Yesterday, while I was resting on a bench in a park next
to my apartment, a lottery seller approached me and invited me to
buy one of her tickets.
Each ticket costs only 10 cents, and you have a chance to
win up to $100,000 USD for the first prize.
Just so you know, in my country, there are two ways to
buy lottery tickets. The first is going to a store—similar to how
games like Powerball work.
The second, and more common way, is buying from street sellers who
walk around looking for customers.
The prizes are smaller (usually up to $100,000 for the top prize),
but people enjoy this method. When a seller approaches them, it feels
like a moment of luck—and that luck might turn into a fortune.
Her approach was simple and quick: she held a stack of tickets
and showed them to me with a friendly smile.
I didn’t have any cash on me, so I shook my head
to signal that I wouldn’t buy. I felt a
bit bad because I couldn’t buy one.
She quickly moved on and approached about ten more people using the
same method—just showing her tickets to others in the park, one after
another.
Then someone finally bought from her. The whole process took about five
minutes from the moment she started approaching people to when she made
the sale.
She didn’t mind rejection.
She knew that if she approached enough people, someone would eventually buy.
That’s the lesson I want to share with you: cold outreach works,
and sales is a numbers game.
By the way, I used Gmail to send the same message to
400 prospects—and two of them agreed to test my app.
Share your thoughts in the comments.