
and told numerous stories about what it would be like to play with this prize
or that prize with each of his friends.
So how effective was this
single-vision view of the prize? Just
before the end of the sales period Jacob saw he could achieve an even better
prize by selling $800 rather than his original $600 goal. (He had figured out that there were no woods
in our backyard to use the bow and arrows in.)
Thankfully, he reached the $800 level and chose some very nice two-way
radios that were much safer than the arrows.
Selling Training Like Popcorn
What’s the lesson in this
for us adults who sell training and consulting services instead of
popcorn?
There are probably several
we can consider. Just ask yourself the
following questions about your selling approach:
-
Have you set a sales goal for yourself? Have you put it in writing and announced it to others?
-
What reward will you have when you reach that goal?
-
How can you make the goal and reward more tangible than just money?
-
What is the prize for your customers? What is the prize for you?
-
How do you celebrate your business success?
-
Can you post a picture or symbol to represent the reward?
-
Do you think about it, imagine it, and talk about your purpose with passion and clarity?
Next time
This one simple strategy is
the start of several lessons Jacob taught me from selling popcorn. Next time, I’ll share what we learned about
strategy and making sale presentations.
Until then, I hope you’ll look at your own selling challenges and
consider how you can turn goal setting into a more powerful tool for your
success. And, please, pop some popcorn
while you do.
About the Author: Jeff
Persaile is Jacob’s dad and the owner of Persaile & Associates Training and
Development specializing in New Hire training for contact centers and Leadership
development processes for all organizations. A passion for bringing people up
to speed faster has resulted in greatly improved performance with 30% less
training time for several clients. Jeff
is has been a member of ASTD for over 12 years and currently serves on the
Dallas Chapter Leadership Team. Contact
Jeff Persaile at 972. 235. 0999 or persaile@ticnet.com