Although I don't have a lot of vending/exhibiting experience under my belt, I was amazed when a "seasoned" exhibitor stopped at my booth at the recent Great Lakes Lighthouse Festival and lamated that he wasn't selling anything and people just seemed to pass by his booth. He couldn't figure out what was wrong. I told him I would have to get back to him on that one as I needed some time to gather my thoughts. Actually, I didn't want to hurt his feelings or make him angry with my response so I was just buying time.
Before I give the response I gave him, let me supplement it by saying that I am an extremely observational person and can watch people interaction at events, art fairs, craft fairs, shows, etc. During my perusals of various booths, exhibitors and/or vendors I would watch how they interacted with people, what those who were successful did, other than having top-notch wares to offer, and what they did not do.
That being said, I finally responded to the questioning exhibitor and told him what I had noticed and how that might be a reason for "no" sales. 1) he was either reading a book, 2) texting, 3) watching his small portable TV, 4) not at his booth at all and 5) did not interact with people any any form. I gently told him that people like to be noticed. Even if they don't stop at your booth, at least say hello, hope you're enjoying the show/event, or, if you have a basket filled with treats, "I have chocolate to give you energy to see the rest of the show." Reading, texting, watching TV, not being at your booth, or have someone relieving you so you can go eat, use the facilities, etc., or not interacting with the public gives them the impression you really don't care whether or not you sell anything. He was surprised at my information and informed me that unless people are going to "buy" he's not going to waste his time. My response was that if you don't get them to "stop," even if it's just to acknowledge your hello, you won't know if they're going to buy or not. Granted not everyone who stops at a booth is going to buy, but if you can get them to stop and look, not pressure them into a sale, ask how they are enjoying the show, etc. you may just get a sale out of it.
I acknowledged everyone that went by and even looked my way and managed to sell either my photography or my book to 4 out of 10 that came by. Now that's not record breaking by any means, but I did get sales and ended up having a very good show result. For me, taking an interest in the people seemed to make them feel important, and they seemed to appreciate the hospitality. If they didn't buy anything and just looked and chatted with me a while, I would thank them for stopping by and direct them to a booth that I thought might have what they were looking for.
The gentleman didn't agree with me, which is fine, and proceeded to keep doing what he was doing, and that was ignoring potential customers. Unless someone picked up an item, he would not even acknowledge their presence at his booth. He did very poorly at the show this year, I am sorry to say. Other vendors that I have become friends with over the years have told me that the energy and positive attitude I project is catchy and they have tried some different approaches this year and have done well.
Just had to proffer my two cents on the "why aren't I selling" question that I see pop up from time to time. You can have the perfect location, fantastic wares and perfect weather, but if you don't acknowledge/interact with potential customers, you could end up with an extremely poor result for all your hard work.
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Just my .02 cents here, no one on vacation wants to deal with a disgruntled artists.
So, make sure even if you're doing 3, 5, or 7 shows in a row that you have a little down time, even when there's s afull time job or lots of restocking to do. For us, 7 shows in a row in July and August, with a couple of days off to ride the local bike trails of wherever we happened to be worked wonders on our attitude. No, sales weren't perfect, but we could talk about how much fun we had riding in Richland WA along the Columbia River or riding the trail of the Coeur d’Alene’s in ID and our customers could relate, even if their chosen sport was something other than biking. Relax, slow down, enjoy our very short summer season and make the most of the time we had enjoying the sunshine. So many of our customers for our summer road trip shows were from Western WA. ; like us, they could understand our total enjoyment and enchantment with real summer weather, they lingered longer in our booth, asked about our next shows and in some cases when they realized we wouldn't cross paths with them again in 2011 it inspired them to buy at that time rather than waiting.
Others have already emailed us regarding our fall schedule, waiting to buy their holiday gifts until the season was cloaser, you just have to realize that everyone has their own specific buying time and while it might not fit on the schedule you wanted, being positive and full of energy helps ensure it will come over time. We have our biggest fall show coming up in less than 10 days and some of our favorite customers are already emailing us with questions, special orders and requests. Ready or not!!
I comepletly agree that you will sell your stuff better if you project a happy positive image and engage the public as it walks by.
This summer, I did 5 shows in a row while working during the week. I do not reccomend that! As the weekends progressed, I got more fed up with setting up, taking down, talking to stragers, the heat, not seeing my friends, not getting enough sleep, etc. And so I became a bit more cranky every weekend. As one would imagine, my sales really did suffer. The last show I did in that lump was one that I had done really well at the year before. This year, 3 sales...
Moral of the story is to make sure you take some breaks in your schedual so you can be bubbly and talk to people!
I agree with Debra. My best many-times-repeat customer did not buy anything from me the first year she came to my booth, but we had a nice conversation, and my work apparently made enough of an impression on her that she thought about it during the year. Since then, she attends every show that I do in her area, and in addition to buying, she stays in the booth for half an hour and gushes over everything and interacts with other customers, which is great for other sales. Just think of every person who comes in as a potential future customer, even if they don't buy from you immediately. Another customer - bought from me at one show, but when she came to another show, I was talking to another customer and didn't get to do anything but say a quick 'hi' when she came in. She left without buying. When she showed up at a third show, I did make a point to talk to her, and she bought something that time. I am a shy type of person and by nature, don't want to feel like I'm 'bothering anyone', but if I can force myself to perk up and run my mouth about anything, it generally helps sales.
Even if the customer dosen't buy from you this year. He or she will leave with a positive feeling about your work and possibly come back to buy. It never hurts to have a good attitude and enjoy yourself while you are there. If they are not interested in your work ,they may know someone who is. Give them a card and information about your work. We all could benifit from some free advertizing!!!
I have meet some wonderful people over the years and would not trade that for anything. We all need to take time to meet someone new and maybe, just maybe make a good friend while we are at it! I try to treat everyone as I would like to be treated.
Bill, I stand corrected. My statement that art didn't sell itself any more, is rather a sweeping statement and you're right, some work still will sell itself (but perhaps not as much of it?).
I have been around sales all my life - my dad was a consumate salesman (even though he never worked as one) and is one of those people that as the saying goes, could have sold ice to the eskimos - and my brother has the same gift. I'm NOT as gifted, but I obviously picked up a bit of the gift of the gab and always did OK. I found Bruce Baker when I started to sell my own jewellery and so much of what he suggested made sense that I implemented it (even though I found some of it difficult to do) and certainly saw my sales increase. Although I'm sure he isn't the be-all of sales for everyone, he sure improved my bottom line. In his Customer Service CD he talks about greeting, stepping back and then waiting for "permission" to start selling (which is when the talking comes into play). Perhaps it would be worth a listen to if you haven't already?
Congratulations to anyone who can figure this out. There have been times when Ann and I were trying to read the paper before the show opened and kept getting interrupted by people wanting to buy stuff. There have been shows where I've felt as if I weren't being interactive enough with a booth full of people. In one such case I made it a point to get up, intermingle, straighten pictures on the wall, etc. In about thirty seconds the booth was empty. Then when I sat down the booth slowly filled up again. It varies from show to show and others have noticed this.
I have seen people casually looking at one of my pieces and started talking with them because I felt like it at that time. In some of these cases they wind up buying when they otherwise would not have.
A good friend of mine drives me nuts by sitting in the back of his booth reading stereo catalogs while outselling me two to one. I think it's the work that sells. I usually try to break the ice by encouraging questions if they should have any. Then I leave them alone to browse.
The most interesting sales have been for pieces costing several hundred that a customer will look at for a moment then buy it without question.
It's all a mystery.
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