A Positive and Negative Sales Experience
The positive sales experience
What was the best sales experience you ever had?
The best sales experience I had was when I decided to buy/enroll into the Praxis program.
Why? How did it make you feel?
It made me feel great. I got to meet mostly all the Praxis mentors, and they got to learn about me as well. Each meeting I had with the mentors was really friendly and they all seemed interested throughout the whole conversation. . They also made sure to explain the whole process of the program to make sure that the program is right for me. The whole process from the interviews, to learning more about the program was amazing.
What was the problem you were hoping to solve?
The problem I had was that I was lost in terms of what career I wanted. And I was looking for a program that could help me figure out and learn a different way unlike the conventional college way.
What was the product or service you purchased to solve your problem?
I purchased the Praxis program. Praxis is an intense personal and professional development program where you learn essential career and life skills.
Were there other products or services you considered to solve your problem that you ended up not choosing to purchase?
Other services I was looking into was really college even though I did not want to go back, it felt like the only option for me.
Where did you start your search for solving your problem?
I started my search on google and youtube looking into different reviews of Praxis and I was hearing tons of great things.
Did you complete the purchase?
Yes, I completed the purchase.
Did you feel better off, worse off, or neutral after this interaction / after your purchase?
I felt so grateful and happy that I made this decision on my own to enroll into Praxis.
Is there anything that could have been done differently to make your experience better?
No, I thought the whole process was amazing.
How did your impression of the sales process impact your opinion about the company, product, or service?
It impacted my opinion of the company in a good way. At the end of the day, after hearing all the reviews from past alumni and going through the interview process, I came to realization how amazing this company really is. It is something that I would highly recommend to people avoiding the college route.
The negative sales experience
What is the worst sales experience you’ve ever had?
The worst sales experience I have ever had was when I first was getting into hockey and I was buying all my hockey gear.
Why? How did it make you feel?
It was the worst sales experience because the person did not seem very enthusiastic and felt troubled that I asked for help with picking out all the gear I needed. It felt like they did the bare minimum in helping me. They helped me figure out my sizing for all my gear. I ended up realizing soon later that they just gave me the most expensive gear there. Many years later I realized I was wearing too big of a hockey skate, and for 5+ years I have been wearing too big of a skate and I was also getting lace spike because of the skate not fitting well on my foot. My shin pads were also too large as well.
Were you actively shopping for a solution to a problem or were you a victim of sales done poorly?
I was actively shopping for a solution because I needed hockey gear for when I was first starting hockey and I did not know of any other store at the time.
What was the product or service being sold?
I was looking for hockey gear and I asked for help from one of the workers at the store to help me get fitted for gear.
Did you complete the purchase?
Yes, I completed the purchase.
Why did the sales process go poorly?
I felt like I was troubling the worker by asking for help. They also just gave me the most expensive stuff and kinda did bare minimum, hence why I had some gear not fit me.
Were there any specific tactics that made this go poorly?
The worker had no enthusiasm and had a poor attitude it felt like. The whole interaction felt rushed.
Did you feel better off, worse off, or neutral after this interaction / after your purchase?
I felt neutral at the time because I just needed gear and that was the only store around me that I knew. I also did not know that the gear was too big until years later.
Is there anything that could have been done differently to make your experience better?
I think better enthusiasm and I think they could have taken their time. More patience as well because I was new to hockey so I did not know all the gear I needed.
How did your impression of the sales process impact your opinion about the company, product, or service?
I think the company is great and all. I think it was just that one interaction where there was not the best service at the time I went. Every other time it has been good.
How I Created Content Marketing For a Business
Starting in the very beginning of this month was phase two of Praxis. For four months we will be spending each month learning a new skill. For the month of October, I decided to do the Content Marketing module. In this month, I created a landing page, a fifteen post social media campaign, and an email campaign.
If you would like to check it out a video version you can click here.
What is Content Marketing?
Content Marketing is creating and sharing content around a certain idea, product, or business to get attention of people that could be potential customers. Marketing helps get the attention of other people to create a demand for your idea, product, or business.
For the Content Marketing module we had to choose a business that we wanted to create all this content for and I chose Be Still Apparel. Be Still Apparel is Christian clothing brand company that just recently launched on October 13th. It is a family business that I have actually been working to help launch.
I picked Be Still Apparel because I think all the content I made during the month will be beneficial in the future and the present in growing the company and getting the attention of others for our products. And I will be able to start using everything I learned right away into the new business.
What I created this month
Email Campaign
Social Media Campaign
Landing Page
A landing page is a website by itself that's whole purpose is to persuade the readers to buy a product or subscribe to an email list. In a landing page, you have one Call To Action (CTA). Landing pages only have one purpose and tend to steer away from multiple different CTA.
At first I started by creating a simple mockup of what I wanted the landing page to look like on paper. And I had to have some sort of idea of what product I wanted to persuade the reader to buy in my landing page.
This is what it looked like:
After I created that, I needed to figure out what landing page tool I wanted to use and there were many different options with their own pro’s and con’s. The options I was deciding between were ConvertKit, Carrd, and ConvertFlow. I tested each one out to see which one I liked and I ended up choosing Carrd.
