How To Sell More Products At Live Events | Christopher Greenwood | Skillshare

How To Sell More Products At Live Events

Christopher Greenwood,

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17 Lessons (56m)
    • 1. Course Video Trailer

    • 2. Having Great Merchandise

    • 3. How Much Merch Should You Order

    • 4. Making The Most Out Of Every Show

    • 5. How To Talk To Customers

    • 6. Don't Be a Pushy Sales Person

    • 7. Pricing Your Merchandise

    • 8. Accepting Credit Cards

    • 9. Building An Email List

    • 10. Training Volunteers

    • 11. Displaying Your Merchandise

    • 12. Sale Bin or No Sale Bin

    • 13. Tip Jar For Gas Money

    • 14. How To Calculate Your Per Head

    • 15. Hanging Out At The Merchandise Table

    • 16. Mentioning Merch From The Stage

    • 17. Travel Hacks


About This Class

After setting up and tearing down my booth at over 1,000 live events not including the art festivals or other merchandise booths I've setup and torn down I've learned how to sell products.

In this course you will learn tips and practical strategies you can implement at your next live show, festival or event that I guarantee will help increase sales.

Some of the creative out of the box ideas I will be sharing will get your mind thinking and excited about the possibilities you can take advantage of at your next event.

I know from experience how important it is to hit your numbers and make sure you don't feel like playing the show or paying for a booth is a waste of time.  

In this course you will learn the following strategies:

1) How to increase you per head sale

2) How to up sell without being pushy

3) How to bundle your products to move more items

4) How to train volunteers to run your booth

5) Why hanging out at your merchandise table is so important

6) How to accept credit cards without having to pay high terminal fees

Plus a ton more!


