Sales Tips From A 7 Year Old

It’s estimated that 1,000,000 Americans will lose their homes in the next year. Real Estate jobs can seem scarce and hard to hold onto but there’s always room in the market for someone with excellent sales skills. Some people are born with the ability to sell a ketchup Popsicle to a woman in white gloves and some people have to learn it.

I was blessed with the sales gene and apparently I have passed it on to my 7 year old son. He and his friend were looking to buy some books and wanted to earn the money. They decided to go into business for themselves and are enjoying the financial freedom of their entrepreneurial efforts. Instinctively they have figured out some simple sales techniques that can help anyone that is trying to sell a house or sell themselves in an interview.

Don’t take no for an answer - If someone tells you that you can’t do something just add the phrase “that way” to the end. Because we live in a high-rise, a side walk lemonade stand isn’t possible, so the kids decided to make and sell book marks. When I told them they couldn’t approach people in stores and ask them to buy their stuff they were bummed out but that didn’t stop them. Instead they made signs that said “book marks for sale” to wear around their necks. If someone asked about the sign or the bright red tasseled markers they toted with them it was ok for the kids to tell them what they were up to.

Be ready to barter - Know your wiggle room and move around it slowly. My son and his partner had worked out ahead of time what their asking price was but they also had a plan in case someone said that was too much. They would tell anyone who inquired that the price for the bookmarks was $2.00, a deal since the ones at the bookstore were $4 and these were homemade. If the person didn’t jump on the price one of them would offer 3 for $5 since it was an even better deal and the interested party was more likely to have a $5 bill instead of a bunch of ones. If that offer wasn’t accepted they were prepared to drop the price to $1 if necessary to make the sale but that was as low as they would go.

Make a connection – They kids told everyone the reason they were selling bookmarks was because they wanted to buy books. It made more sense than selling candy or cookies because bookmarks go with books and who doesn’t want to help kids get excited about reading. They didn’t just say “we’re doing this to make money,” even if that was a large part of it and that caught people’s attention. If you connect your client to yourself or your product you’re more likely to close the sale.

Update your inventory – After my son and his friend sold bookmarks to the deli attendant at the grocery store, the baristas at the coffee shop, some random citizens on the street and most of the people in our building, they put phase 2 into action and began making magnets. They gave out a few free samples to the property manager and the owner of the restaurant on the corner and told them to spread where customers could buy their magnets. Now they’re just waiting for the orders to start pouring in.

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By Heather Fairchild - Heather is a multimedia developer with experience in web, film, photography and animation as well as traditional fine arts like painting and sculpting. In addition to writing for RealEstateJobSite, she is co-founder of design and promotion company, Creative Kazoo with fellow Nexxt blogger, Staci Dennis. Heather’s spare time consists of making puppets, teaching Sunday School, building Legos and doing science experiments with her children.