Staging the sale

Two weeks ago I was at the Farmers Market in Mountain View. There was one stall where a person was selling balloon arts. It was interesting to watch him create characters out of balloons. He was quite successful at what he was doing (in terms of business) as there was a big queue of kids waiting for their turn.

selling-balloons1

One simple twist to the whole thing was the setup. Here is what I observed. Not only was the stall VERY big for what he was doing,  he had set the stage extremely well. Around the stall, he had placed two dozen small chairs ready for small children to sit and watch as he creates those balloon characters. This was probably the “killer app” for the show. I saw at least two dozen kids glued to their chairs. Of course their parents were behind them.

I am sure many of those kids sitting and watching became his customers.

This is a simple example of “staging the sale” – making it easy for prospects to engage without the pressure to buy and then finally get them emotionally involved and transition them from “prospects to customers”

Lessons to be learned everywhere 🙂