Small Business Big Profit

The idea of a Farmers’ Market is often almost as old as the ancient or even modern squares they take place in; for wherever someone allows a trading place such as a town square or village green people will use it for trading.

The active word here just in case you didn’t catch it is “trading” - or selling or doing business. The whole point about you taking a stall at a Farmers’ Market is to put you in front of an audience and to do some business with that audience.

You might be on your first pitch and looking for ideas or this might be your fourth year and you still want to make the most effective use of your trestle table stall.  The point is that you are paying a rent and need to turn a profit on the day’s events.

The first thing to remember is that you are uniquely different from shop based retailers who may re-sell the same type of produce as you, but do not make it themselves. Make this clear to your audience as they walk past.

So grab their attention.  Let them know that you are a farmer or a crafts person or a potter or a dyer.  Whatever you do let it show clearly from your stall.  Don’t sell home made candles and mix these in with home made cheese and cakes.  Be known for doing one thing and doing it well.

Now you have got them, you need to hold their attention.  Show them how good your offering is.  If you sell food you have produced, then have some tiny nibbles or delicious tasters on offer so you can chat and talk with people as they stand in front of your stall and enjoy what you have made.

Engage with them through your story.  I said before that you have something unique in that you are the producer of what you are selling.  Explain this and the benefits for them of dealing with you.  Talk about the sourcing of your food, animals, home baked produce, etc. 

Paint a visual picture in their mind of the farm or workshop where you produce it.  Have pictures protected in plastic that can show people the fields or the village or the rural scenes around your base of operations.  People love to know where their produce comes from so SHOW them.

Now you have educated them, told them your story and painted a picture, you need to help them buy your product. Do this through having a benefit for them that is so obvious and backed by such simple pricing that they cannot walk away without buying.  Use a “3 for 2″ type of offer, try a “This many for the price of this few” offer.  Make it simple to understand the extra benefit they get from you by buying today.  This might be in terms of volume or quality or long-lasting benefit or money-saving, etc.

All of the above points will help you to tell people who you are and help them as customers to buy on the day.  See another blog article about getting them to become closer to you so you have their permission to stay in touch and sell to them later.

Nick Sturgeon is a small business owner who has benefitted from the experiences of success, failure and financial recovery. The author of “Small Business BIG Profit” published by FT Prentice Hall, Nick writes and speaks from the heart about Risk, Reward and the Power of Personal Enterprise. nick@smallbusinessbigprofit.co.uk