Hi all Volunteers!
(EDIT: It may look long, but. It's not draggy! Fun to read. Just try. Read finish not nice, you can complain to me)
Feeling excited for Thurs? Ok fine, maybe a lot of you joined this just because of the fact that you need CIP hours / dragged along by your friends etc. But we sincerely hope that you will enjoy yourself on that day! It would be fun if you make it fun for yourself. Or are you feeling kinda nervous? You do know what we are going to be doing on Thurs right? Right.... RIGHT?! You are going to be selling straw heart pins. Selling = Going up to people = Talking to strangers = Being very persuasive = abit scary.. (haha joking. read on!)
Anyway, here's some advice for thurs.
1) Please do NOT stick together and try to sell 1 straw heart pin together. yes you will feel nervous blahblah dunno what to say at first dah dah, but still. try NOT to stick together. Meaning, yeah, in the first few sales, you may feel more comfortable at approaching a passerby together with your partner, but still, grow up. After the first few, try to approach them by yourself. If you don't take the first step, you will never be able to acheive. After you take the first step, everything would be much easier. I PROMISE.
2) Smile ALOT! According to research, smiling for a long time releases some thing in your body and causes something and something to happen. In short, smiling makes you yourself a lot happier. So Smile! Plus, who would want to talk or even spend money on / for somebody who has a black face, with an aura that says "I rather be anywhere else but here"? huh? who???? no one. yeap. so smile when you approach them, smile when you are talking, just smile.
3) Eye Contact. Extremely important factor. And one of the most difficult ones. C'mon you really have to have, MUST MUST HAVE eye contact with the person you are talking to. Look at me. O.O LOOK!!!!!!! okies :D You did it! You looked! Haha kidding. But really must have eye contact. It gives off the feel "I know what I'm doing. I'm not scared of you". One smile secret. If really really cannot stare into eye, look at fore head, or nose, or pimple on forehead. :D
4) Know what you are doing. Ask yourself, what are these heart pins for? What do they represent? Where does the money go to? What is the condition of the patients we are helping? Why should they donate? How to make someone donate more than the original price of $1? What if someone says, "Aiya don't want larh!!!!! $1 for just this cheap little thing?! I also can make!!!!" (**speaking of this, please take note. each and everyone heart pin was hand made painstakingly and with love and love and love, and sweat and soul.**) If you still are ermming and ahhing to these qns. *cough* abit difficult yeah? So go find some answers! Share with your friends your answers and learn some from them!
5) Talk clearly, which is related to point 4. you must know what you are doing in order to be able to talk clearly. Treat thurs as oral practice. ARTICULATE EACH AND EVERY WORD CLEEARLLLLY. quite difficult to sell if you are like "mmhhm,.yeah,,.,.,. the heart pins. mhmhmhm. please donate..mhmh."
6) Emotional hook. grab onto their heart strings and pull them. hard. make them feel so touched and touched about the project. *yeap, make them cry.* Cmon. We are talking about these poor people that are going to pass away soon, and about giving them comfortable last days. Pull out your puppy eyes and attack!
7) Mass Purchase. Most of the customers you have would be office people. So try and convince them to buy for their colleagues too. Or get them to wear it and see how they can help to promote it to their own customers/ get colleagues to come down and buy. Or basically, just get that customer that you just managed to capture the attention of, and get that person to buy as many as possible.
8) What should you do if you screw up? It's ok, just take it as a learning experience. bear in mind that you might meet them again, and think about how you should approach them if you meet them again.
9) Do not go into MRT stations and Shopping Centers. We need permission for that and we don't. But notice i said into, hahahaha. which means. hehe. you can be outside these places. Well, until the security guard chases you away.....
I leave you with something to remember. That time i was doing flagday, and was hesitating whether to go up to this guy, but did in the end. and he said "You guys (me and my partner) should learn to APPROACH people, and not just stand there." Well, theres it. So no matter if that person is a hot girl hot guy ugly girl ugly guy old fat short thin. just go up and approach *him/her*, cus you never know who is the next person that will donate.
Ohyeah, and give a pat on the back to yourself to those who managed to finish my essay :DDDDD hahahaha. not bad right?
Update: All official letters (CIP HOURS) will be mailed to the volunteer after the street sales. Do print them out by yourself and pass them to your teacher.
Have Fun on thurs!
Hearts,
Fireflies