This blog marks the first of a series of lessons from The Vendor Academy.

"TOP 10 SELLING MISTAKES Event Vendors Make in the First 10 Seconds of Engaging Shoppers"

It's so sad to see vendors scare away potential customers without even realizing what they're doing wrong. Some make passive mistakes, like waiting for the shoppers to ask questions. Others pounce aggressively onto shoppers, making them feel uncomfortable and pressured. 

Neither passive or aggressive selling works very well in a fast paced marketplace. You need a systematic tried and tested method for quickly converting casual browsers into paying customers.

Are you tired of being ignored?

Not getting enough attention from shoppers is quite discouraging.

We've all seen wonderful displays full of amazing products, get lousy customer response.  By the end of the day, many vendors have long faces from worrying about their low profits.

Before I teach you how to grab attention, let's first remove some of the barriers that typically block vendors from enjoying an abundant flow of sales.

MISTAKE #1 ~ Initiating Contact with Wrong Greetings

PART ONE ~ Controversial Things Vendors Should NEVER Say or Do, plus Reasons Why Not.  

• WHAT NOT to say to shoppers
• WHEN to make the first move
• WHAT selling skills are needed.  

Most vendors dread the idea of pitching their products or services to people. so they default to blurting out friendly greetings. It's almost as if they don't want to be recognized as a seller, even though to make sales is the only reason why they're greeting shoppers in the first place. 

Never say "Hello. How are you?"   

This greeting might turn heads for a split second, but only long enough for them to quickly say "Hello" back, and keep moving.  It takes about 3 seconds for somebody to walk past a 10 foot booth. Don't waste your first chance to interrupt their forward momentum, and a great first impression.   

Never go fishing without a sales hook.

Would you rather hook paying customers or make friendly small talk with just any random person? Make sure your hook is loaded with the right bait, to get the right reaction,  from the right people.  A well crafted question is your bait on your sales hook.  

Never ask wrong questions.

Potential customers will only bite your bait, if they can easily answer your questions without any processing or brain searching. 

Browsers rarely know what they want, so definitely don't ask them that.  People can be so over stimulated and overwhelmed by a lot of signage that they might not even know what you're offering. 

It's the vendors job to 'show and tell' shoppers what they might want to buy. Eighty percent of my customers purchase what I choose for them. They appreciate how much I reduce their burden of making decisions for themselves.

Questions also weed out people who would occupy your time and space for nothing. A home repair service man might ask "Are you planning any home repairs soon?". If the answer is no, then have a nice day. 

Curiosity caught the cat.

Make sure the first sentence you utter makes people want more. You might say "I have something that would look great on you."  Very few adults can resist taking a closer look.  

Never compliment what they're wearing.  

Over the years, I've lost a good number of sales simply because I verbally admired somebody's outfit.  Now I bite my tongue and resist the urge to say things like “Those are cool boots you're wearing”.  

Complimenting can be powerful if done in the right way, but not worth the risk if you don't know how. With that said, I slip complementary descriptive words into my script about the person I’m giving a demo to. The nuance between complementing  and saying complementary things, is slight, but elicits completely different reactions. 

There are so many psychological reasons why compliments often backfire that I'll  write an exclusive 'members only' blog entirely on just this subject for my students at The Vendor Academy of The Village To Vendor Pipeline.  

For the public, here’s a short list a few things to consider. 

1. Compliments can make a person less interested in what you're selling, and more satisfied with what they already have. 

2. Compliments are not graciously accepted by everybody, and cause many people to shy away.  

3. Compliments can seem disingenuous and manipulative making people guarded and suspicious instead of trusting.  

4. Compliments can divert attention away from your products, instead of building curiosity and interest in them. 

How should vendors greet shoppers? 

This is a trick question. Vendors should not say greetings at all, unless they really want to be rejected. Greeting shoppers is a big mistake. Let's skip all the friendly casual time consuming and meaningless small talk and dive straight into the sales hook. 

Now that you know a few things vendors should never say or do, you might like to join our membership community for part two of this lesson. 

MISTAKE #1 ~ Initiating Contact with Wrong Greetings

PART TWO ~ Unconventional Things Vendors Should ALWAYS Say and Do, plus Reasons Why.  

• HOW to make the first move
• WHAT 'magical' words to say
• Brainstorming Scripts
• Practicing Selling Skills
  

After this lesson, members of The Vendor Academy are able to say things that

• Make a great first impression.
• Inspire people to stop and shop.
• Cause shoppers to smile, and thank them profusely.

START FREE FIRST LESSON HERE

DON'T MISS MY UPCOMING BLOG ON MISTAKE #2 of the series. 

Also visit our Free Resource Page for the newsletter called 'Monday Morning Messages'. The 'Topics of the Week' include 'Weekday Webinars and Workshops'. 

Until next time, feel free to comment in our Global Q & A Discussion Forum.   

Be Inspirit ~ Stay Inspired

By Miss NebSa aka Sylvia NebSa Harmon,

'The Vendor Academy' training coach at 'The Village To Vendor Pipeline'.