sales-ology for artists

July 14, 2008 1:12 PM

I've been hanging out with my wife and her booth partner at a handmade goods market they sell at each week. It's pretty typical stuff, jewelry, crafts of various kinds. They also go to art festivals on occasion to sell their wares. We've been discussing sales techniques that could help them out. I'm wondering if there is such an animal: sales techniques for the artisan seller?

The long explanation is that it seems to me that any sales situation could be improved with some basic sales behaviors.

We're talking about a fairly typical crafts market where people are browsing past rows of booths with hand made items for sale. Maybe 1 in 40 or 50 people will stop and look at the items for sale and that's where the selling needs to begin.

I've talked to them about NLP modeling, and about other sales concepts I know of. I'm not a salesperson, just done some reading about the techniques involved.

They aren't resistant exactly, but they don't want to do anything remotely like high pressure sales. They think that people find what they want and either buy or not regardless of what the seller might say or do outside of being friendly and attentive.

It seems to me that basic sales-o-logy 101 could make a substantial impact on the bottom line. What information might help out, as in techniques, training, URL's and what have you?

Or maybe it is just a situation where the buyer finds what they want and there's no much else to be done to influence the sale. In any event, I'd like to know what the hive-mind comes up with.

posted by diode to work & money (18 comments total)

People like to watch demonstrations of artisan skill. Can one person manage the main sales part of the booth, while the other maintains a small, but highly visible workbench in the rest of the space, where passersby can stop and watch a small subset of crafts being assembled?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:23 PM on July 14 [1 favorite]

Demonstrations and a snazzy booth display/design will get your booth more attention. Think along the lines of display techniques that are outside of the box. That, and craft shows tend to be mostly the same thing (e.g. knitted items, or jewelry, or chain maille depending on the show and the area) with a few new, interesting, or different crafts interspersed. Wares different than 50-90 percent of the other booths will attract potential buyers, usually.

Oh, also, specials of the buy-2-get-one-free variety seem to help.
posted by alpha_betty at 1:33 PM on July 14

Ditto the crafting demonstrations-- those have definitely been a huge draw at craft fairs I've attended. Along similar lines, many successful sellers I've seen provide (nicely designed) placards giving extra information about the work for sale-- history of the craft, interesting trivia or details about the creation process, biographies of the artisans, etc. Anything you can do to pique someone's curiosity and get them interested in the process will make them likelier to stop at your booth.
posted by Bardolph at 1:34 PM on July 14

Personally, I avoid craft booths where I detect any hint of formalized salesy-like behaviour from the seller as I feel the link between a craftsperson and their creations is linked so closely that if I reject the goods, I'm rejecting the person who made them*. It makes me very uncomfortable and is diametrially opposed to the whole relaxed art festival atmosphere I'm seeking.

The thing that I've found most useful from craft booths is a color postcard or flyer showing a few representative samples of their wares and a phone number or website where I can place a mail order as I often go home and then decide I should have bought that item. This goes double for anyone selling something large or unwieldy.

*Contrast this to going into say...a Best Buy (ugh, but it's a staple place to encounter sales techniques). If I choose to not to buy a Sony, it's nothing personal with the salesguy, it's because the BB price isn't good enough.
posted by jamaro at 1:36 PM on July 14

I hate to admit it, but the way merchandise is displayed and presented at festivals has a huge impact on my interest in buying. The "Ooh! Shiny!" factor is huge. Booths with high-quality table covers, clever jewelry displays and creative decorations are much more appealing than those that offer a bunch of beaded stuff thrown down on top of an old tablecloth. Plus, decorating her booth is creative and totally non-sales-y.
posted by junkbox at 1:36 PM on July 14

Well, I'm not sure exactly what you're after here as your question is a little broad, are you looking for specific techniques, hard numbers or general salemanship guidelines? Anyway, here's my 2 cents worth of jabber, as this is the internet, and it's what we do here. I don't have any written theories, but I did learn the mechanics of selling over a few summer jobs in showrooms and dealerships and I've carried some of that over into the art/craft fair world and here are two things I've found make all the difference: 1) make eye contact and greet people walking by, this gives them an excuse to stop and 2) when they respond tell them you'd be happy to answer any questions they have, which will 2 times out of 5 make them ask a question, and then you can turn on the charm. Other good ideas: Get the work into their hands, people will be less likely to walk away once they've touched something, if you play an instrument or can work on your art/craft at the fair, this is a plus, it'll help build a crowd and then you can talk to them. While this isn't anything any bowtie wearing salesman couldn't tell you himself, a lot of art/craft people tend to sit and nod in their booths and then wonder why the world passes them by. I have no hard numbers, but I tend to make more when I use these steps than when I don't. So in summation, you don't have to turn on the hard sale, but anything that opens the interpersonal communication channels will definitely help you, in my experience.
posted by 1f2frfbf at 1:39 PM on July 14

