POV: You're Alone at a Retail Event

In this mini solo episode, Alex shares their point of view of attending retail events... well, solo! Whether you're engraving fragrances at a retailer, or lettering on champagne bottles at a liquor store - communication and adaptability are key when you're by yourself! She shares her insights on what questions to ask beforehand, what to do when you're at your event, and what to follow up with afterwards to build on client relationships. 

Transcript

Hi everyone, welcome back to season two of Keeping Up With The Calligraphers. Tonight you are getting just Alex of Signs For Our Lives. I am so excited to be recording tonight just me. It kind of is similar with the episode that we're talking about, which is being alone at an event, specifically a retail event where you're selling things.

I just got back from an event where I sold a bunch of bottles. I was there by myself. There wasn't a brand rep there with me, helping me to sell and so that I could just focus on the artistry. And I figure that was kind of a learned skill. is going to these events by myself. So I wanted to share that information with you all as well, because I know how lonely it can be when you're just sitting there and you're curious, like, my gosh, am I doing the right thing?

Am I in the right place? Did I ask the right questions? And so I want to make sure that everyone is well equipped to handle these situations just like I have come to be over the years.

So there are, I'm going to kind of outline it into three different categories. So there's before the event, during the event and after the event, The before the event is obviously going to help you at the event during the event.

also going to help you at the event. And then after the event, that's more just taking care of your clients and making sure that, you know, you're doing what's best for you and you're communicating appropriately. And we all love communicating and that's what gets our clients to come back to us again and again, right? So I think it's really important that we have that piece as well.

So before the event, you're going to ask your client some questions. First and foremost, who is my point of contact? This is also known as your POC. And your point of contact is who do I show up to? Like I'm showing up to, you know, Bloomingdale's, I'm showing up to Nordstrom, I'm looking for the fragrance department, I'm looking for the beauty department.

Or maybe you're working with the spirits brand and you're looking for, you know, I'm walking in who's the bar owner? Who's the manager? Who's The liquor store manager who's who am I talking to that day, right? So there's lots of different scenarios where you need to have someone to talk to When you walk in the door because sometimes employees won't really know what's happening or other departments might not know what's going on or they might not even be aware that there's events so

It's really good for you to have someone who you can call, someone that you can reach out to, or even to be like, hey, my contact is Melissa. And you walk in the door and say, hey, I'm looking for Melissa. She's my point of contact for this event. And that really just helps you get a little bit more comfortable when you walk in. There's many times where I've walked in before and I'm like, I don't know, I'm here for this brand. Can somebody help me? And it takes like five people to figure out where the heck I should go.

And sometimes your point of contact might not even be there, but it's good to even try to get one in the first place. Next, you want to make sure that you even have a setup. So again, there's many events specifically at mall type events I've walked into where they don't have a setup for you and they're kind of like, gosh, we knew you were coming, but like we totally forgot that you would need to table in a chair. So that's also really

important to ask ahead of time, like, hey, am I going to have a table and a chair will be provided to me? It should be provided to you by the store or the brand. Again, I'm going to go kind of go back and forth to like brands that might be in like a mall type setting as opposed to like you're in a liquor store or a grocery store selling, you know, frijone or something like that. Right.

So if there is a brand that wants you to bring a table and a chair, one tip I have for you that I actually learned recently, and I was like, ooh, boss move. Someone I was talking to was sharing that they asked the brand to buy a table and chair for them. And I was like, my gosh, that's so smart. I am queen of looking for stuff on Facebook Marketplace. And so that's where I got my table.

I got my chair at Costco, but, know, if you want to kind of like get a nicer thing and you want them to pay for it, like that's also a thing you can do. Sometimes you might get pushed back. That might not be in their budget. But as we know, it doesn't hurt to ask, right? All right. So the next thing after that. Will you need brand and items? So this is going to depend on the brand. And again, this is more for like spirit brands.

things like that where they're gonna be like, hey, we're gonna send you a tablecloth, we're gonna send you a bunch of these flyers that we want you to give out, we're gonna send you a bunch of hats, buttons, stickers, whatever, to give out for people. You're gonna make sure that you have all those ahead of time or that they're gonna be at the venue that you're going to be at or the establishment.

Cause you're also going to want to know, you bringing your own tablecloth if they're having you bring something or is it going to be branded? Those are some considerations. Next, will there be a brand rep? And so that's kind of what this episode is all about, right? So, hmm, is there going to be someone who is with you and just you? I've been at events where there's someone literally dedicated to working with just you and it's super awesome. And then, you know, there's events where it's you yourself and you.

