Be personally and approachable in your manners with a smile and your arms at your side, Don't cross your arms for any reason because you are unconsciously telling people to stay away from you.
Be prepared to answer a million questions and be genuinely interested in your customers questions. I try to maintain a matter of fact, helpful attitude, but not to eager for a sale. I find a over eager salesperson to be on the annoying side.
Remember you are a professional knife maker as well as consultant. So I follow the old saying,
"You have two ears and one mouth so listen twice as much as you talk".
Be in dress you are comfortable in, I am a mostly a denim Jeans and nice shirt man so I shave, wear a nice clean pair of pants and a long sleeve shirt. If you are more comfortable in a Suit & tie? Wear that. I wore a suit every day for the better part of 20 years so I have had my fill of that. Also I try to get most of the grit out from under my finger nails and use Acetone to get any Epoxy off of my hands!:biggrin:
Have some sort of a flyer printed out along with biz cards so you can give one to those that are sincerely interested.
One of the most important things to remember is that just cause they don't buy that day? They may buy later? Also be willing to take orders for those that want this blade with another kind of handle and that sort of thing.
If it's slow I try to stay busy by cleaning and buffing up my inventory instead of just sitting there. People are always interested in what I am doing?
I hope that one or two of these points will help you on your personal presentation.
Laurence
www.rhinoknives.com
