Selling popcorn and coupon books was a sport for me in Boy Scouts. Everyone knows that they Boy Scouts have their buttery popcorn that is way overpriced. I took selling this stuff to heart and went all in, as with most everything in my life. I often one the prize for selling the most.
There was a video that we had to watch, and I’ll never forget it. I have used the lesson just this last month on a sales call visiting a new client. It is basic, but yet so important. The VHS tape showed us what to say as a script but more importantly, it gave an example for when Boy Scouts are walking up to someone’s home to sell them popcorn. It showed how to walk up to their front door or the door that looks most used. When walking up to the home, it made a major point to always stay on the driveway and sidewalks. It was teaching us to never cut corners when walking up to their home. The video was showing an example of a kid walking up to a home, after just leaving the neighbor’s home and it showed the example of him making a point to walk out of his way to go down the sidewalk along the road, cutting left, going down the driveway, the turning left and walking up to their front door.
The point was to NOT cut through people’s flowerbeds and through their yards. It is much easier to go door to door by cutting through the nearby woods or lawns between houses, but this was a horrible practice and I’m so glad they taught me this at such an early age.
I realized later on what almost every time I was selling popcorn door to door, anything really, the homeowners would watch me walk up to the house and ring the doorbell. I realized that they were watching me through the window as I walked away to the next house too.
Today, it is important to teach people to never cut through commercial properties in the same manner. How easy it is to cut through islands in parking lots or cut across the lawns to save a few steps to get to the front door. I shared this tip with people twice my age as we were walking up to a law office selling forensic engineering services. It was ingrained into my head, but some people have never heard this before. It’s amazing how people just don’t think about it, if they were never trained early in life about this.
