This past weekend I attended the Hampstead Mothers Club Craft Fair to sell my pens and my girl friend’s mothers purses and gooey apples. I’d rather not say that we weren’t prepared, but we didn’t have a sign, business cards or any of the other marketing materials the other vendors had, however we were selling while other vendors were not. Here is how you sell without all that jazz.
Get the Buyers Involved: Gooey Apples: My first walk around the show had at least three other booths with similar candied apples ranging from $6-$10.50, ours were originally priced at $5. To separate ourselves from the competition, we pursued a sampling strategy for the apples which were a main focus to move because they only last for around a month. So we cut up our apples, handed them out to kids and parents, never denying a second sample and word spread throughout the fair. We were able to do this because of our volume, we had 100 our competitors maybe had a dozen similar products in inventory. We held our price for a while, but we did go for 2 for $8 and then for the last hour when it got quiet 2 for $6.
Getting the customer to taste our apples helped with selling, how can your product affect the customers through their senses.
Value is Perceived: The purses sold well too, perhaps second or third in the category of totes which was crowded. This was a perceived value play. The purses were really high quality (felted wool) and the customers knew that they had seen purses like these for much much more $.
Early Sales Outlets: The craft fair I attended and many are a ripe ground to secure some early sales for a product. The craft fairs are always looking for more new items, just make sure that you frame your product correctly in the application. These fairs and even flea markets are great areas to find some real feedback from unbiased consumers.
Make Sales: We were constantly altering our booth, presentation, changing prices and trying new strategies. We were talking to the people walking buy, but focused on making the sale. Many entrepreneurs / inventors that attend shows are much more passive, but getting people involved is exciting.
