I have a confession to make.

I absolutely hate selling. But a couple of weekends ago, I got out of my comfort zone and put into practice something that every good marketer/salesperson already knows.

If you want to sell anything, give it away for free.

But I’m skipping too far ahead, so here’s the backstory.

Recently I got involved with a charity called Free Cakes For Kids, that has local branches all over the UK. Its aim is to get birthday cakes to children who wouldn’t otherwise get one, generally because their parents can’t afford to buy them one, or they’re in hospital, or in care, or similar. The cakes are baked by volunteers, so it seemed like a cause that was right up my street; I love any excuse to bake.

That weekend, our local branch had a stall in the city centre to raise awareness and money by selling cakes. Originally I’d planned to drop off some cake boxes on the Saturday and help out a bit more on the stall on Sunday without actually baking anything myself this time (my kitchen was in the process of being redone and I wasn’t sure if it would be ready in time (it ended up being usable but impossible to find anything)). However, when I turned up to a mostly empty table and some dejected looking volunteers, I couldn’t leave.

I’ve never actually helped out at a big city centre outdoor market stall before, although I’ve done my fair share of small craft fairs and conference stands in the past. This is mostly because I absolutely hate face-to-face selling with a passion. I’m an introvert. I hate the sound of my own voice. I hate stopping random strangers, being pushy, and interrupting their day. My flavour of marketing is very much based around the visual and the written word: helping to create beautiful, interesting things that people choose to interact with thanks to some very subtle guidance.

If someone else is there to sell, I instantly step back and let them take that role. This is why I would never be any good on The Apprentice.¹ But I ended up doing the most face-to-face selling I’ve ever done in my life. And actually, it wasn’t that bad. Here are some common ideas I had the chance to put into practice in the wild:

Have huge signs and add plenty of colour

The first thing that struck me when I approached the stall was the starkness. There was nothing to tell anyone who we were or what we were selling; just small A5 leaflets and business cards. The table was huge, and with one cake stand pushed to the front and stacking the products high rather than wide, it looked even bigger. From most angles it looked next to empty. This is understandable in the last half hour or so but not first thing in the morning.

I ended up going to a couple of cheap shops and buying some ‘Happy birthday bunting’, which I reversed to the plain (but still shiny) side. I then used a Sharpie and some brightly coloured paper to draw out letters and back them on bigger bits of paper, then cut out them and stuck them individually on the bunting. I opted to put ‘Charity sale’ rather than ‘Free cakes for kids’ to avoid giving the wrong message.

I also bought colourful plates and cake boxes to add some interest to the table and make it look appealing from a distance. Given more prep time I would have had huge banner professionally printed, a snazzy tablecloth, and more in the way of ‘celebration’ elements, but I was pretty pushed for time and resources, so did what I could. On day two we were a bit more prepared; I was able to make some cakes, we had more baked by other volunteeers and the organiser made a better sign and used a much brighter tablecloth, so the stall ended up looking more like this:

Presentation is everything, so I checked that everything was in easy access, well-presented (random numbers work best for small groups, as do different heights and colours) and the less important/more repetitive elements were towards the back of the table so it didn’t look empty but didn’t obstruct people browsing.

Be proactive

We had a lot of lurkers around the table: people nosing for a few seconds longer than necessary, who were clearly wanting some kind of prompt or information without having the confidence to start a conversation. When you’re an introvert, chances are you’re doing the same thing at the back of the table, and it really doesn’t help when you have a huge stall!

The only tip I have here is to just get in there and make the first move. Having a set of potential questions in your head really helps, especially easy to answer closed questions such as, ‘Can I tell you a bit about what we do?’ that doesn’t require much effort from the other person. If you’re really struggling, count to five in your head and then just speak. Don’t be afraid to go directly to someone and speak to them directly, if you can do it without looking too intimidating or pushy. Never address a group of people as a whole, even if they’re together: single someone out and talk to them directly. The worst thing that can happen is that they will ignore you and walk on, which is absolutely fine in the grand scheme of things. Count the successes, expect there to be failures.

Treat the whole day like it’s the last hour of an Apprentice task – don’t just ramp up your efforts for the last few minutes. Imagine there isn’t much time left to sell….even if you’ve only just started your day.

Show rather than tell

When I arrived at the stall on Saturday, the main focus was the ‘Decorate your own cake’ feature, mostly aimed at kids. It’s always great to have something interactive that will keep people hanging around (crowds are a form of social proof after all), but for the average consumer it’s best to leave nothing to the imagination. So I took some of the plain cakes and did a bit of decorating, both so that people could buy ready-made, ready-boxed cakes if they wanted to, but could also see examples of what they could do themselves.

