By Toni Hetrick
In the last blog post, I covered some helpful tips to make you look like a pro at vendor events. I hope you enjoyed it. If you missed that post, you can find it here. While writing that particular post, I felt like I could go on for a while with one specific topic. I then decided to make a separate post for that topic alone, to provide more detail as I feel it’s been a prevalent part of my business growth. What I’d like to discuss further is greeting and communicating with your potential customers.
This is a small setup for my Frugal Fashionista, however this was our first time attending Wine Down Weekend in Huntingon, PA. Next year will be much bigger.
In the event that you are new to my page, I’d like to give you a little background on myself. I am Toni Hetrick, aka The Frugal Fashionista. I have had my own business for close to 14 years. I do not have a brick and mortar storefront. The majority of my years in business, my sales have been, from what I refer to as “vendor events”. These are small local events, most often held at churches, community centers, fairgrounds, convention centers, etc. I wish I would have kept count over the years as to how many I’ve attended but unfortunately, I didn’t.
I would, however, consider myself a seasoned veteran of such events. I have attended SO many, and have taken away a great deal of knowledge and observations. Over the years my business has grown to now include a website, social media accounts, and a blog, all while continuing to attend vendor events. Not that this is a detailed background, but I feel a little better sharing that with you so that I have less chances of someone saying, “who does this lady think she is???”, and “how does she know???”.
Now onto the topic at hand….. I have found that simply greeting an approaching customer and finishing with a smile makes a world of difference. For the longest time, I didn’t want to jump on a customer as soon as they approached my area, fearing that I would make them uncomfortable and they wouldn’t want to stop at my booth. I’m sure many of you have encountered a very pushy salesperson at one point or another. You might as well spray some sort of repellent on me with those tactics. Nope, nope, nope! Instead, I found that there are people who are comfortable asking questions and then there are people who aren’t. You just need to create a friendly environment where people know they won’t be attacked.
I experimented at one event where it seemed to be a common thread that people were just milling around. Not really shopping. I decided to try to talk to every person that passed my table in a non-aggressive way. I would say, “Hello, how are you today”. From this, people would look up, make eye contact and usually respond with, “Fine and you?” My response was usually, “I’m great. Let me know if you have any questions”. I’m pretty sure the conversation could not be any more simplistic. This approach made a significant difference. I greeted them, but also allowed them to not be bothered and pressured into purchasing something. I could not believe the number of people that then stopped, looked at my merchandise and continued to carry on a conversation.
I felt as though I had discovered magical powers. In just a few seconds’ time, I was able to make a person feel comfortable and relaxed enough to stick around for a while. Even if they don’t purchase anything you now have the opportunity to introduce yourself, your company and everything that you offer. This is huge! Marketing is expensive, so why not do as much as you can with words and in-person interaction for FREE?? I believe that this impression lasts longer than a Facebook Ad that you scroll past, wondering how in the world that got into your feed. A greeting costs nothing. You have nothing to lose but perhaps an awkward moment once in a while when someone doesn’t respond to your greeting. Perhaps give this 10-second tactic a try at your next event and let me know what you experience. As always thank you for visiting the blog. Comment below if you would be interested in more blog posting such as this one, with helpful tips for a new business.