Inspired by your experiences, I would like to talk today about changing the attitude towards the customer in the handmade industry. Like every industry, we have our customer profile here, so we direct the message to him and try to satisfy him. However, it may turn out that our message and offer reaches a different type of customer better, so it is worth monitoring who we are dealing with and sometimes consider whether we have chosen the right direction.
Your products are unique, one of a kind, handmade, often made to order. And just as your products are unique, your recipients and customers are unique. I understand that you want to sell as much as possible, but sometimes it is better to sell less and at a satisfactory price and to someone who will appreciate it. But finding such a unique client may take a while, especially in the beginning. And since you don’t have warehouse problems, I wouldn’t sell at all costs, but rather wait for the right customer, figuring out where to find him and direct my marketing efforts there.
As I wrote in the previous article about competition, mass stores are not your benchmark, but other handmade stores. Therefore, your client is not likely to be a person who buys as cheaply as possible on promotions, and someone who appreciates art, creativity and simply human work. And honestly, I’m not sure how much this type of client really is on FB … Ie. someone will always appear, but what are the proportions of those who buy to those who see the price and doubt? … Maybe you have such statistics on your fanpages? … I’m very curious about your perspective.
Today we are going to get out of the Internet a bit and think about other complementary and very important options.
But going back to our customer or recipient – where can we find them? It is not without reason that I asked you earlier to imagine such a person exactly. One thing is that when you see this person, it is easier for you to construct a message, but the other thing is where this person is, what does he / she do in his spare time, how does he spend evenings or weekends? … And maybe someone will think what this nonsense is, why do I know it, if I just want to sell … And I’ll say this – the better you know your customer, the better you can convince him and find him in the right place?
From the moment you start running a business, you should open up to various forms of cooperation, with people or companies that are not even directly related to the handmade industry. I have seen so many wonderful initiatives, where small shops from various industries exchanged even business cards or leaflets and displayed each other ? And I think that this is a great trail – another smaller shop (from hairdressers, photographers, gas stations, restaurants, cafes to repair shops for telephones, city offices, etc. …). After all, your client probably goes to the hairdresser (what exactly, you will probably also clarify it, but I assume that it is more “premium”) or to pubs? … And it may turn out that quite by accident he will see your work, get interested and buy or it will just take the lead on you and pass it on to someone who was just looking for it!
Because one thing is to just leave flyers or business cards – hmm … also something, but it may not be very encouraging enough. It’s good to have them so that you can easily pass the contact through such a shop. But what is even cooler solution is to display some of your products as an element of interior decoration, or in some additional display cabinet … Go crazy here, I think that there will be many ways to present an original presentation in a specific place 😀 and next to, information about your contact details or business cards ?
Let’s think about it this way – such a hairdresser or a restaurant lost a lot during the lockdown. They probably won’t have the money for the decor yet. So at the moment they won’t probably buy from you. But you can offer them just such a barter – you will provide items for decoration in exchange for promotion, i.e. leaving a contact.
Also remember to choose this kind of business partner carefully. Is it a shop that complements my products, will they be visible, does it share similar values, does it have customers that I am looking for, do I have some more ideas how to develop this cooperation, can I offer something more back?
Of course, each of you is in a different plot, has a different customer, but I hope that I have inspired you to search ? When you learn more about him, you will be able to establish interesting cooperation, probably even longer ? small businesses should support each other and I think it is a great solution that we should develop further!
Have a nice day!
Aga
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