October 28, 2016 - Box of fruit from the Band Fund Raiser

My current quest for Vitamin C to assist in getting over this cold prompted me to buy a couple of heavy pink grapefruit yesterday. 

When I was a kid, I remember my Mom used to cut the grapefruit in half and then use a serrated knife to cut around the membrane and then down the section centers so that we could spoon out pieces of membrane free grapefruit.  

Earlier this month I asked the rhetorical question – do they still have Home Economics class, and I still haven’t heard a comment of yes or no. [I was shocked, yes, shocked, when I found out a few years ago young students are no longer taught penmanship, long hand, cursive, whatever it is called.  They all print now!]  Ooops off topic . . .

But, when I was a freshman in high school we learned some useful things. In Home Economic Class I was thrilled to learn how to properly section a grapefruit without the membranes.  I thought that was wonderful thing and I do it often when I get really nice grapefruit.   The frugal in me is talking now . . . used to be you could inexpensively buy already sectioned red grapefruit in a jar . . . but those days are long gone.  I had sticker shock the other day and ended up with plump ruby red fruit that I will have to peel and section myself.  

I happen to mention this useful skill because . . . . .

. . . . .the other day my neighbor’s teenage son rang the doorbell.  I answered.  He knew I was one of his “auto-buy” neighbors for the Box of Fruit from the Band fund raiser.  He didn’t have to say much as we have done this a half-dozen years now.  He simply opened the slick glossy brochure with the order form on the left and he pointed to the deluxe box that I had purchased for the last few years.  “This is what you ordered last year, same thing?”  He knew the fruit was just for a household for two, but he was going for the confident “same-as-last-year deluxe box”. He oozed with salesmen confidence that I felt I had helped build in him over the years.  It struck me, gosh, he is a senior this year, now what am I going to do next year?  He will be off to college.

Last year I bought too big of a box that even included pears.  I had to actually give much of the fruit away to my single friends for fear it would rot before I could eat it all up.  This year I went straight to the ruby red grapefruit as they last well. I noticed I was his first sale as I wrote my name on line 1 on the order entry form.  He thanked me for the sale and then did the follow-up, need your $ on delivery.  Bounded down the steps with a big smile and off to the next neighbor.

In a month or so, he’ll come back with a big box of fruit and it will be wonderful, and fresh, and from Florida, and the Band will have made their goal.  It will be a nice WIN-WIN for everyone.

As he left I remembered the first time he came to my door to sell something.  He had a single digit age with his Mom standing inches behind him on the top step prompting him at every point in the sales presentation.  I looked down on this towheaded little boy and smiled and said “YES”.   I knew it was his first taste of salesmanship and possibly his first “yes.”

The next year, his Mom was on the lawn – 6 feet away stage whispering to him she said, “She was a good customer last year – just ask – you know what to say . . .”

When I said YES a wonderful ear-to-ear-smile of accomplishment lite up his little face; he had made a sale. He grew quick, the years have slipped by.   His Mom didn’t have to watch from the front porch anymore or even be around as he set out on his Band fruit sales as he grew up.

When he became a gangling teenager he really grew in his confidence with me.  He would chat a while to “warm me up” and then launch into his sales pitch with a confident smile. 

Some people don’t like their children having to sell things for school or organizations.  They have various reasons for not liking it.  But, I feel it is a necessary ‘hands-on’ education for young people, best handled with a caring parent close by to coach them.

In my opinion, everyone has to learn how to sell.  You sell your ideas to your friends, you sell what you have learned in class to your teacher, you sell yourself [your skills and qualities] to a potential employer, once you get that job you sell your product or services to clients and customers.  Every job, actually everything you do in life is a “sell” or what we call “customer service” skills.  It is more than that; I feel it is a life skill.

So, I have been the ‘nice neighbor’ across the street that helped him understand and learn the following in his salesmanship course over the years:

the ‘she always buys’

the ‘easiest sale ever’

the ‘sure sell’

the ‘easy target’

or simply this last encounter, the ‘SLAM DUNK’.

It makes me feel good that he has learned a life skill he will use for many decades just by coming across the street to sell a neighbor a box of Fruit from the Band fund raiser.