What I Taught A Little Girl That Helped Her Beat Her Sales Goal

I spent the day with over 100 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. They were business people.

Well, they were pretend business people. It was at Junior Achievement's BizTown. And it was pure joy.

Each kid is assigned a role, from CEO and CFO to sales, service, or production.

The beginning of the day, the CEO and CFO get their paperwork together. This involves getting a loan from the bank to start their business and figuring out how to price your products.

The goal is to sell enough to have your business loan paid off by the end of the day.

Throughout the day they get their paychecks, minus taxes. They go shopping and update their checkbook balances.

It's jam packed with business and personal finance skills.

Plus they have fun in the process.

I was assigned to help the kids at the health care company. We provide health insurance that all the businesses had to pay and wellness exams.

We had a huge advantage. (I would say that with any business we had but this was brilliant.)

If we could get a business to send all their employees to get a wellness checkup they received a wellness rebate of $25. This $25 would help them pay down their loan.

Since most loans were just over $100, this was huge.

I taught the New Business Director - aka salesperson - a script. The script consisted of a few questions.

She was to go to each business' CEO, and only the CEO, and ask:

1. How many employees do you have?

2. Do you want help to pay off your loan by the end of the day?

3. Would you like $25 to help you pay the loan off?

Then she would explain how to get the $25. All employees of the business had to come in for a wellness exam and we would give the CEO a $25 check to help pay down his/her loan.

And then ask:

4. Will you get all employees to come for a wellness checkup?

5. It only takes a minute for their exam. On your next break, can you bring them all in together and we'll give you the check?

Every CEO who understood the task lit up when she told them about the $25 check.

We had a few businesses bring all their people at once. The rest sent them one at a time.

We didn't get all the businesses. But we most came through. It was beautiful.

The team sold out all their items an hour before everything was done - and we had our loan paid off.

It was easy.

It comes from asking the right questions.

It came from a good salesperson who was willing to learn.

We knew what each CEO wanted.

We knew how to leverage the "want' to get him or her to move.

After you get inside the mind of your customer you can easily get them to take action.

It's a simple process of effective questions.

In real life, the questions will be more involved.

The questions are what will get you inside the mind of your customer.

And with the right questioning process you'll yield the same results.