Social Skills: Building Up By Selling Wreaths

Wreaths of Maine accepts online orders through our website; it’s the first menu item visitors see when they come to the site. And yet 95% of our sales come not from our own efforts, but rather our affiliate and fundraiser programs. Because of the simplicity of our mail-order model, it is very easy for sellers to focus on making the sale rather than the logistics of shipping or fulfillment. Through selling our products, groups have been able to successfully fund church interests as well as organized activities in private schools. Wreaths of Maine is especially well-suited for homeschooled students seeking a fundraising infrastructure to help support them.

Selling wreaths will help students brush up or even build a set of social skills in real life situations.

   1. Self-aware Social Skills

At its core, selling is little more than a conversation between two parties. But when you’re the seller, that conversation can be hard until you learn a few things about yourself. Emotional intelligence -- being aware of, and able to properly express, one’s own emotions is a key part to any interpersonal interaction. Why? Because making purchases is often emotionally-driven. People buy what “feels” right, and they buy from those with whom they make emotional connections.

Once you’ve made a few sales, you’ll gain self-confidence and start to trust in your own abilities to make sales happen. Confidence in one’s self is a highly sought after skill that alone can open many doors for you in the future.

   2. Self-management Skills

Through selling, you will not only become aware of growth in yourself, but also learn skills that will serve you for the rest of your life, such as organization, discipline and commitment. To be successful in most any endeavor, one must plan one’s goals, determine the steps needed, and then take continuous action toward them. This kind of self-management takes a lifetime of practice. But the earlier you start, the better at it you’ll be.

   3. Special Skills in Dealing with Others

Social skills aren’t just learning about one’s self. You will also have to learn proper and acceptable ways of interacting with everyone around you - from customers, to suppliers, to members of your selling team. What you learn regarding your own emotional intelligence can be translated into empathy -- the ability to accurately understand the feelings of others. This is vital to the long-term relationships you hope to build and foster through your sales efforts.

Other important aspects -- especially for students who don’t have the opportunity to take part in typical team activities -- is teamwork and the ability to both give and take criticism. Working together meet sales goals is a great team-building exercise. And helping your teammates improve their own techniques without tearing them down is invaluable to both parties.

And finally, selling will help you to learn presentation skills as you have to demonstrate to your audience the product that you hope to sell. Learning the product will help you feel more confident in what you’re saying, but the ability to say it all comes from you, and that happens with practice and just doing it over and over and over again.