Teach Students to Sell For Your School Fundraiser

Most of us have been approached by a student selling for a middle school or high school fundraiser who says, "Want to buy something?" Students are often unprepared to make an effective sales presentation and can even come across as unprofessional. We are more apt to buy from someone who can tell us who they are, what organization they represent and why we should support them. If you are a school fundraising sponsor for older students they are old enough to learn how to perform an effective sales pitch to a potential customer. Knowing what you want to say before you approach a potential customer is important and will often lead to more success. The problem is teaching a method that will be easy, fun and effective for them to use. We encourage fundraising groups to utilize a selling method called ‘NOW’.

• The ‘N’ stands for Name. The first thing that they will want to do is introduce them self by saying something like, “Hi, my name is _______________________.”
• The ‘O’ stands for Organization. The next thing is to introduce who or what they are fundraising for. “I’m with _____________________________ …”
• The ‘W’ stands for Why. They will want to tell the potential buyer why they are fundraising by saying, “We are raising money for ______________________.”

As your sellers are in the process of communicating the ‘why’, they would simply hand the sales brochure along with the order form and a pen to the prospective customer and stand back and smile. The student doesn’t really need to say a word at that point. In most cases the potential customer will start looking through the brochure to see what’s being offered. The rest usually takes care of itself; however remind your sellers to be polite by thanking people for their time regardless of whether they choose to support your school fundraiser or not.