Aug. 28--The hardest assignment of business school thus far:
Take a Chicago Booth disposable pen and, through a series of sales or trades over five days, end up with something of greater value.
Students must document and photograph the five transactions. And the deals must be consummated with strangers.
One classmate immediately dropped the course.
I ended the week with $87.
First night: With my sales pitch of the pen-as-cudgel to a parent looking to convince their child to enter graduate school, an out-of-towner ponies up. Pen gone for $20.
Second night: The $20 becomes a bottle of red wine I move for $40 to a classmate from Asia I'd never met.
Third night: That $40 is used for a bottle of scotch. Sell it for $75 to a group splitting the bill.
Fourth night: The $75 is used for two Blackhawks caps ($30 each), puck ($12) and a Winter Classic lapel pin (on sale for $5). I spent $2 of my own money. One hat and the puck move for $52.
Final night: The other hat and pen for $35, at cost, due to exhaustion.
Total: $87, including the $2 I put in, all for a pen worth pennies.
That's the sales log. Here's what I learned about selling in the process.
No. 1: If you're selling to people imbibing at a bar, be ready to encounter some unsavory behavior. That was true moving the pen and the scotch.
No. 2: Ask for the moon, then negotiate down, though I never managed to do this.
No. 3: Credibility and credentials matter. That student who bought the $20 bottle of red for $40 remarked, "I'd buy anything from a Booth student." It's easier to sell to friends of friends, even those you've just met.
No. 4: Helps to tag-team. I wouldn't have sold the scotch without a wingwoman.
No. 5: When the price exceeds $50, people are less impulsive, so it's good to have a product that can be shared, like alcohol, and the tab split.
No. 6: Gauge your targets quickly. In the case of the scotch, immediately ask if they like scotch. If they don't, move on. In sales, this is called "qualifying a customer."
No. 7: Cultural differences matter. During lunch one day, I surveyed a classmate from Singapore about how much he would pay for the various Blackhawks merchandise. He replied $50 for the very nice paperweight -- he'd never seen a hockey puck -- but only $2 for the caps. No one wears hats in Singapore, he explained.
No. 8: Unlike marketing strategies, sales pitches must be tuned to individuals. Many folks in the hotel bar were visiting from out of town. They didn't care for hockey or supported their home teams.
Another way of saying this: Pick your product with a target customer in mind. Then ask succinct qualifying questions to ensure the person you're speaking with falls within your target audience.
No. 9: Salespeople offer better deals at the end of their sales periods (quarters, months, years ... five-day windows) to meet goals and clear inventory.
No. 10: Although I earned $87 from a plastic pen, I spent at least 10 hours gathering and then selling merchandise at the hotel bar. That divides to $8.70 per hour, less than Chicago's minimum wage.
mmharris@tribpub.com