1. Course Video Trailer: Hey, guys, is Chris Greenwood here, also known as Manifest? I've done over 1000 live events that set up and tear down of the merchandise booths and displays and interacting with thousands of different customers selling merchandise from shirts, CDs, clothing, art, you name it. And I've really learned what works in what doesn't. And in this course I want to teach you how to really maximize your profits at the live events, how to increase sales, had accept credit cards the right way to set up a bundle, packages right and really just maximize every single event. Because his artists as creative types, we can get really tunnel vision sometimes and just focused on one thing. And what really we need to do at every single event is really squeeze out and maximize the potential of every single event that you do. So in this course, I'm gonna take you through step by step, what I've done and what my wife is done as well, to sell hundreds of thousands of dollars of products at live events. I look forward to helping in this course, so enroll today 2. Having Great Merchandise: Hey, what's up, guys? Thanks so much for watching this lecture. It's all about having great merchandise. After over 1000 shows played in 20 different countries. Merchandise is what's kept me alive. Kept my brand alive. I performed for free sometimes as long as I could sell merchandise that shows. So that means I had to have good T shirts. I had to have CD stock. I had to have USB keys, which I'll show you right here. This is a skateboard. When we did, I had hoodies. We've had posters, stickers, wrist bands and you know, I don't want to overwhelm you, but this is what we eventually build upon. I didn't start with all that stuff, Okay? I started with maybe a CD in a poster and a shirt, OK, but it's so important that your merchandise looks good. The quality is so important, and that starts with your photo shoot with your logo with your album cover design here. Okay, I always not only invest in just the music, but in the design because people will separate you. It'll separate you from the rest of the pack in the bands that don't that have just like a burnt CD with black marker written honor. You could just tell that they just didn't put or invest any time in it. And people are like, OK, if they didn't invest time into the the design and the album cover and all that stuff that they probably didn't invest in the music, you know, and some people just don't want to buy the music. Some people just want to buy shirts and listen to your music on YouTube or on Spotify Apple music. So that's why it's important tohave options because you don't make way more money, the more options you have. And I just want to say this is well to you want it when it comes to sizes because we document options here, you won't have small, medium, large excel and then at least a few double X. You know, I always find that mediums go the fastest, but it's really important. Toe have all options when it comes to shirts. When it comes to hoodies, I'll talk about quantities and all that stuff and selling it What not make sure that you don't press too many, but you at least want tohave options, and I just want to say this again. Invest in a good designer, Take the time, hire someone not just on five or find a really good design with a friend in college. Or just ask other bands. Look and see if they've mentioned there. Designers. Sometimes in the CD artwork we're going to see they thank their designer who did the illustration and hire someone. You know what it'll pay back. 10 fold. I've paid $150 for design 204 100 every time I invested in great design in great looking merchandise, it paid back tenfold. So really one occurred you before your next show, or maybe even even performed it all. Think about the designs and what you want tohave, because it's not just music. It's a movement that you're trying to create. You want to get people coming back in droves, and you do that by connecting your music with your art with your merchandise. Think about right now. Go write down some desires movie. Take a song or maybe a lyric or something that you want to use and incorporate that into your design. One of the things we recently did for a song called fearless as we had this skull with this blindfold in these wings for the idea of someone being fearless and stepping out in blind faith. What's one of your songs that you can incorporate an illustration or designer shirt idea? That's maybe one of your best selling songs that people really connect to make a shirt out of that, make a sticker out of that, make a post read about or something like that. You can get as creative as you want, but again make it look good. Make it look great because you know what? It will pay back tenfold, I promise. 3. How Much Merch Should You Order: how much merchandise should you order? This is the question I asked myself all the time and there's no right or wrong answer, and there's not a consistent answer. But I always like to err on the side of being conservative somewhat, but also believing that there's gonna be huge merchandise sales. But the best thing you can do is, is finally the event that you're gonna be at, pick up the phone and call ahead of time and say, How many people do you normally get it? This, you know, who played last year to do kids by a lot of March? What do they tend to like their? You know, find out. You know, if this is just your show in your own promoted show, well, you gotta look at your previous numbers. If you're just starting out. Well, then maybe you only want a press. Like maybe you know, 20 or 30 shirts you wanna be pressing like 100 plus shirts for your very first show. You know what I mean? Unless, you know there's gonna be tons of people and you know, there's gonna be different people that will buy a shirt or buy CDs. or you've got a tour coming up, Something planned. But like if you've only got a few dates, you know what I mean. I'm coming up then you don't want to be getting stuck with boxes and boxes of merch. And I really want to make sure you need to look at what you have and say, OK, you know, I've got merchandise on, We've only got these shows. That means I need to do a big hard push in sale on the last two shows to really move it. But I'll be honest. It's also frustrating, especially when you're on a flight 80. You're packing and you