The Daunting Comic Convention: Making the Sale

The last part of this series I talked about a hard seller. It was my feeling that hard selling is a broken method for a few reasons. Foremost was a quote from our neighbor at the last con "When people buy from me I love them, when they don't I hate them." Its treating people as a resource that you tap into and then throw out when its dry. Among this terrible perspective are a few other things that make hard selling simply terrible:

Fighting a hard seller.

1. Hard selling often works on pressure shame and guilt; these are the same things that have made Church so unpopular over the centuries. It pushes consumers away and doesn't invite people into your work, in addition most people are at conventions to enjoy themselves, not be slammed as "Bad parents" because they didn't buy their kids a book on comic history (True Story).
   
2. While there is not anything wrong with grabbing peoples attention, screaming at them and insulting them to pressure them to buy is counter intuitive. It works on a flawed concept. Pressuring people to buy comic book entertainment at a convention is yelling at a person in a grocery store to buy food when they are hungry. Screaming at them tends to just make them feel uncomfortable.
   
3. Finally you end up making yourself a Pariah; fellow sellers are going to not want a table near you, or want to work with you. You've made a name for yourself, but a bad one, and angry people who are losing sales because of you, then complaining to the convention managers could eventually get you banned from cons.

All this nonsense ends up alienating everyone! There are better ways, and they start with making a connection. Talking with people at cons might seem distracting to the major Ferengian goal of profit, but creating an impression is more important even than direct gain. The other gentleman made an impression, but it was a bad one-When a person talks badly about an experience they had at a store its likely to make them never visit the store again, its likely to make the listener choose to never visit that store, or even if they had visited the establishment to rethink their visit next time.That's why impressions are so vital; creating positive ones make people talk and advertise for you. 

Additionally making a connection makes them invest in you as a person. It will more than likely visit your table at the next con, and make them consider buying or setting a certain amount aside to buy from you next time. 

That is why I try to help people see beyond the direct buy or die relationships some salespeople have with their consumers. Its much longer term, and an impression made now can help you further down the line as you are adding to, if not your consumer base, then your fan base. Where the alternative is slowly burning one person at a time which will result in a dwindling pool of potential consumers and investors.

In the conversation you have with them you need to assess their interests. Ask them questions, like what genres do they like, or even subtler what movies do they enjoy. If they are into mystery and all you have is sci-fi... well then its likely they won't be personally interested, however you should tell them about your product anyway, because their 3rd cousin's sister's best friend might LOVE sci-fi, and need to have it. When you are engaging with someone its not just them, but their entire network!

If they do seem interested though you shouldn't sit there silently and wait for them to say "I'll take it!" Instead after talking with them and garnering what their interests are ask them if they would like to buy! Its as simple as that! Especially if you think they would love your book! Additionally you can offer other incentives like a free small sketch perhaps even in the book that makes the book unique and gives it more intrinsic value.

Gotta have that sales
 knock out punch!

One last thought I will leave you with. You need to have a concise summary of what your work is. Going on a long schpiel and telling people spoilers to try to get them interested can result in them losing focus. Greasers in Greece while not our strongest artistic piece always piques peoples interest. Especially when our summary of the book is "what happens when you put Grease and Sparticus together" or "what Grease would be like if it was directed by Zac Snyder." Simple one sentence summaries can really boost peoples interest, work on them and have them ready for a con!

Now go... Sell my minions!

You can only slighty trust Sir Thomas J. Griffin as he is a ginger and will try to consume your soul. He will then turn your essence into paint, from which he creates comic covers like those for Greenpoint of view and other works for Gryphon Knights Comics.

The Daunting Comic Convention: Neighbors

Conventions are always filled with many characters! 

Neighbors... They can be amazing, sharing a spoon of sugar, a cup of salt. Or they can blast R&B music at 4am during the work week. They truly can make life hell.

In the case of conventions especially when you are just starting out its good to find people to share tables with. This can help cut costs and help your table appear full if you still only have a limited amount of product. The right person can also help you engage your audience and customers, as well as share their convention experience with you, for example providing insight on what are good events to attend as well as what the audience is like at those events.

To find people to table with you can attend a convention yourself, and search around. If when talking with someone at a table you gel well you might consider requesting to share a table with them in the future. Additionally you might want to share a table with someone whose content is different from your own. For example two people sharing a table that each have their own noir stories might cause a bit of redundancy, and end up unintentionally cutting out sales for the other.

A hard seller can be a bit threatening
and intimidating

At a convention its not just table partners that can depend on your success its also neighboring and nearby tables. These neighbors can either make or break your success as a salesperson. We've been fortunate to have had really good neighbors. The Barbarian Brothers, Henchgirl, Monster Haiku, Immortal Lycanthropes; these have all been amazing people to meet, and work near, even share a table with. People like these create a great atmosphere and help engage with the community of convention goers. However, everyone is not the salt of the earth like these. Recently however we attended a convention were our direct neighbor was a hard sell.


Hard sellers are individuals who use any method at their disposal to get people to buy. From spouting
the merits of their work to all out guilt and shaming anything goes with a hard seller. Our table mate
at this convention had this to say about our hardselling neighbor:

                     "The guy at the table next to us at East Coast Comicon was a real 

                hard sell guy -- he literally demanded a customer go out and prostitute

                himself to make enough money to afford the wares he was selling.

                Presumably he was joking. But he wasn't joking when he demanded that 
                people who already owned his book give it away to "a worthy friend" and 
                buy another copy RIGHT NOW. "Be a man! Be a man!" he screamed at 
                people who would not buy, as they slunk away from his table."

Its hard to do anything in this situation. You can't reprimand them or lambaste them as it only creates an escalating conflict. In addition to these comments the gentleman wreaked of weed and the smell and his shaming would have people steer clear of him, this included avoiding that section which included our table. In the end we did the best we could in light of the circumstances, but this is reality. You will always encounter individuals who tend to alienate people for their gain.


Our own belief in salesmanship is a bit different than this character but we'll cover that next week in "Making the Sale."

Sir Gryphon is trying to sell people on edible chia pets, and Frankenstein vs. Dracula with Gryphon Knights Comics. Please patron to help these visions come to light and for blog content to continue!