Richard Jones
11-18-2012, 11:11 AM
OK, Bernie's great day (woo hoo!!!) prompted me to jot down a lot of the things that I learned from doing my show a couple of weeks ago. If you have something, chime in.
1. take a comfortable chair
2. wear comfortable shoes
3. set out lots of business cards
4. displaying vertically will attract people from afar, with open racks or shelving, plus gives you more room and allows folks to see some things at eye level. Some shows allow this, some don't.
5. try to cover a wide range of price points. I sold quite a few spinning tops for $5, took orders for more. The kids really like them, and the kids are walking around with their parents. It's a good hook...........
6. capture as much information from people as possible, i.e., name, phone #, email. Email is really a good way to follow up on those that were walking the fence on an item.
7. take a change bag.
8. get a credit card reader for your smart phone.
9. get a Facebook page. My sales/interest has almost doubled since doing this. It really gets your name out there. Telling people to "like" you on FB is another good way to contact folks for follow up. If you have a website, push it.
10. Push yourself and your product, without being pushy. All hand-crafted items, made locally, etc. Telling folks a species that you turned that bowl from, like hackberry, will almost always evoke a response. They've never heard of it, or we had one on our farm, etc. (My wife really can sell ice to an Eskimo and I try to pay attention)
11. take some sandpaper, wax, finish and steel wool. Inevitably, something is going to get dinged up. Be prepared to fix it.
12. If you don't already have it, make & supply an artist's statement card with each piece you sell. One of my statement's is framed and sits on a table. Lots of folks are interested in this type of thing and they relate it to you and your pieces.
13. Everyone has a story to tell you: listen to them.
14. Make sure everything is priced! I use the removable colored dots for some pieces, string tags for others.
15. Take some water, gum, mints, crackers, etc.
I'm sure I'll think of others as soon as I post this..............
1. take a comfortable chair
2. wear comfortable shoes
3. set out lots of business cards
4. displaying vertically will attract people from afar, with open racks or shelving, plus gives you more room and allows folks to see some things at eye level. Some shows allow this, some don't.
5. try to cover a wide range of price points. I sold quite a few spinning tops for $5, took orders for more. The kids really like them, and the kids are walking around with their parents. It's a good hook...........
6. capture as much information from people as possible, i.e., name, phone #, email. Email is really a good way to follow up on those that were walking the fence on an item.
7. take a change bag.
8. get a credit card reader for your smart phone.
9. get a Facebook page. My sales/interest has almost doubled since doing this. It really gets your name out there. Telling people to "like" you on FB is another good way to contact folks for follow up. If you have a website, push it.
10. Push yourself and your product, without being pushy. All hand-crafted items, made locally, etc. Telling folks a species that you turned that bowl from, like hackberry, will almost always evoke a response. They've never heard of it, or we had one on our farm, etc. (My wife really can sell ice to an Eskimo and I try to pay attention)
11. take some sandpaper, wax, finish and steel wool. Inevitably, something is going to get dinged up. Be prepared to fix it.
12. If you don't already have it, make & supply an artist's statement card with each piece you sell. One of my statement's is framed and sits on a table. Lots of folks are interested in this type of thing and they relate it to you and your pieces.
13. Everyone has a story to tell you: listen to them.
14. Make sure everything is priced! I use the removable colored dots for some pieces, string tags for others.
15. Take some water, gum, mints, crackers, etc.
I'm sure I'll think of others as soon as I post this..............