didn't know how well merch was going to go. I went and did something in a white horse, which is like the Canadian version of Alaska. And I remember just selling out of stuff. I remember being at another festival on just selling out of stuff, and sometimes I just didn't know, like, you know, I brought I didn't bring enough hoodies, you know, and I brought tons of shirts and CDs, but it was the hoodies that sold out in the hoodies that were like 40 bucks and only cost me 15. So the market was way huger. And then I got all these boxes to CDs. And I'm thinking to myself, Frank, man, I should have should have brought more hoodies. And you know what I learned from the last time. So I brought way more hoodies this time so that I crushed it the next time I went there. And so, you know, you learn from experience and you learn from the different markets because different places you play are always gonna want to buy the same thing. You know, I've learned that some places really like these custom graffiti hats that we do in other places. They just don't sell very well, especially between Europe or, you know, in North America. Depending on where you go, some people buy CDs a lot more number where in Switzerland one time. And it was the CDs that sold out and not the merchandise is like, Why didn't I bring more CDs? Because I thought that, you know, they didn't buy it. They wanted more merch, just like North American it. But no, it's different. Markets are different, so it really depends, and you got to kind of do your homework and find out. Talk to different bands. Talked to the festival in what do you know? Fans typically really like, So I could make sure I bring lots of that stuff. So you learned the hard way, and then you just plan, You know, I get re booked for a show sometimes, and so I'll go back and look at my numbers, cause I track all my numbers in a spreadsheet of what I sold. I don't actually track the individual items of what I sold. I need to do that. But I'm at least track what I sold, so I can see. Okay, we killed it here. And then I'll tend to remember like, Oh, yeah, they like this or like they like that. I got to make sure I bring tons of that, and sometimes I'll just ship it. I can't if we're not driving. Oh, and we're flying. And I can only bring so many bags. I'll just ship stuff ahead of time to make sure it's there and to make sure we're loaded up , always worth it. And make sure you plan and do your homework. 4. Making The Most Out Of Every Show: Hey, guys, in this lecture, I want to talk about how you can make the most out of every show because his artists, as people, as business owners, you know, musicians, creatives. We can get real tunnelled vision at certain things that we can just focus on the sales and we can focus on. You know, the marketing and weaken focus on how many people are there. But there's so many other things because those are important. But there's so many other things that are important as well that you can squeeze every last ounce of every event that you do. Number one. Are you taking photos and using them for social media? Are you filming the events that you can use that for social media for your E P K are you may be setting up interviews in that town previously before you start or press to make sure that they come and then you can do an interview there. So you go to a major town like Houston or Dallas or, you know, see our what not you want to follow up and make sure that you've hit up different organizations. Whether it's press, radio, television and in the other media stores or like brands like If you're connected to, like the sports world like skateboarding world, you hitting up that area or, you know, fashion. If there's a certain brand or something you're connected to, make sure they're there and you've got all these interviews and things set up. So it's not just playing this show or doing the event and with the fans and tickets. But it's really maximizing everything that you can do. Are you making sure that you're doing a Facebook live an air YouTube, Google hangouts or snap shatter instagram or whatever it is something live to connect with your fans, not Onley that are at the show, but that wish that they could be there and feel like they're a part of it. Okay, because sometimes again, we forget to do these things, and we don't realize that we can reach even more. People say there's 500 people at the show, or the capacity of the venue is only 1000. Okay, so that's only 1000 people you can reach. Well, I did a Facebook live the other day when I was somewhere and I got to. It reached 220,000 people. Okay, so this is the power of the Internet and making sure that we're maximizing everything. If you get a radio interview, well, then that's getting broadcasted. How many thousands of people? And then you're doing press that's getting bright. Broadcast it when? When people are reading it or TV, it's just that multiplication factor. And it's doing that little mawr that other artists are not willing to do. And so again, I'm gonna say this that you do what others wont do today. So tomorrow you can do what other people will never be able to do totally messed up. That quote with the idea is you do what others wont willing to do now so that you can do what others can't later on. It's because you put in the work you laid the foundation, you connected with fans and you really put that effort in and squeezed everything out of that show. I've been guilty of not doing this and just getting all focused on, you know, whatever, cause you get busy, but it's like, no, make it a game, have some fun, see how much you can get done and squeeze out of this one show and make it awesome. Hey, I love you guys. I believe in you. Thanks so much for taking this course. Have you found a valuable police share? Please leave a review and comment below because I really believe in you guys. Cheers. 