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The Sales Table
LARRY GOINS AND SHAUN MCCLOSKEY
Selling products is one of the primary reasons for hosting a REIA
speaking event. You should focus just as much attention on the
logistics of the sales as you do on the presentation. We will cover
the specifics of how to set up the sales tables in the next few pages,
but we feel it's important to include some information on what you'll
need first. Sales are part of the event, but in a way, it's also a
separate entity and approaching it with this mindset can help make
things easier.
Just as you'll want to have a trained audio/visual staff on hand, you'll
also want to have a trained sales staff. If everything goes well,
people wanting to purchase products will surround the sales table.
Anyone who has ever been in a retail situation can attest to the fact
that this can quickly become chaotic and disorganized. If the sales
are handled poorly, you absolutely will lose customers. This is a
fact.
The sales table needs to be adequately staffed by people who know
what they're doing. The number of attendees can often determine the
size of the sales staff. As a general rule, plan for having every single
person in the audience at the sales table and hire a staff accordingly.
You'll want to have enough people that some can be processing
payments while others are handling customer service.
Your sales staff should also be experienced sales people. They need
to be enthusiastic about what they're offering and able to transfer
that enthusiasm to potential customers. The worst thing you can do
is have an apathetic sales staff that could care less about the number
of items sold.
They will also need to be familiar with the products so they can
effectively answer questions. Some of the products will be familiar
while others may be specifically related to the speaker. This is
where the product samples become important. Make sure your sales
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