This is not sales 101, just things that have made me buy more stuff at craft fairs:

-Having a story about materials - reclaimed stuff, purchased on vacation, etc.
-Cute packaging goes a long way if I'm shopping for gifts
-Perceived discount for multiples - like if necklaces are $15/each or $25/two, I'll almost always buy two, or look for another item. If I'm buying at a flea market, I'll haggle, but I don't like to haggle when someone's creativity is involved, as I worry it comes across as disrespectful. Pricing like this indicates to me that it's OK.
-The person at the booth has an engaging personality. I find it hard NOT to buy something once I've chatted for a minute or two.
posted by ferociouskitty at 1:41 PM on July 14

I do craft fairs, though with my current full time job I had to cut down to only once a year. Still, I've always improved sales year after year, and I always make more than enough to be profitable.

The first thing to be aware of is booth design:

1. Always have stuff at different levels. It breaks up the table surface visually and keeps stuff in the back from getting lost. Some people do the PVC thing and have merchandise displayed overhead as well as on the table. I prefer to use vertical pegboards and picture frames to show my wares. Plus, you get extra room when you go vertical and have a place to hide your hands when you need to pull out your wad of change without flashing ti around.

2. Always have prices prominently displayed on merchandise. Most people won't wait around to ask how much.

3. Keep like with like. Place similar items together. It increases the visual impact of the grouping as a whole. If you make lots of just one thing, group items by size or color. It will break up your table so instead of seeing one multicolored blob, they'll see lots of groupings and it will be easier for something to catch their eye.

4. Hold some stuff back. It's easier to look at a booth and know what someone is selling if they can see the outline clearly. A whole pile of purchases is harder to discern than a few artfully placed ones.

Next is merchandise:

1. Always make a variety of things at different price points. If you make purses, make wallets, too. People who are unwilling to shell out $70 for a homemade bag might happily plunk down $20 for a wallet that took 1/5 the time to make. If you go to the same craft fairs every year, you'll see that people will remember you. Plus, your wallet customers will be more likely to come back and splurge on a purse if they have a chance.

2. Boys go to craft fairs, too. Unless you're selling tampon cozies, it's not to hard to make things in more masculine colors and styles for the guys. It's really easy, just remove all ornamentation and make it black, brown or blue. Well, that's a little of an oversimplification, but the point is that there is almost nothing for men to buy at these craft fairs. I always sell out of my 'Man Bag' messenger bags within four hours. Even if men are in short supply at the craft fair, there are lots of people who will buy them as gifts or for themselves.

3. If you're having a hard time selling, expand your repertoire a little. Sometimes it's tough to find a niche. When in doubt make a few prototypes of variations on your current line. Customers have a way of letting you know that you're on to something.

Lastly, sales:

1. Say hello and make eye contact with everyone who looks at your booth. People are likely to stay longer and if they stay longer more people come over to look. It's the law of crowds.

2. Be careful about doing artisan demonstrations in your booth. Customers will feel ignored if you're concentrating on your craft and your partner is too busy to help them. Put down your tools if the crowd picks up and save the tinkering for the slow times.

3. Always have a website and business cards. Some people might not have enough cash at that moment or they might be waiting until their next paycheck to spend money. Give them an opportunity to buy outside of craft fair hours.
posted by Alison at 2:09 PM on July 14 [5 favorites]

My darling fiancée and I sell things at craft fairs as well, and Alison hits almost all the important points in my opinion.

Take it with a grain of salt - my darling and I have other unrelated full time careers, and for us this is a cash-positive hobby. When you factor in travel time, show fees, materials, production time and sales time, there's a decent chance a McDs worker earns more per hour than we do. So perhaps we're not the people you want to model yourself after. That said, here's the big things that have made a difference in our sales:

Merchandising: Multi-level displays are key. Stuff spread over a blanket on a table just looks sad and lacks visual interest. You can liberate milk crates or do what we did - go to a craft store and buy wooden carry/storage boxes with handles and spray-paint them black. You can put them under a sheet for a platform or set them on their sides facing out and put things in them, shadow box style.

Depending on what kind of jewelry they are making, something like a necklace tree might be a good idea. Making it easy for people to pick things up makes a big impact. Mirrors for people to look at themselves wearing the thing. Even if it's bracelets - when we're stationed next to people with jewelry - which we typically are since that's the most common thing at most of these markets - we have people walking over to look at themselves in their potential purchase all the time. We find it perplexing, but people like to see how that accessory looks in a big picture, so a mirror larger than a makeup mirror isn't a bad idea.

Payment method: If they don't take credit cards, they need to. ProPay is who we use - the discount rate isn't as good as you'd get from a proper merchant account, but the annual fee is way more attractive to a hobbyist than a monthly fee with a long-term commitment. Part of me hates to contribute to the instant-gratification economy, as a credit card hater, but it makes a tremendous difference in sales.