5. How To Talk To Customers: the best way I can describe this lecture is just be cool. Just be normal. Don't be weird. Don't be pushy or sales e Whether you're talking about your merchandise from the stage or you're talking to fans that air right in front of you, You know, you can just be like, Hey, what's up, man? How you doing? You know, did you like the show? Oh, cool man. Sweet, sweet. Let me know if I can help you with anything. We got this new CD out here. This is our new one And we got our shirts here. We got small toe Excel If you need anything, then but just ask questions about them Don't be like, Hey, you know, you want to buy my CD and be like, Hey, it's only $15 off And you get this This This don't be like a pushy salesperson. Be normal. Bqool show that you're interested in them, especially if you don't got this like long line up down the club or down the you know, the hall. You know, he only got certain people coming up from Don't jump on someone's back as soon as they get their, you know what I mean, You want to be like, Just ask them questions about themselves and let them ask you about music. And then you could say, Hey, do you got a new CD yet? This is our latest when you got it. Okay, cool. They might say no. Say, Well, it's only 10 bucks tonight, and you can decide if you want to throw a deal in there at the same time, like it's only 10 bucks tonight. Or if you buy this. You get this in this in this, and you can just kind of slightly throw in the package deal idea there, and you can train the volunteers to do the same thing to say, Hey, when people come to the table, can you make sure that they know that this is the deal? Because that's the most popular one. And so you just make sure you mention that, whether that's you running your own merchandise table for many years, I had to add to run line for a while until we had it on our rider that we had toe have volunteers and but we were trained about manages to make sure we would actually get them we would give them shirts for where? So they're already wearing our gear. So it's just, like all cool. That's what it looks like. And again, it just promotes it and just loses your Brian. And we would always give the volunteers free CDs or something free at the end of the show, too. But you want to make sure when people come to the table that they feel comfortable, they don't feel like they're getting blasted and getting like pitch to Nobody likes to be. Everyone likes to be so, but people don't like to be sold to. You know, I know that that's not the word people like to buy. They don't like to be feel like they just got sold to you know what I mean? Like, but they love to buy and feel like sure, they got a deal or got something, But nobody likes a pushy person. I've had a guy like Pushes see on me and be really awkward at the merchandise table. I just like, just like Dude, you're too desperate, you're too desperate. And I remember the early day some people, you know, we even had this. We had headphones, especially at a festival when there's so many of the band who had headphones there with the CD player and iPod so that people could listen to the music if they hadn't heard it yet. And people would be like asking like, Hey, what what they sound like always sound like this band meets that band, and you better be prepared to always answer that question at all times. What do you sound like? You never, ever say, You know, we sound like nothing you've ever heard before. What the Frick does that mean? If you tell me we sound like Johnny Cash meets Mumford and Sons, we meet Sound like, you know, Eminem meets Lincoln Park, which I've been compared to before. Well, it's like, Okay, so it's like a little rap rock by bars, kids like a folk kind of hybrid thing or okay, it's like an e t m with some rock and influence. Okay, that's cool, man. I get that. You know, Skrillex like meets like Metallica or something, You know, I get that, you know? Then people start painting a picture, then, like OK, I want to listen to it then. Okay, so I hope that gives you guys some value because I want to see you crush it in every possible way at your merch table. 6. Don't Be a Pushy Sales Person: Hey, guys. So in this lecture, I want to talk about not being pushy when someone comes to your table and turning them right off. Okay. How many times have you walked into a store? And these people kind of like, lurk around the corners? It's like they pop out like a Can I help you with anything? Hey, if you looked at this, if you looked at that and they kind of, like, bombard you and annoy you to the point, you just walk out of the store. You know, I've seen this happen to my wife. It's happened to me. I've seen it happen. Other customers It's like such a turn off. And I've seen bands do this where they don't realize I'm an artist and I'm just walking around the festival checking out, you know, different merch, ideas getting inspired, just hanging out. And they just lunge at me. And I was just like, Whoa, bro, take it easy. You know, you just want to start a conversation with these people. You want to be normal. Hey, how you doing? You know, are you enjoying the music to check out any cool bands today? Did you see our show. You know, if if it's just like you and a couple other bands, we're gonna say, Hey, did you see our show tonight? And, like, Yeah, Okay. Cool, cool, awesome. Awesome. That's our first time in this town. And we're really enjoying it, You know what I mean? It just kind of spark up that conversation. If they're looking and stuff, you just might want to say, Hey, one of our best deals is is we got a CD shirt and whatever package You might want to check that out or let me know if I can help you with anything. You don't make sure you sign up on our email list. Um, we'll give you something free, you know, offer Just start the conversation and giving, as opposed to, just like by my stuff by my stuff, you know, like, did you get our new CD yet? Like just being so like, spastic about it? Can you say, hey, have you checked out our new CD at, um is one way of doing it, but you do it without being annoying. You do it without, like chasing them out of the room. So you want to think of some different one liners in different things. But my my favorites are is Hey, did you see the show? What did you think? You know the air like a I really liked it. Really? Did you deserve favorite song or something like that? You know, we're just touring or just, like, new at this and what not? You just kind of be, like, humble about and get feedback. Cool. Have you come to this club before? How did you get invited to the show? Do you know some of the other pans like you don't mean like, just starting that conversation And like being a likable person? You know, because if they like you, then they're gonna want toe buy from you. It's not just about your merch, you know, again, Simon Sinek said this People don't support what you do. They support why you do it. What is your mission? What are you about? You know, chat with people, engaged the conversation Once it's going, what's its going on? Hey, have you checked at our new CD yet? Would love to hook you up with one Hook it with the deal. Hey, let me know if you like anything I'll just give you. Deal your rat person. Whatever. Just have that conversation with them. You will sell way more and you won't chase your customers away from your table. Cheers. 