By the end of set up, we had open boxes of cakes, individual boxed cupcakes, plain ready to decorate cakes, example finished cakes on the stand, samples, and plates of cakes. Showing the same product in different packaging with different surroundings makes a huge difference – humans are naturally wired for variety, even if it’s just different colours.

(I managed to dig out enough ingredients and tools to make vanilla cupcakes with chocolate buttercream).

Hand out samples

This turned out to be the single most important thing for selling more. Not only that, but it increased the amount a person spent. I simply cut up some cupcakes, added a touch of icing, put them in a mini cupcake case, and offered them on a plate. (It was also a great way to use up the batch of cakes I accidentally burned on the bottom while I was getting used to my new oven!)

Samples were a great conversation starter – most people can’t say no to free cake. It gave us a chance to talk about what we do without anyone feeling like it was a big sales push. What’s more, every single person who got as far as taking a sample and listening to the story bought cake or made a donation. In fact, some people bought boxes of it or donated £5 or £10 at a time. Going from making £4.50 in an hour and a half to making £30 in half an hour was insane.

Once people had had something for free (and something they appreciated) and heard the story, they felt obliged to contribute. The most effective selling is the kind where people feel like they owe you something.²

Tell a story

We could have just handed out samples and let people walk away or let them make a decision about buying, but instead we followed up we information about Free Cakes For Kids. This worked particularly well in the form of telling individual stories about the children who had received cake and their reactions. One woman even cried. Many others would look at their kids and you could see how heartbreaking they found the idea of their own children being without birthday celebrations and their loved ones around them.

Stories aren’t always necessary, but taking a product from the concept or physical appearance and creating a personal, emotional angle is incredibly powerful. A good story will sell even the most obscure or mediocre poduct.

Talk to the kids

Obviously this will depend on who your target market is, but in our situation it worked extremely well. Parents who were embarrassed to take free cake for themselves would often offer it to their kids, and pester power from the children themselves worked brilliantly for buying or decorating cakes. What’s more, the parents were a strong target customer as they were most receptive to the cause.

Have a clear process

A big part of the reason why our success grew quickly in a short space of time was that we developed a specific process. Once we got through the trial and error part, we found out what worked and stuck to it. In my case it was very much a process of:

1. Offer sample
2. If accepted, talk about cause
3. Talk about cakes on offer and provide alternative in case cake wasn’t wanted (i.e. a straight donation).

This was effectively just like any kind of digital conversion path (product view, add to basket, enter checkout process), just a lot more guided.

Be flexible on pricing

As it was a fundraising stall, we had a ‘suggested donation’ amount for cakes. Being flexible on pricing worked really well because there were other (more expensive) food stalls in the market, and it reinforced the fundraising/charity concept. Many people also viewed this as a minimum and offered more, or didn’t want change from their 50p or £1.

Make sure everyone has a specific role

Some people will naturally lead. Some people prefer to be told what to do. Some people know what they could do, but wait to be told/asked anyway.

As long as everyone has a specific role so that nothing is left neglected or in a ‘too many cooks’ situation, the team will work really well. If there are tasks everyone wants to do or no one wants to do, simply have stations and then switch periodically. In our case we had someone in charge of stall appearance and cutting up samples, someone in charge of offering samples, someone with cards/leaflets explaining volunteer opportunities, and someone responsible for money and boxing up.

Take advantage of networking opportunities

It’s easy to get carried away with the selling and customers, but the other stallholders are worth chatting to as well. Going round the market talking to people and having them come over and introduce themselves too was a huge bonus – particularly so when one girl started a conversation with me about brand awareness. In specific markets (ours was a high-end craft/food one), knowing the stallholders can really help your business or charity in a lot of different ways. Have contact details to hand, talk to as many people as possible, and ask about their own experiences. This has online benefits as well as offline, and makes it easy to create a great network of contacts locally.

Think ahead

Even though the day itself is relentlessly busy with stock, selling, talking to people etc., you still need to consider the post-event follow-up. Social media and emails need to be considered beforehand, photographs and live updates need to be organised during, and you also need to plan what you’ll do with any extra stock (in our case it was donated to a home and a food bank).

In conclusion

Selling isn’t actually that bad. It’s a lot of work, and it can be frustrating, but there’s nothing more rewarding than helping a good cause and seeing people enjoy what you’ve made at the same time. Working on a busy city market stall was different to anything else I’ve done, and I learned a lot from the experience. But for now, it’s back to what I love best – typing from behind my screen :P

If you’d like to get involved with Free Cakes for Kids in some way, see if there’s a branch near you.