I recently bought some cookies from a four-foot-pony-tailed Girl Scout. As I was eating a Thin Mint, I thought of the various fundraisers I had personally been involved with as a kid. I had to smile as I wondered if those positive interactions knocking on doors selling popcorn, lightbulbs, and candles had any influence later in my life on choosing the profession of sales.
Chances are one of our first positive sales interactions, other than convincing mom to buy a box of Cap’n Crunch or Fruit Loops was having a Lemonade stand, selling cookies or raffle tickets in grade school.
In my case, my older brother had a paper route. I occasionally helped him deliver newspapers. Later on, ringing doorbells in those same neighborhoods was an easy start to my sales career. It was a bit like trick or treating except this time around I was the one selling candy. I also came to realize when fundraising for my cub scout pack, wearing my blue uniform and yellow neckerchief seemed to help close more sales. It’s all about your presentation.
As an adult, whenever I run into these diminutive future salespeople, I try to do a small part to foster their confidence by letting them make a sale. When I see a lemonade stand along the street I try to stop and sometimes ask to hear their sales pitch on why I should buy a second glass.
The same goes when someone knocks on my door selling raffle tickets for a fundraiser. It takes courage at that age to stand before a towering adult and ask if they would buy a chocolate bar to support a field trip to the state capitol.
It’s said, “A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Nurturing sales confidence in children today is much the same.