7. Pricing Your Merchandise: pricing your merchandise is always an interesting one. Most of the time CDs air $10 on I've done them for five sometimes, but I've only done them for five. When it was me that pressed them myself because, you know CDs only cost maybe a dollar $2 of the most, depending on how much artwork. Sometimes you can get the cardboard sleeves for 50 cents. But when I signed a deal on a lot of artists that are signed a deal, they actually have to buy the seas off the label for, like 4 50 or five bucks. And so that makes it really hard to sell them for anything less than $10. But most of the time I do CDs. 10 bucks will do T shirts at 20 and normally T shirts can cost anywhere from 4 to $6 depending on how crazy the design is. And sometimes we'll do a package deal in package deals are so important. Oh my gosh, Well, do CD, sometimes 10 or three for 20 or maybe 10 or two for 15. Just to try and move more will do the same thing with shirts. We'll do a combo where it's seconds, shirts or 20 or two for 25 or two for 30 or something like that. Another option you can do is do a CD, a poster and a T shirt for, like, 30 bucks or 25 bucks and package it together. People love deals, man, and you want to make sure you have that price list printed out and laminated if you can on your merchandise table so people can see clearly what it is you're selling, and you also want to make sure that you have. We accept credit cards. Okay, I'll talk about that more later in a different lecture. But you want to make sure that you can accept credit cards and that you have the price list . Sometimes people have even on the merch display behind them, where the body molds are. They have like a big sticker or something like that, or a taped price that says T shirts $20 it'll be on the shirt because you'll have the display at the back is well, so you want to make sure you have different options. Normal. I did stickers at a dollar or two for a dollar, sometimes we just give stickers away if they would sign up on the you knelt list, would give him away a free sticker or something like that. Another thing you want to think about is with Spans guitar picks again. I mentioned earlier USB Keys. These were custom ones. We did. We don't escape or we're gonna paint can. And we're doing another one, and this is something I want to share as well. To is limited. Addition. Limited Edition is huge. What I have right here in my hand, actually is some limited edition custom hand painted hats that I got my buddy to do charges me for these, and then I sell them on my store online. And I also stellin that this shows they go like freaking hot cakes when people realize it's limited edition and there's only so many of them, they go like crazy. You'll see a lot of bands like Black Black Keys or, um, who else? Just some of these bands will get these like vintage posters done designed just for that one event. Whether it's like a Coachella or it's just some big festival thing, they'll just get a like a limited edition poster and they'll sell that thing, man for, like, 50 box or 20 bucks or something like that. And they'll get like a really professional designer to do it up. And it's just like sick and they get him screen printed is what it's called, and then they can even sell those online at the shows. And it really depends where you're at on your career, you know, But you want to think about what kind of limited edition stuff can you do? You know you can so that you'll sign it there at the show. It's one thing, or, you know you could just maybe just do a limited run of something. It could be alive in concert on Unplugged or something like that. Anyways, Limited goes crazy. It goes crazy for shows that goes crazy for your online store or even on a Kickstarter. When people know it's limited, it implements that thing called scarcity, like there's not like there's only so much about it, and so people want to buy it again. Make sure you printed out your price list. If you forgot to do it at the show, just take your black Sharpie and write it all that we've done that tons of times. There's been times work, you know. We had to change the price, or I was in a different country, and it was in euros instead of dollars. And so just gonna have to, you know, be creative with it. But the point is, you know, you wanna watch and see what works and what doesn't and what price point goes with your audience. But I promise you drink packages in doing deals where you do bundles. I guess they call them will really move a ton. More merchant again. It's better that that person is wearing your shirt than it's sitting in your basement or your garage. Okay, so you know, if I've got a bunch of shirts for a certain design and I only sell my shirts a 20 but these ones aren't moving so much. Heckman along to 15 although I'm to 10. If I, after all, say Hey, if you buy a shirt tonight, you'll get a free CD and will sign it for you. So so many things you can do. But just make sure that people see clearly what the price list is and make sure you trained the volunteer to go over that stuff with them. 8. Accepting Credit Cards: Hey guys, I can't stress how important it is. Toe have the ability to take credit cards at your shows. I remember years ago when I first started we had the manual swipe er's okay and we get him from actually CD Baby. And then we'd have to take the credit cards and we'd have to mail in those receipts and then CD baby would pay me. Then we had that men Eris credit card machine that we get from the bank, and it was like super expensive while things have changed. And technology, of course, is changing things for us. And now there's this thing called square. Okay, and you can install this app called square register. Okay, you can look it up online. I'll put a link for it in the notes