I couldn’t Sell Candy….
Wednesday 18 March, 2009

…but I learned so many lessons that it was worth the price my mom had to pay ($35 per box)

When I was in grammar school (a long time ago!), we had fund raisers for our school and the item that was supposed to bring in the big bucks was candy. Not just any candy….chocolate bars (with or without almonds), from a company (see link below) who has made a huge business providing “fundraiser candy” for schools/groups across America.

Anyway, back to my story. My friend Mike and I would get these boxes of candy bars and begin going door to door throughout our neighborhood. The responses, “Sorry, but we just bought some from Johnny/Jane/Billy.” What a shock….the other kids from school were also ‘hawking’ their chocolate covered commodity and had beat us to the punch. First lesson learned: Speed to market is paramount.

So Mike and I brain-stormed and came up with a new strategy. Let’s take our chocolate wares to a high-traffic area, where people are coming to us with money in their hands. Bank of America, here we come. So we stood at the front doors waiting for the tidal wave of foot traffic as we stood between the bank customers and their money! We waited and a few people cam through, but not what we were expecting. The problem? It was Wednesday. Friday is the busiest day at the bank as customers are cashing their paychecks and flush with cash from their weeks worth of work.
Second lesson learned: Timing can be more important than your offering

A new day, a new game plan. We adjusted our strategy once again and on Friday afternoon, we stood at the front door of the bank, ready for the mad frenzy that would turn us into chocolate magnates. The first 3o minutes were promising as we continually heard “I will buy one from you on my way out.” Great! We’ll sell out and be playing GI Joes while the rest of our friends are still out pounding the pavement. Of course, we were young and still a little naive and failed to notice the second set of doors on the other side of the bank. Whoops. Our high powered sales pitch was going wasted as the bank suddenly became a one way street with customers entering the heavily guarded front entry and exiting the rear doors.
Third Lesson: Make sure you cover all your bases.

As we started seeing some of the same customers we saw a few minutes earlier, magically appearing back at their cars, we asked ourselves, “How did they get past us?” Once we figured out that our boat was leaking water by the gallons, we decided to plug the hole for good and Mike took the entrance, while I took the rear doors. Instead of pitching to customers on the way into the bank (we figured out they had too much time to make up an excuse before exiting), we put the hard sell on those leaving, flush with cash from their untouched paycheck.
Fourth lesson learned: Your strategy may be sound, but keep fine-tuning.

We didn’t become millionaires selling boxes of chocolate, but we did learn some important lessons about selling.

Final lesson learned: Ready…Fire…Aim. Use Guerrilla Sales Tactics, track your results, and refine your strategy until you are killing your competition!

http://tinyurl.com/d743al

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