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Idea

Cafes and restaurants where people practice their sales skills but also saying "no" to others

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Darko Savic

Darko Savic Jun 08, 2022

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Cafes and restaurants that double as training grounds for salespeople. Practice introductions, starting conversations, and selling stuff that people don't need. Also, practice saying no to others.
Why?
Many people find it difficult to say "no" to others. This place provides them with an environment where they can practice rejecting others in low-risk circumstances.
Practice selling things to people who don't need them. Since rejection is a likely outcome, prospective salespeople build resilience to it.
A training ground for people to learn how to approach, start conversations, and introduce themselves.
A place where people can perfect their sales pitches.
A way to meet new people and make friends.
How it works
A cafe/restaurant that doubles as a training ground for salespeople. Upon entry, you learn about the game and agree to play along. 
It's otherwise a normal place except that each table has a special chair, reserved for a drop-in "salesperson". Anyone can take that role to practice their sales skills. They join a table by taking the salesperson's chair and try to get people to buy something.
Rules:
Anyone can take the role of a salesperson and join any table. 
They have to leave upon being asked to do so.
The salesperson can try to talk their way out of leaving, but after being asked the third time, they must leave without further delay.
Salespeople can sell only products/services that are approved (or even owned) by the bar.
Products/services for sale
People attempt to sell each other only products/services that are approved by the bar. It might be stuff that the bar stocks on the premises. 
A prospective salesperson could choose anything from the list, familiarize themselves with it, then walk up to any table and try selling it to people.

sales skill development service ideas bars

1

Creative contributions

A park/garden where shy, anxious kids can practice talking to others

Oguntola Tobi

Oguntola Tobi Jun 08, 2022

I think a version of this idea will greatly help kids who are shy and anxious about talking to other people.
For obvious reasons, it cannot be a bar. So, maybe a park or a garden.
For this to work:
It is important that the child is interested in talking to others but doesn't have the capacity to start conversations for one reason or the other.
That the park has people (adults and children) who are kind, cautious, won't tease the anxious kids, and will actively engage them in conversations.
There is a form of motivation to make them participate and leave their comfort zone.
I was a very anxious kid who was mortified to speak to people, especially if they were older or of the opposite gender. I remember one time when my mum told me to ask one of my teachers who was her acquaintance a question. I walked up to her, said "Hi," and froze. Worse, I started trembling in front of her. Badly.
I did not overcome this fear until my late teens. And how did I do so? I made a decision to change. Then, I attempted to have a conversation with every stranger I came across.
I believe that's key here: increasing the number of conversations they have as a way of helping them get over their anxiety.

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Darko Savic

Darko Savic2 years ago

How would you prevent the kids from being subtly mean to each other? They can think it's amusing/funny to put others down. If a kid takes the risk to approach and is then shut down it can leave a lifetime of damage.
Side note, as an adult I found this to be the best training to overcome fear of speaking to new people 
the goal is to create opportunities where you are rejected in the worst ways, again and again until it starts feeling amusing. You can only do less bad from there until you start doing well:) Start with mandatory failure for at least the first 20 approaches. After that allow yourself not to suck.

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Oguntola Tobi

Oguntola Tobi2 years ago

Darko Savic The first step to ensuring that is to handpick the kids who are admitted into the garden. Teachers in schools know what their students are like. It can be like a network where they recommend the best behaved, kindest, and most empathetic kids to the people who run the park/garden after which they will get in touch with their parents and recruit them.
This video is hilarious, lol. I think it's super fun and would make a sense as a game amongst friends.

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Povilas S

Povilas S2 years ago

Darko Savic I recently had a very similar line of thought. Imagine a person whose very shy, but attempts to start a convo with a stranger for the first time, he/she picks a person, goes to them, and starts saying something, but then gets totally misunderstood and awfully rejected. He/she experiences a worst-case scenario from the first time and would likely never do that again and become even more closed.
But now imagine a couch who goes with that person and says look, I'll show you how to do it. The coach goes for the convo and experiences the same (just happens to stumble upon a very wrong person, despite having good skills in this). But instead of getting annoyed or upset, the coach is happy and confident, he/she explains to the shy person that it's actually a best-case scenario for teaching, cause it can only be better than this from now on (the coach then goes to a few more people and proves it) and that if you can take such situations constructively, that's all you need to become totally free to talk to anyone. All the shy person needs is that mindset to be able to do it on their own. 

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General comments

Aashi Agarwal

Aashi Agarwal2 years ago

If such a restaurant/bar/cafe were to exist and gain popularity, it might become a popular haunt among salesperson recruiters who could drop in to explore the unconventional yet entertaining way of scoring their next great hire. If not, they would just have a good time. So it will be a win-win situation either ways.

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Povilas S

Povilas S2 years ago

Can the salespeople sell their own products (if approved by the bar) or can they only sell the products that the bar has/provides?

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Darko Savic

Darko Savic2 years ago

Povilas S so as not to make the place spammy the products would either be nonsensical (used as game tokens), or they would be bar/restaurant-related where people would try to get others to order something they didn't plan on ordering.

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Miloš Stanković

Miloš Stanković2 years ago

One can argue that bars are already that. The men are selling themselves, and girls practice saying 'no'. 😁 I've also heard this argument being used to explain why there are more men in sales - that they are used to it more than women because that's how dating works. 
Also, this can be a bounty contender for Povilas' challenge. 

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Goran Radanovic

Goran Radanovic2 years ago

We need more places like this. I think it can be any venue, just a boardroom will suffice. I thought about toastmasters when I read this idea. It's a safe place to practice public speaking, and some meetings were held in boardrooms. One doesn't feel pressure to perform at their peak and can practice being themselves. That's what's it all about. 

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