below, but you just plug this thing into your phone, you download the app, whether you've got a phone like an iPhone or an android or even an iPad, okay, because we always have an iPad at this show, and as long as you got Internet, you plug that thing into the port and then you can take credit cards at the shows, and it is so important and so amazing. And sometimes, you know, I didn't want to give. I didn't always have an iPad, and I just had my phone. And so what do you do? I don't wanna be giving the volunteer my phone, and I'm getting texts from my wife for people are trying to call it. But sometimes I had to give them my own freakin phone. So what I do now is is I just ask that over the volunteers to make sure that they have a phone, and then I log in with my info to my square account. I give them this little dongle that they plug in, and then they can take and accept credit cards for me. And then it gets direct, deposited right into my bank the next day. It is freaking awesome. I encourage you to download that. It bro's me away that a lot of people still don't know about this. It's free. They take a percentage of it. You just sign up and then the mail this to you in the mail that's in this team. The milk for free. Okay. And then you can start to take credit cards. You have to have play a monthly fee like we used to with manera Oh my gosh, it blows me away And how much money we used to stand? Well, technology is blowing this thing up, and so make sure you have the ability to accept credit cards and make sure you have that on your price list. Okay, people might not ask, and then we were like all they only take cash. And so you want to say we accept credit cards and take the time to train your volunteers inside the square app. You can actually set it up so that you have all your merch items preloaded as well to so they could be like OK, CDs And then, just like you probably bought in something off of square, where you sign with your finger on it and then and then you just go go next and it's done. You can send them receipt, and if there's any problems, they can contact you, and then you also have their customer information as well, too, which is really awesome and a great way to keep track. You will. 10 x your sales by having the ability to accept credit cards Ah, lot of people are not accepting credit card or not, you know, carrying cash with them anymore, and they don't wanna be bothered. Teoh, go the a team to take cash out. So you want to make sure you have this? There's no excuses anymore. So get it done for your next show and let me know how that goes, because I know it will increase your sales. 9. Building An Email List: Hey, guys, thanks so much for taking this course in this lecture. I want to focus on building an email list at your shows. It is so important. Toe have the ability to collect emails with you have a sheet of paper there with some lines on it. It says name and it says email list and that the top says, you know, sign up to the email list, toe win something, or to get our free exclusive album that you can't get anywhere else or free song or get the chance to win an iPad or something like that. I've gone from paper to digital and I installed this new app here. I'm just gonna log in on my iPad here. But I'm I use mail chimp to collect email addresses. Okay, And then there is APP called EMC. Subscribe, Okay. And I'll do a screen capture of this, but judge can see on the iPad what I have on it. When people come to my table, it says, Hey, when manifest book fighter, sign up with your email to win Manifest Fighter book and USB key. Okay, so I'm giving them the chance to win a USB key and also my book, and so that encourages them to take their name and email address. And then I just press sink on this. Once I'm done the show and all of a sudden I have all their email addresses. I figured with all the time, how is spending, you know, reentering the emails that I couldn't even really understand or read. Most of the time, people make mistakes, but there's less mistakes, their heirs, when they're actually typing it in themselves. And also, you know, when there's an incentive that they could actually win something cool. You know, they're gonna really take the time to type it in properly. But, man, I was paying someone, I think, in the band toe enter the email addresses or I was paying someone on five or I was scanning in the sheets afterwards and was a pain in the butt. So I decided to switch to an iPad. It costs me, you know, a couple 100 bucks. But the time and the money I got back afterwards saved me so much. And now I have a a cool ipad that I can use elsewhere. So I encourage you start with the paper if you want. There's a template that I've attached to this that you can print out, and you could just mock it up or change it to put your own information on that. But at least give you some ideas, but you want to be collecting email addresses at the show's okay, because you want to continue that relationship with the fans that you just connected with okay, because you might not connect with them to get they might not be on INSTAGRAM. They might not be on Facebook or Snapchat or whatever the latest social media is. You can't assume that everybody is on social media because some people just aren't interested. But some people have email addresses and everybody that has a social media account. Where did they used to log in their email address? So I really encourage you to get that, because it is the most intimate way you can connect with your fans. Because remember, Facebook doesn't let us just reach all our fans anymore. Same with Instagram and same with the Twitter. You know that the feet is so fast, but with an email that is very personal, that the fact that they're allowing you to send them something into their inbox. OK, it's a very special thing and you definitely don't want to send them e mails that are like Bye bye bye, my stuff by my stuff. No, you want to say Hey, how's it going? You know, use the picture from the Here's the photo from the show. You know, it just happened to your hope you like that. Here's one of our music videos. Watch this. Here's a story or behind the scenes thing where we get really intimate and shared on how we were inspired to write this song and you just build with them so I can't tell you again how important it is to build an email list at the shows. 