Booth layout: this is different than merchandising. you can lay your things out in the most pleasing manner in the world, but people are funny about things. They think like rats when it comes to confined spaces - don't expect them to step into closed areas with no way out. They also don't usually like being real up close to you while they look at things - they feel pressure even if you're the most laid-back person ever. Set up your table so people can see it without having to come into your area, but allow a little space for them to step in and be out of the flow of traffic. Don't sit tucked in under the table unless people can see everything you have REALLY quickly, since they will not linger if you're right there and they're not interested in talking to you about things.

Interactions: I suppose there may be all kinds of fancy ways to deal with potential customers to maximize sales, but we're not interested in them. The limit of my techniques is that I almost always say to people "let me know if you have any questions" and little else unless they engage. It was something I learned as a teen doing (commission-based) retail sales - you don't alienate people who want to ponder or people who want a personal connection. I found back then that people were far more likely to ask questions and engage if I opened the door wide like that and retreated slightly than if I was more specific or failed to slightly pull back.

Beyond that, the other thing we do is that we'll tell anyone anything about how we make things. A lot of people at the shows are protective of their techniques in a way that would make the Coke secret formula proud, but we figure that (1) having done our 100+ screwups our product is superior to what most people can make anyway and (b) the people who want to make it themselves have little intersection with the group of people who will buy something. We suppose someone else could run off with our methods and start competing with us, but unless they also have other jobs they'll starve to death before long and we'll have the field back to ourselves.

Seriously, people shop at these things because they like hand-crafted stuff and Meeting The Artist and all that other granola crap. They respond a lot better to guile-less artist person than someone who acts like they're in business, even if it's their bread and butter.
posted by phearlez at 2:55 PM on July 14 [2 favorites]

Perhaps a small offering of an inexpensive but tempting snack, e.g., chunks of watermelon on toothpicks when it's hot, a bowls of Hershey's kisses when it's not. Even better: a small paper cup of ice water or hot cider some where folks can help themselves while allowing you to engage with them.
posted by carmicha at 2:55 PM on July 14

Things that help me choose one place over another at craft sales:
Wants:
-if you're selling jewelry, having mirrors
-working on your goods on the spot: I like knowing that you actually made these and they didn't come out of a box from China. But like someone said above, put it down if there's a customer who needs you.
-even if you can't have a schnazzy booth (which it's nice if you do), make sure everything you do have is clean, well-lit, well-organized, and attractive.
-you don't have to be pushy, but please at least smile at people who are stopping by, and ask if they have any questions. People who don't get away from their partner or cell phone are annoying to deal with.
-make sure your prices are visible, or at least enough of them that I can get a feeling for whether I can afford/want to haggle on what you're selling. If there is no price, it's effort.
posted by whatzit at 3:07 PM on July 14

The etsy news section, The Storque, has articles on marketing and other topics for self-employed crafters.
posted by LolaGeek at 4:34 PM on July 14

Speaking of etsy, I like it when sellers have a store on etsy, and business cards, so I can shop later.
posted by acidic at 4:54 PM on July 14

I dread when the artist / craftsperson tries to sell me something.

No, in fact, most times if I get more than a greeting, I'll usually walk away. Why? I guess there's something personal about going to a craft / art show. I want to examine, relate to, and purchase something that fits me intimately. Once the creator starts to talk to me, the idealized form behind the object begins to fade.

So, no don't sell, please.

Instead try two things:

Great visual merchandising, and one or two well-placed, clever, yet yet functional items.

A great looking, smartly laid out booth with a couple of interesting gadgets will draw me in always.
posted by brandnew at 4:56 PM on July 14

This magazine covers sales techniques for craft businesses, as well as many much other craft business specific advice.

Maybe 1 in 40 or 50 people will stop and look at the items for sale and that's where the selling needs to begin.

I´m interpreting this to mean that you aren´t interested in uping the rate of people stopping to look, but I must surely be interpreting that improperly. They can get more people to stop at the booth.

Some general advice: stand instead of sitting at the booth, don´t read or eat lunch in view of customers when it´s slow. Smile. Get people into the booth. Don´t ignore customers once they are there, ask them if they would like to try it on, hang or hold up a mirror for them, tell them it looks wonderful, brings out the [color] in their eyes, ask if they would like the red one or the blue one, ask if you should wrap it up or they would like to wear it home.
posted by yohko at 5:00 PM on July 14

Just a single data point, but nothing drives me away from a booth faster than when the owner starts making a sales pitch or is otherwise getting in my face. My wife's the same way. There, that's two data points. We form a line.
posted by ook at 10:03 PM on July 14

etsy.com
posted by Texasjake987 at 6:35 AM on July 15

Okay, thanks all. I'll pass on your answers.
posted by diode at 12:30 PM on July 15