As you may have noticed if you’re a fan on our facebook page, we spent some time over the weekend at a gig headlined by the Luminaires band.  The plan was to get the word out about ourselves and try and sell some tees, it also ended up being a lesson in the difference between knowing when to sell and when to promote.

Here are two things we learnt from the night.

Know the audience

Although we got to talking with a a few members of the crowd, most where distracted by a notion that they were here to see a band and drink.  Buying something that doesn’t come in a shot glass doesn’t usually come into the equation at that time of night (time to rethink our packaging maybe?).  People just want to have fun, anything else is a distraction.  Try selling a t-shirt to these guys:

Ok, it wasn’t exactly like that but you get the idea.  Talking to people about the brand is much more effective in a situation like this.  People are much more approachable and will listen.  Have a few business cards handy and you can get yourself a  bunch of interested people checking you out.

Know the environment

If you are going to set up at an event, try and get an idea of the of the place before you go.  This could mean visiting the day before, asking someone who has been to the event…or casing the joint in the dead of night.  Whatever works for you.

The point is to know what to expect.  The one thing that bcome obvious when we arrived was the noise, we didn’t realise we’d be so close to the noise!  It makes it difficult to sell to someone when hand gestures are the best way to communicate.  We really need a t-shirt selling sign language for situations like these…

Despite this, we did get positive reactions from everyone we spoke to in between sound checks and performances and some good bands fo free which isn’t too bad.

The way I see it, daylight is best for selling, the night is better left to promoting…and maybe a spot of crowd surfing.