by Bruce Baker

Busy-ness Means Business

There are essentially three behaviors you can assume in a booth. Sitting down, standing up or being busy. … The best behavior to increase sales is being busy in your booth. It is not as easy as it sounds — the entire effort actually requires some practice. But it is well-worth it.

 

Illustration by Larry Knox

Staying busy between your last sale and your next potential customer sends positive messages. Cleaning up after a sale, dusting your shelves or your work, and pricing or rearranging objects are all positive ways to keep busy … and your booth tidy.

These busy behaviors send the message that you care about the customer, your work and your image. These activities project energy and enthusiasm for your work and the process of selling it. This is an important message to send to potential customers.

However, this is not the primary reason to stay busy in your booth. When you are busy between sales, your behavior relieves the pressure that customers sense when you are just standing there; the pressure of your presence has been greatly reduced, and it is easier for you to get involved with the customer.

When you are busy, you are active, and the transition from being busy to being involved with your customers in conversation is seamless. If you are just standing there, you are being passive. When you transition from the passive to the active mode, it creates pressure, and many customers will shut you down by saying they are “just looking.”

Sitting ain’t so pretty
To explore this further, let’s go through the most common behaviors exhibited in a craft booth. The first (and unfortunately the most common) is sitting. Sitting is the most passive stance you can take in a craft booth. It looks like you don’t care, that you are tired, that nothing is happening, or all of the above.

Don’t just stand there either …
Standing is better than sitting, but it is still not enough. Standing shows that you are interested in your work, your customers,
and are ready to do business, but it comes at a price. When we stand up, we are no longer passive. This active stance (standing) now has a hint of implied pressure. This discomfort of standing idly by, watching your customers, sends the message that you are going to pressure them into buying something.

You’re too busy to pressure them
Being busy (doing nothing in particular) relieves pressure potentially felt by customers, and creates energy and enthusiasm that leads to sales. But it takes practice and experience to use this method to its fullest advantage. Often exhibitors take this advice too far and get too busy or display the wrong behavior.

Here are a few examples:
• Do not read. This is worse than sitting. It says to the customer, “Don’t bother me.”
• Do not work on your tax return. This says, “I don’t have time to be here!”
• Do not work intently at your craft or demonstrate. Your mission moves from selling your work to educating the public.
• Do not talk about non-related business. This says “I don’t want to be here.”

Learning to sell
I believe a craft artist from Missouri put it best when she said to me, “I have taken your workshop and bought your tape, and this is what I learned: First I learned not to sit, and my sales increased. Then I was just standing there, so I learned how to be busy, and now I know how to sell.”

Frequently, when I finish a workshop, someone (usually a person who spends most of their time at a craft show sitting in a chair) will ask me, “Do you mean to tell me that when I am at a show I need to dust, price and rearrange my work all day long?” I answer by saying, “No! As soon as you start to dust, price and rearrange your work, someone will start to talk to you (or you to them). It is like magic!” Give it a try, and keep practicing. You will find the delicate art of being busy will work for you too.