What can we do to boost sales?

[Wildcrafter]

Laugh, Be Fun and entertaining. This Works mostly if you are selling face to face. I've been doing craft shows for 15 years, and the best wisdom i can impart to everyone is. BE happy. I did a show in december where the other 50 vendors at there made barely( or less) than their booth fee ($25) my sales were over $3000. People like to buy from happy people. Not someone who is sitting behind a table glaring and not paying attention to their customers. Laugh, Talk, share Jokes.. I chatter constantly at my booth, and i joke about the fact that i do so.. who would you rather buy from, someone who is sitting in their booth doing a crossword, reading a booking, working on stuff for "the next show" or someone, who looks you in the eye and says " Hi, how are you today?".. Don't ask in they want to smell a candle.. say. "this is an awesome fragrance, you gotta smell it" don't shove it in the nose. Just Put it in smelling distance. Focus less on the selling element and more on showing off how much fun your products are.

When people see your passion for the items that you sell, in a more relaxed , fun environment, they are much more likely to buy. And Yes, that's why i am still online at 2am.. I just finished my work for the day. A new wholesale customer ordered 500 candle pies that i have to finish my Thursday.. A SMILE and Laugh work wonders..

Very good advice. I do the same thing. I can be at a show where there are 6 or 7 other vendors selling the same thing I do and I generally come out ahead because the customers have fun in my booth and I make it a happy place to come to. I compliment people, chat them up and generally make things fun WITHOUT hovering over them and getting in the way of my own sales! By the way....I don't have a chair in my booth. I'm there to sell, not relax. I can relax when I get home. I have a roof to keep over my head, KWIM??

Vendors who let their frustration, anger, etc of their lack of sales show on their faces and attitudes won't make sales. They are bringing it on themselves by putting out a bad attitude to people. I know I don't want to go into a booth where people are sitting in chairs so low they are almost laying on the ground, or where they are griping about lack of customers, sales, or even worse, griping about other vendors!!!!

I don't have the time to worry about what other vendors are doing. It's none of my business and doesn't do me any good. I am helpful, polite to the fair directors, keep a tidy booth and am invited year after year with very good booth placement. It's all about attitude.

[adillenal]

Mine may sound silly but I raise dairy goats and make goat milk soap and lotions. The goats are my marketing ploy. I have a "special" goat's picture on all of my labels and I talk to customers about her as if she were a real person. Chloe this and Chloe that. I have repeat customers that always ask how Chloe is doing and others that tell me to be sure and let Chloe know that they bought her next bale of alfalfa hay. I display 8x10's of her in my booth so it gets to be very personal. At least it is a way to engage people in conversation and get them to stop and sniff without trying to sell them something. They often buy when they stop and look.

I offer 3 fers on bars of soap and foamer bottles of liquid soap. I have not tried the buy 4 get one free but I might try that on a "Chloe's" choice at my next show.

I have a special item for each show that "Chloe" wants to promote. It is her new favorite scent or color or texture. My cusomers (rural) seem to enjoy the banter about Chloe. If they don't seem interested I just smile and tell them to sniff all they want cause sniffing is free. I also enjoy my face to face shows. I feel like I am on stage for the day. I do have a tall stool that I lean on mostly since I have an ankle injury. But I am never sitting in a low chair behind my table.

Another technique is to get out in front of the display and arrange and rearrange stock. Seems to make people stop for whatever reason and I can chat when I am out almost in the aisle. If it is really really slow, I knit washcloths or crochet bath poufs. This also draws attention as I get people stopping to see what I am making and I can lay it down on the table quickly. I even keep extra copies of my free off the internet patterns and hand them out if someone expresses an interest in making their own. I just make them cause I can't do nothing with my hands if it is SLOW. And I can only rearrange stock for so long.

BUT this is a hobby business for me. I work fulltime and my business is probably as big as it can be at this time. I am doing more business than I did last year. I also keep plenty of soap samples in ziplocks with a business card. The soaps are about guest bar or hotel size and I do get some business from those. People usually won't turn down a free soap sample. I also have fullsize lotion bottles with pumps for testers. I go through a lot of lotion on show days but I secretly smile when I see them coming back to buy a bottle after they see how their hands feel. I encourage a lot of lotion testing.

[Wildcrafter]

I don't think that's silly at all. It's smart.

There's Tony the Tiger,

Snap, Crackle and Pop,

The honeybee for Honeycomb cereal....It's branding your products in a way that people can remember.

I used to make a Ruby Jean's Toe Tappin' Herbal Elixer that sold like hotcakes. Ruby Jean is my cat. I still make it, but just for my own use now. I didn't want to go that way in my business, so quit having it out for customers.