So that's kind of where I came from tonight where it was just me. The brand wanted to sell bottles. They had a special with the cocktails. But they weren't able to also get someone in there to be doing any sort of tastings. They weren't able to get someone in there to be like sharing about the brand. But so that was kind of all on.

me as the artist. And that's something that I have learned to provide over the years. It's not for everyone. So that's the little asterisk here. If you're like, hey, I'm not comfortable, like also selling your stuff, then hey, you're not comfortable. And that's totally OK.

this is a good one. I'm looking at my notes right now. OK, this is a good one that I also learned over the years. And this is like if you're in a grocery store, honestly, anywhere, anywhere that you are like, where are you being placed? And this applies to other events as well with like just event flow. And that's usually on the planner or the event team, whatever. But again, if you're in a grocery store, if you're in a retail store and you are.

all the way by the frozen section and no one will find you. And there's not that much foot traffic. Like, unfortunately, you're not going to sell a lot. You're not going to be able to even get a lot of orders. And that's kind of kind of suck for you. But it's also going to suck for the brand. Right. The entire point that they're having you there is to sell stuff, right, is to have brand presence. So if they don't get that, it's in their best interest to advocate for placing you somewhere where there's foot traffic.

oftentimes like the front of the store or like right in front of where that bottle or those things are sold, those items are sold, right? So being kind of like near where your item is or where there's a lot of foot traffic is also really important. You want to interact with people. You want people to see what you're doing. And that's probably my top tip for that. And that's kind of like

Now we're getting into during the event, right? So I have some tips for during the event. I have three that I'm going to share. One of them, which is get the retail pricing on the item. People are going to ask, how much is that? Just as much as they're going to ask you where the bathroom is. I know that's been a very hot topic on Reels these days. So people are going to ask you, what is the price of this item? So it's a good idea to ask someone in the store or

Whoever's there who can help you, even if they're not necessarily helping you sell. What's, what's the retail pricing? Are there any specials going on? You should know about that and you should be able to talk to customers that are walking by or the coming in wherever you are. That's important. Write that down for yourself, have it in your notes app, put it on a post-it, whatever you do.

Secondly, you want to share the event with anyone walking by, right? So obviously we've already gone over like having a sign, having like order forms, all of that sort of thing, but people still are going to walk right by you. They're not going to look at your sign. They may not even know that you're there for a brand. might, honestly, I'm not really sure what people think when they're just walking right by.

or maybe they're thinking absolutely nothing and they just got their like grocery list in their head, right? So it's really important that you say, hey, how are you? know, like, this is what we're doing today. Just wanted to let you know. And that's something that I advocate for at events. So that's a lot of times why brands will hire me is because I will be that person that talks to every person that walks by. Well, I'll say almost every person. Not everyone is super welcoming to talk to.

Just about everyone that walks by or everyone that is like sitting in the bar or anything like that, I will go up to and say, hey, just want to let you know this event is happening. You're not necessarily like pushing the brand on them, and like trying to be really salesy about it. You're just trying to say, hey, this is happening. Let me know if you have questions, right? And I think that just kind of like opens the door for you to.

have people be curious about what you're doing and maybe even to buy whatever it is that you are customizing.

One more thing make sure you know whether customers are required to check out beforehand and then provide a receipt to you to get the services or if they can receive services and then go check out. This is really important. So you don't want to be customizing bottles that haven't been bought yet. You don't want to be,

doing a portrait for someone who is not yet a customer, right? Sometimes it's like, you get like a free bouquet with a $50 purchase or whatever it might be. Or you get a illustration of yourself with a $100 purchase. Any sort of thing you want to make sure that people are doing the correct process. And that's something that you might be able to ask your POC before the event. OK, I think I pretty much covered all of it. So now at this point, we're just at the after part of the event.

So this is where we send a recap. include what was the foot traffic like? Like for me, I was like, hey, there are all of 12 people and I have talked to every single one and I got 10 of them to buy a bottle, right? Or like what other events are happening in town? Is there a convention? Is there, you know, a super deal at the place next door and so nobody's at this store?

Are there things that might have had an impact, for instance, like a baseball game or whatever it might be? I don't know. There's other stuff going on sometimes that prevents people from being at that specific event. And it could be rain, Like if it was snowing, people are probably going to be cozy indoors. Right. They're not going to be coming in to shop that day. So that's really important to.

give you back to your client just about some variables that like might have might have impacted. And I think that's kind of always the type of perspective that I have of it is just that it's variables, right? It's not excuses. It's not saying, hey, like we only sold one bottle and these are all the reasons why. It's just saying, hey, these are some variables that could have impacted sales. I just wanted to give you a heads up.

And you also want to let them know like how many sales did you have? How many customizations did you do? What were people's reactions? Any sort of information you can provide, any sort of story you can provide. Those are all things that clients really love to hear. Providing feedback as soon as possible for them is always really important as well. I think people don't want you to just kind of like check out and then you never are heard from ever again.

That doesn't necessarily develop or build a relationship with the client. So I think that's really important as well.

So I hope you enjoyed this episode. It was incredibly shorter than an episode that would be with more than one person. So I hope you enjoy this little mini. If you are going through event season, it is the end of 2020-24, 2020-2024, 2024 right now.

And it's just the beginning of December. I'm hoping to have this edited like as soon as possible, because I know it's, you know, it can be super helpful for people who are doing this alone And we really want this to be a great holiday season for you. We always want events to go so well for you because we have the mindset that we all do better when we all do better.

Right? So if you're doing a great job and I'm doing a great job, then that means more people are hiring us. Right? It means more people are going, hey, we love having artists at events. They are so cool to have. They are doing so awesome. We love having them as vendors. Then more of us get hired. So that's kind of our perspective and why we share this information with you. And we so love the feedback that we've been getting.

Seeing our podcast on the Spotify Wraps were awesome to see. So keep listening, keep keeping up. We love being a part of your lives, your community. And we hope that you love being a part of ours. So thank you so much for keeping up and we'll talk to you next time.