Being there
Oct. 14th, 2019 04:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
offcntrOne of Clay Fest's (and indeed Showcase and Clayfolk's) best features is also its biggest potential flaw: The centralized check-out table. At all of these shows, you can pick up pottery from any booth and pay for it all at once, cash, check or card, at the sales table. One stop shopping.
It's a necessity for a show we run ourselves; everyone has at least two three-hour shifts to work, when we can't be in our booths. If we were responsible for our own sales, we couldn't do it.
It's kinda nice knowing you don't have to be in your booth all the time; you can go to the bathroom, stop to catch up with friends, swing by the demo to see just how big a pot Tea can throw. It's also tempting to just not come back; you won't miss any sales, right? They'll just take things away to check-out, and you'll get your check later. We all hate being sales-people. This way, we don't have to be.
Except, no. I really believe it makes a difference how much time you spend in your booth, greeting customers, answering questions, getting out restock (or checking your restock to see if you have the pot they'd like best). It sounds cliche, but people really are buying a relationship with the artist as much as they're buying the art. And I firmly believe an empty spot on the shelf is a missed opportunity.
This is why I'm so tremendously grateful to Denise. She minds the booth when I'm working the credit sales station, and we take turns during other parts of the show. Effectively, she works harder in the booth than I do, because I'm frequently on sales shift during the busiest times. I saw a stop-motion video of the first few hours of Clayfolk one year; I could just see into our booth, and she was moving like a hummingbird.
It's a necessity for a show we run ourselves; everyone has at least two three-hour shifts to work, when we can't be in our booths. If we were responsible for our own sales, we couldn't do it.
It's kinda nice knowing you don't have to be in your booth all the time; you can go to the bathroom, stop to catch up with friends, swing by the demo to see just how big a pot Tea can throw. It's also tempting to just not come back; you won't miss any sales, right? They'll just take things away to check-out, and you'll get your check later. We all hate being sales-people. This way, we don't have to be.
Except, no. I really believe it makes a difference how much time you spend in your booth, greeting customers, answering questions, getting out restock (or checking your restock to see if you have the pot they'd like best). It sounds cliche, but people really are buying a relationship with the artist as much as they're buying the art. And I firmly believe an empty spot on the shelf is a missed opportunity.
This is why I'm so tremendously grateful to Denise. She minds the booth when I'm working the credit sales station, and we take turns during other parts of the show. Effectively, she works harder in the booth than I do, because I'm frequently on sales shift during the busiest times. I saw a stop-motion video of the first few hours of Clayfolk one year; I could just see into our booth, and she was moving like a hummingbird.