Perspectives  Dallas Chapter of ASTD Membership Newsletter  -  February 2007  << Table of Contents <<

Will you buy my popcorn?

Part 3 of 3

 

by Jeff Persaile

 

 Jacob wins the prize!

“Congratulations, Jacob.  You did it!”

“Thanks, dad.  When do I get the prize?”

 

My nine year old son had just finished his fourth season of selling popcorn as a fund-raiser for Scouts.  He had set a huge, monster goal for himself to sell $800 of popcorn for Scouts and win a set of two-way radios.  His achievement required a 400% increase in sales over last year.  Needless to say, I was a proud dad and also awestruck by thinking about my own business. 

 

What would it be like if I could increase results 400% over last year?  I wanted to find out.

 

So I analyzed what my son, Jacob, did to reach such dizzying heights in hopes that I could do the same with my own business.  In parts 1 and 2 of this article series we discussed the first three principles for sales simplicity and success.

  1. Set a goal

  2. Concentrate

  3. Practice your presentation

In this article  we’ll discuss principles 4 and 5 so that you can apply all 5 to your business model.

 

Elvis Says It Best

Manners have always been important in our house.  We believe that little things like “please” and “thank you” go a long way with people in whatever you do.  It might even be considered a survival skill because at our home you won’t get the mashed potatoes passed to you unless you use your manners.  Jacob applied the same approach to selling popcorn for the Scouts. Our fourth principle was the simplest yet: 

Say Thank You

Elvis Presley is remembered for the way he said “Thank you.  Thank-you-very-much.”  Jacob certainly wasn’t out to duplicate Elvis’s style, but with every customer who bought popcorn he made a special effort to look them in the eye and clearly say “Thank you” or “Thank you for supporting the Boy Scouts”.  Jacob also said “thank you for supporting the Scouts” to people who said they already bought popcorn from another Scout.  That reinforced their decision to buy from the Scouts and hopefully he’ll get there first next year. 

 

He even said thank you to the people who didn’t buy.  After all, they answered the door and took a moment to listen.  These days, that’s an honor for us, especially when other people said “We don’t want any” without ever opening the door.

 

I don’t have any trackable results to prove the importance of thank you, but I can share that a number of people remembered Jacob from previous years.

 

“Oh, you’re that nice Scout who lives here in the neighborhood.”

“Yes, I was hoping you’d come by again this year.”

“How are you doing in Scouts?  What level are you this year?”

 

A sincere “Thank you” is icing on the cake for any sales interaction.  It feels good and paves the way for the next time you come knocking. And Jacob will pave the way again when he says “thank you” when he personally delivers the popcorn to each customer.

 

Reflect on what you do in your sales strategy to pave the way for future success:

 

Repeat After Me

One of the things that impresses me about Jacob is his ability to dig into the latest topic to grasp his interest.  He knows more about Star Wars than I’ll ever know (or care to know).  I like the movies but Jacob knows all the little details from studying books, behind the scenes moments, and talking to the Star Wars community of 9-year olds.  He’s applying the same enthusiasm to selling.  That’s what led me to our last principle:

Keep Learning

At 9 years old Jacob is learning to sell and is already talking about the next fund-raiser and how he could sell more.  (My next challenge is really to figure out where to borrow a pickup truck to more easily deliver all that popcorn he already sold this year!)  He is also talking to another Scout one year older who sold over $2600 in popcorn.  They are sharing successes and are considering the possibility of working together next time.  If that works like they hope, one pickup truck won’t be big enough to deliver our share of the popcorn. 

 

Keep In Touch Marketing

One of the things the other Scout does to gain repeat business is send his customers a thank you card at Christmas time when there are no fund-raisers.  Jacob is now talking about how to do the same thing with his customers, too.

 

Does this sound like the enthusiasm you apply to how you operate your business?  Are you open to learning from others?  Consider the following:

 

What About You?

I’m going to start applying these sales principles more consistently to my business and how I sell my training and consulting services.  It’s respectful, professional, methodical, and it worked great. 

  1. Set a goal

  2. Concentrate

  3. Practice your presentation

  4. Say Thank You

  5. Keep Learning

In addition, I’m now becoming more aware of the important role of coaching and encouraging sales people … and nine year old Scouts. 

 

If this method is easy enough for a nine year old Scout to implement, you can do it, too. But will you act on it?

 

Most of us don’t need to know more. 

Most of us don’t need to prepare more.

All of us need to DO more.

Will You Buy My Popcorn?

And if a Scout comes to your door asking you to make a purchase to support the Scouts, ask him for some sales tips.  He just might have some helpful sales advice for your business - along with a great selection of popping corn.

 

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 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