My crowd sales project with Foster Learning
Foster Learning assigned the flagship fellows to come up with an item for sale within a team budget of 1500 PKR. We were randomly put in teams of 3 people. My team consisted of Sitwat, Fahad and I. We also did social work by collecting clothes for the Akhuwat foundation.
At my house, my team decided what we would sell. Our ideas were cupcakes, brownies and Mexican sandwiches. We all went with sandwiches because the other two options were already picked by other teams. At first, we discussed gathering at my house for sandwich-making but later on, we all agreed on Sitwat suggestion of letting her do this task at her home with her family. Fahad and I wired the money to her account. She prepared a list of ingredients and packing material and purchased them in quantity affordable by our budget of 1500 PKR. Fahad and I made two charts with marketing taglines for our Mexican sandwiches. Everything was ready. 37 Mexican sandwiches, two marketing charts and us.
During our flagship session, most of the fellows agreed to go to Saddar, Rawalpindi for a crowd sales project on Saturday at 4 PM. All teams gathered in Saddar at 4 PM. Our Mentor Ms Hira Javed told us what we have to do, how other people would behave, and how to come up with a sale pitch.
And my team decided to sell each Mexican sandwich for 120 PKR.
Okay. Here was the most difficult part. It was our first experience. Approaching random strangers to sell our Superb Mexican sandwiches. At the start, we were shy and people gave us a look of distrust because our voices and pitch were of such kind. Reached 20 people and no sales. Ms Hira was with foster fellows all the time, checking on every team’s progress. She came to us. She was watching us for 5 straight minutes dealing with people. She came to us and said if we are not going to tell people who we are and what is our product then they will not buy it.
Here our courage level was raised. Learn and Apply the rule. We made our first sale. Second. Third. Forth. But it was 1 out of 10 people stopped, listen and only 30% of them purchased. I observed that when Sitwat starts the pitch and I follow, our sales raised. So Observe and Apply. Sold out within 3 hours and first among all teams.
1500 PKR investment and 1500 from sales.
Among our customers, we had a couple who were lecturers at the Capital University of Science and Technology. They appreciated our courage. We had three foreigners, five students, seven families, and one head of an educational institution at Taxila memorable customers.
We spent our 40 % profit on supporting other teams and local vendors who were supportive of us. I helped one of our teams in selling their “Dahi Bhalas”, Sitwat helped another team and the same did Fahad. When all teams sold out. We gathered at our spot and made a celebration of our fellows who had birthdays.
What did I learn?
- People won’t kill me for just talking with them.
- There are not just those who discourage me but there are a good number of people who will support and appreciate me.
- Realized what local vendors and sellers have to go through in terms of emotions.
Thanks for staying by and reading me. You are my hero and I mean it. If you want to overcome your public hesitation, then such activities will be a good starter. If you need my help with it, feel free to leave me a message on my LinkedIn.
