Understanding how to sell on the street is not the easiest thing to do, but if you're a new business and you have a small product that you want to get out there, sometimes street selling can be everything you need it to be. You don't necessarily have to have a market stall to be able to do this, but as long as you have local government permission and you can pop up a stand anywhere, then you can capture the ear and the eye of the public. Knowing how to make those sales and close them is important, so let's read on and find out those street sales tactics that work.
- Make playing easier. One of the biggest issues for sellers on the streets is trying to get people to pay for a product. The reason is because cash is not as prevalent as it used to be and people will often pay by card for everything – Apple Pay, Android Pay – using a contactless card reader for your phone can help you to get those sales that you need and not have to worry that people don't have cash. If you have the option for people to pay by card, you're going to find it much easier to close the sale.
- Give a free trial if you can. If you have options to allow people to feel, touch, or even use the product that you're selling, you're going to have a much better chance at converting people into customers. Free trials allow people the chance to have confidence in what you're selling. So if what you're selling is food, have free samples available for people to try before they buy. You also need to have a little bit of confidence in your product yourself so that when you're selling it, people can see that it's a great option.
- Get people to do you a favor. If someone does a favor for you, they're much more likely to do another because that's consistent with what they think about you. Benjamin Franklin said that. Asking the customer to hold the product for you while you search in your backpack, for example, can give them a chance to touch it, which allows them to have a small free trial of what they're doing. Let's say you're selling something that's physically very nice to touch. You can then loop it back into being friendly and establishing a trusting relationship if you've already engaged the customer in a conversation. Asking them to hold the product while you get something from your bag is going to help them to feel more connected to the product and be more likely to go through with the sale.
- Time it right. When was the last time you bought something on the street? Most people will try to negotiate or barter with a street seller because bargaining is intrinsic to that environment. You can quickly discount any prices, so if you've got your product set at $5, Telling people that it starts at $7.00, but today you'll give it to them for $4.50 will help them to feel like they're getting a great bargain. Something as simple as that can make a big difference in the way that you sell your product, and it can also hook the customers in quickly.
- Show them something they don't expect. Someone walking down the road on a Sunday afternoon is often yearning for entertainment, but they don't necessarily want to be accosted by somebody selling. However, if you could entertain while you are informing them in your sales pitch, then you're going to be able to entice people and make them feel like they have no other option but to buy from you if they want to have a good day.
- Show social proof. One of the best things that you can do if you want to be a street seller is to show that other people love your product. If you have social proof in the form of social media reviews or any other eager people who have bought from you before, then you are going to be able to sell more. If you can snag a group of customers and tell them all about your product and one of them buys, the rest of the group is likely going to buy as well. Your charisma and your charm is going to come into play here.
Whether you are in the early days of your business or not, street sales tactics are going to work.