Then I built my final product:
Skills I gained:
How to build a landing page
How to create a central CTA
Test out different tools to see which one was best
How to influence in a short amount of words
Things I could do differently:
Have exactly what I want to write in my mock-up so I am not thinking of it while building the landing page
Social media campaign
For the social media campaign we had to build 15 pieces of content for the business we chose with a specific motive in mind when creating our content. My motive that I had in mind for the business was to boost sales. When building our pieces of content we had to choose at least one main social media to use for the business, but I chose to do 3 different ones. I used TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram. I used Canva to create most of my social media posts.
Along with building the posts we had to also create a timeline of when we would post our content. For example, the timeline I did was 3 posts a day for 5 days. Through reading an article I found that the best times to post for Instagram were 1pm, Facebook 1pm, and Tiktok 10pm.
Here are some of my final products:
Skills I gained:
How to create social media content for a business
How to have a clear action in my posts
Have an effective timeline for when to post
How to use Canva
Things I would do differently:
Set aside more time to create the content
Have a clear plan of all my ideas then start creating content
Email welcome campaign:
For the email welcome campaign we had to learn about email campaigns and then create a 5 email welcome campaign for new subscribers and a timeline for the emails. I decided to send 1 email a day for 5 days. Each email has its own purpose that eventually leads to your call to action (CTA).
First email is an introduction email about yourself or the business.
Second email is talking about what is the customer's problem and what is your solution.
Third email is about relieving the customer that their problem is not entirely their fault and that there is a solution out there for them.
Fourth email is about showing the short-term and long-term benefits in your solution.
Fifth email is about making the sale feel urgent enough for the customer to buy it.
Below is the email campaign I created:
Skills I gained:
Being influential in my writing
How to hook the reader
To use the subscribers name when sending the email
Things I would do differently:
Have a plan before writing out the emails
Set aside more time for myself to do it
Write an outline
Summary
Overall, this month was filled with tons of different information on content marketing. I think all of these projects were awesome and I am proud of all the work I learned and created in just 1 month. Next month, I will be focusing on the module launching a business.
Phase One Reflection of Praxis
What i’ve created
In phase one I created a lot of different work pieces from blog posts, to a website, Substack newsletter, an ad video, and a lot of writing pieces as well. I also worked a lot on one of my goals which was communicating better. My goal was to set up zoom meetings and talk to people that I believe in and want to learn from their experiences. Since then I have scheduled multiple meetings with Justin Maina, Issac Morehouse, Mitchell Earl, Tony Blauer, and Matt Beaudreau. All of them have different experiences and there are so many different things to takeaway from all of them. Overall, in phase one I have created a lot of different things and I am proud of each and everyone one of them.
What i’ve read
We read two books in phase two of Praxis. First was The Concise Mastery, by Robert Greene and Atomic Habits by James Clear. The Concise Mastery was a fantastic book. When introducing new concepts it would tell a story about a historical figure and relate it back to the concept it was explaining to help you really understand it. This book talks a lot about finding your purpose or calling, and learning through life experience. This book differs from traditional schooling with its concepts because this book focuses on going out into the world and learning what you love and don’t love. And how to learn in a work environment or apprenticeship, but also how to avoid going down the wrong path because of distractions. One of the biggest takeaways from the book was when Mr. Greene talked about how rare it is being the top twenty five percent in multiple things rather than just one thing. This is definitely a book I will be looking back on all the concepts that were taught.
Next, Atomic Habits. This book was about how to effectively form good habits, but also how to get rid of bad habits as well. I have had trouble in the past keeping habits and this book really helped provide me with a lot of useful tools to keep the good habits. Two of biggest takeaways was in the book when Mr. Clear brought up the diagram about getting one percent better everyday. It doesn’t seem like much at first, but over a year it is drastic. The second takeaway was “If failure is painless it gets ignored, if failure is painful it gets fixed.” I loved all the books in phase one and can’t wait for the books in phase two.
Here are the books that we will be reading in phase two.
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
Your Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman
The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
What i’ve learned
There were many things I learned but the most important things I have learned through being in the program is being uncomfortable, putting the work in, and talking.
I learned that being uncomfortable and putting yourself in uncomfortable situations is the only way to truly experience growth. I have always shied away from being uncomfortable and that's how I think most people just get stuck in life. Putting the work in was a big one for me. In Praxis you aren’t graded for how well you did on a project or work. So If I want to be successful, it's not about impressing the teacher or the program, like traditional schooling. It's about impressing myself and putting in the best work that I can do for myself and only me. Because at the end of the day, it only affects me. Lastly, I used to always shy away from socializing and would be too nervous to speak to new people. But through setting up these zoom calls with new and different people I have realized that I enjoy socializing. I always had this seed planted in me that I was a shy person and quiet person. But that's not the case. This program has taught me a lot within the last month and half. I learned so much just by pushing myself and not waiting for an opportunity to come to me, but creating and putting myself in opportunities for myself.
My Favorites
Below is some of my favorite pieces of work that I have made so far in Praxis:
What comes next
Going into phase two of Praxis, we get to choose four modules that we will be working over the course of four months. I will be doing the content marketing module, launching a business module, sales module, and starting a content creation project module. I chose these modules because I think they help guide me to one of my future goals of one day being an entrepreneur. And I am really looking forward to phase two of Praxis next week!