Selling to people in person is definitely a special sort of situation that you can't always prepare for. There's really no set of rules as to what works best, and sometimes customers are really strange. So it is mostly trial and error. I learn new tips and tricks each time I go, and I hone my display, as well as the way I interact with customers, basically every weekend. Half of the effort of selling at shows, I have discovered, is all a psychological game being played out in your own head, with the constant goal being to stay upbeat and positive no matter what. Which is not always easy! I am a naturally upbeat and positive person, especially in customer service situations (I totally used to rock the drive-thru at Chick-fil-A), so you would think that I would do great with this. Which I do--I find it so satisfying and so much fun to talk to people and to get to sell them the things that I have made.
Where it gets harder is when the hours between sales are starting to add up. Maybe you made a few small sales before noon, but now it's 3pm, and people are mostly just walking right by your table. You see the vendors to your left and right swiping credit cards and wrapping expensive jewelry items up in bags. "What about me?" you start to think. "Why doesn't anyone want to buy my jewelry?" At that point your mind is teetering on a delicate edge, and it can easily begin the downward spiral into convincing yourself that everything you have ever made is a piece of garbage and no one will every want to buy it, and what were you thinking when you decided to try to do this, and, well, so on. You get the picture, and it is not pretty. I have learned that you absolutely have to nip this in the bud--as soon as you get that first flash of "why not me," you have to immediately counter it with every positive mantra possible, like "My jewelry is beautiful, and people will be excited to buy it, just give it a little more time." Or "I am so happy for the other vendors who are making sales, I will be making many more soon," etc., and repeat. I have found that this can really work, and help shift you back to the land of positivity. Because the truth is that no one wants to buy anything from someone who looks depressed, desperate and/or angry. It's just not the energy that anyone really wants to be around. It sounds kind of silly, but it's true--people are attracted to positivity, and that is when you will make the most sales. Now I just have to remember this all the time for myself!
Anyway, this past weekend was my best one so far. I used to think that I shouldn't talk too much to customers, that it would chase them away. I thought it was better if I just sat making jewelry and let the jewelry sell itself. But my mind was changed when two friends of mine came to help out the other weekend and they started talking to everyone. It had been a really disappointing day up to that point, and my mind was doing a major drift into dark places. But once they started talking, people started buying. A lot. It was like magic as far as I was concerned. They were way more aggressive than it would ever feel natural for me to be, but I realized that it's ok for me to have my own style, and that I shouldn't be afraid to talk to customers. That it can only help. That the people it might chase away are people who weren't going to buy anything anyway. Or at least this is my working theory :) Watch me be proven wrong next weekend!
"Selling" is not something that comes naturally to me, but customer service does, so my style is more to say hi, and maybe introduce something about myself or the jewelry to the person. I end up getting to talk to lots of people and hand out lots of business cards, which feels really good and positive even when people don't buy. So I still end up feeling good in the end. Or do my best too, it isn't always easy! What customers will do can really be unpredictable. I've been doing this less than two months, so I can only imagine the stories people must have who've been doing this for decades!
Anyway, I'm trying to have fun with every aspect of this business as much as I possibly can. My natural inclination is towards putting a lot of pressure on myself to do everything perfectly and be wildly successful, but it's unrealistic to demand so much from the point of just starting out. So I'm trying new things--this weekend I put out some handstamped postcards, some wine charms, and some keychains (a few pictured on this post!). I just want to make things that I love, and hopefully some people will want to buy them. That, of course, is the ideal. To make lots of things that you love and that lots and lots of people want to buy. There is time yet for all of that to happen! I'm still in my first six months, after all. I heard a great quote from someone a few weeks ago at The Market about the importance of just "staying in the race" no matter what. I know there's something to that--that success is not just about talent or luck, but largely about persistence and determination, especially when the going gets tough. And that's exactly what I aim to do.