10. Training Volunteers: you guys in this lecture. I want to talk about the people running your merchandise, whether you have a full time person that you've hired that comes on the road with you. Ah, lot of bands. Once they got into a certain level that they'll just have a full time merchandise person. Or it might be someone in the band. I know this one being Skillet there, there, violinist that they have. He runs and coordinates all the merchandise. Another of people works the drummer. It's the basis the guitarist normally not the lead singer because they're normally super busy connecting with the fans and whatnot. But someone in the team that can run the table and really know what they're doing. Other times you can have volunteers and volunteers is really great Aziz, long as you've trained them and they know what's up. Sometimes I'll actually give them, um, a phone or an iPad or have them log onto square on my phone and make sure I go over the price list. Normally, when I'm training volunteers to, I say, Hey, pick out a shirt, pick out a CD, just want to say thank you so much, have them wearing your gear If there are volunteer because then when people see it there, like all that sick, it's just another form of advertising and works so well. And it really inspires your volunteers toe work even harder for you. Some of them might be like, You know what? I was gonna buy something anyways, and sometimes I forget to give them something. I do it at the end of the night and they're like, Oh, like you pick out a shirt or take a book or a CD or something like, Oh, I already bought something like, Okay, we'll get this tour. I'll give them something else or taken extra one for a friend. Or when I just toe say thank you for running our table, it means so much to us. You know, I haven't personally had any experience. Not that I know of, of anyone stealing our stuff for stealing money, thank God. But it does happen. So you need to be aware of that. And the people that you know are the volunteers. You know, you talk to the promoter and make sure they're trustworthy and that they have, you know, done this before. Know what they're doing. You don't want volunteers that are dead. They're just like, you know, I've seen that sometimes I get these volunteers and people are coming up to the table and they obviously want to buy something. And the person just like standing there just like a zombie. It's like, Hey, talk to them. They obviously want to pick something up, you know? So you want to have good volunteers that can communicate Well, you wanna have good looking ball in tears. I know that sounds really raw or whatnot, but have one body in a band. He said he had tohave girls running his table and you want to know why girls sell better girls by more and they do it a lot more often not saying that guys can't do it. But if you can't have girl volunteers Hey, I suggest that you know what I mean and it does make a difference. Remember? Actually a buddy of mine a long time ago, he came on the road with us for a while, and he ran on merchandise table cause he was just such a good communicator. And to be honest, he was a bit of a flirt with girls and he was able to get more merchandise sold, so we didn't care. We just wanted him there because he was crushing it so that they can perform. It could make a huge difference, basically, between having someone that knows what they're doing behind the table and doesn't like, I'm talking hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. Depending on how big the show is, you want to have someone that can knock it out. The park. That's quick. Grabbing the march, grabbing the shirts, sizes, you know, can run the credit card understands all that stuff is good, exchanging cash and keeping things moving and keeping that line going, you know what I mean? Because otherwise you lose sales. You know, I it's happening, Me mum time my wife at this big festival. We had the merchandise, people, volunteers, But then we had the autograph line, and so my wife took a box of CDs and posters and went through the autograph Linehan saying , Hey, do you want to buy a poster a CD for him to sign? Because they hadn't picked one up yet? We drove up sales, even Mawr. That's a $1,000,000 idea right there that will pay for the whole price of this course right there. But on the act, go through the marching Nice line, man. I know bands that would walk through it at the end with with CDs and just connect with people, especially the fans that are lined up. You know, another festive. Remember a guy. Just hold up a box really high up in the air and remember him just selling those suckers out like crazy. So there's so many different creative things that you can do to move more merch. But you want tohave. Good volunteers take the time to train them. Go through the priceless show them the credit card swiper thing with square. I can get that set up, even if you have to log in on their form phone. Or if you have an iPad that's already there are are ah, designated phone. That's not your phone that they can use to take credit card on da MasterCard visa. All that stuff. So again, train your volunteers higher good volunteers. It will make a big difference in your bottom line. It's years 11. Displaying Your Merchandise: So when it comes to setting up your merchandise display, you want to make sure you have your shirts in body molds or your hoodies and body molds and maybe hanging Cem. You know, posters up there or hats or what not, but I got these body molds. Get him off amazon dot com. I'll put a link to him where you can order these so you can display your merch, right? You want to make sure you have those up there. Some venues you know you won't be able to display and set up your polls. I have this of these polls called ultimate Polls. I'll put a link in here as well, to just so you can set up a nice display with your banner behind you, whether that's your album cover or your logo, and you normally have this at a festival or the bar. Wherever you're playing a show, you have a really nice display so people know where you are and it looks good. You've got lights up there so that you can light up the march, especially when it comes to clubs and bars, or sometimes wherever, when it gets dark at night at the festival's just so that they can see your merch and they know where you are. And then this looks sick and looks pro. So let me just go over this one more time. You want to have some polls? The company that I ordered, my polls one is called Ultimate Polls. To spay Paul's, we can get any lighting poles or what? Not anything that has the two poles and then the poll, that girl or so the two stands and then the poll that goes across so that you can hang your banner and just pick up some red clips from like Home Depot or on Amazon or something like that, so that you can clip your banner to it. And then you can hang your shirt molds with some some hangers or what not. Get any hangers from any store and your shirts. Have a poster up there or your hoodies or whatnot, and then plug in some lights are gonna need an extension court, Of course, sounds like a lot of stuff, but it's really important to have all these things when you're going to a festival to make sure you have a really nice display to set you apart from there. The banks, you know, you know, there's been shows Sometimes I don't fly with my poles all the time anymore. What? Not especially if I'm headlining and it just depends on the event, because sometimes I just want to bring more merch than I want to bring that I want to bring all the polls in the details. But if I'm on tour, I'm doing a big festival. I make sure that I had the display looking awesome because I want to move is much. Murch is I possibly can, and I want it to be easy for people to find me because you could be at a big event or whatnot, and then people just can't find you just don't know where you are. But if you can stand out and you've got your logo on its the same local that maybe you had in your show, because if you're using video projections in your show, which I hope you are, so that you can have your logo in your images and then you can continue to have your brand over and over, and then people start to associate your brand from the show. I remember seeing that logo. That image. Oh, there it is, right there. Maybe during this show, you were like, Hey, here's a free CD. Get these at our merchandise table. Look for this shirt, toss it out to the crowd, and then hopefully people find you. And again, you know, if people sometimes by shirts at this show or Hoody and they start wearing it right away. And guess what happens when people start wearing stuff right away, like, Oh, that's sick. Where did you get that? I got that way over there. And if you've got that only on your table when people get to it and it's not. Yep, on the banner, it's gonna be harder for people to find you. So that's why it's really important to invest in getting body molds and making your display look really awesome again. It will pay back 10 fold for investing in all this stuff. I know again it might seem a lot, but you just check off each item and you build and you build in your building. I wanted to go into debt for this stuff, but these were certain things that you want to get in place to set you apart from the other bands 12. Sale Bin or No Sale Bin: sale been or no sale been. I've seen this. A different art shows at festivals, at concerts, wherever at the shows or whatnot were bands will basically have a bin or a company. A clothing company will have a bin, and they'll just be like all these shirts tossed into another. This a $10 shirt. Sales been, and I've seen people just kind of going through that been buying shirts. And so you know what it does drive from sales. But again, sometimes it takes the focus off your new stuff in this stuff that you really want to move , and people are just kind of digging for that sale. But it really just depends how much merch you've gotten, how much stuff You really have to move. If you're just a new band, you might not even have a sale been yet. But biggest that point where you've got shirts that are just sitting around and they're not moving, you know, you can sure you can put them up on the on the display behind you and put you know, $10 on Lee and do a deal on those and make sure you promote that from stage or you say, Hey, we got a deal on a bunch of our shirts. Make sure you check out if you want to get a deal, go check of the $10 shirt, Ben, and do that. I'm gonna do that again on ah couple shows we got going up because we have some designs that just aren't moving fast enough. And you know what? Shirts only cost me five bucks, so I'll sell them for 10. Selling for eight, if I really am desperate were barely 10. You don't at least double my profit in any shipping costs and what not, But again, they're wearing my merchandise. So it's advertisements got my logo on and they're rocking it. So, like, what do I care? You know what it means. So it's zits up to you. Sometimes it does take away from the main shirts and what not, But it could also move a ton more merch, and it's not just, you know, making the money. It's the advertising you get from people rocking. It will hopefully bring you more Momenta people like, Oh, where'd you get that shirt? Well, it's a $10 says got. Moreover, they're all sick you know you ran out of them. OK, ran out. But you know what? We'll give you a deal on. One of our new ones will give it to you for 15 or by for 20 and we'll give you a free CD that only cost us a dollar. So you're several in a $20 shirt. You got the upscale. Give him a dollar CD with it. That cost will cost you a dollar, and you're moving a $20 items. So most some different tricks and things that you can do to get your merchandise moving. 13. Tip Jar For Gas Money: tip jar or no tip jar to get that gas money to get those tips at the shows. Sometimes you'll see a little jar on a merchandise table. Or it could be a little box, a cardboard or a CD box and written with Sharpie gas money. I've seen skulls and different uh, you know, musicians, bands, getting all artistic with it. And basically they just got a tip jar on the merchandise table to ask for gas money or what not help us get to the next show, and you'd be amazed at how well this works. I've seen tons of bands do it, and I've done it a couple times before. It's not a common thing that I do personally because, you know, we've been flying a lot lately and what you get to a certain level, you know, it looks a little tacky when you're still asking for money. When you're that, you know, underground band just getting started. What not? It totally fits the profile. It's totally awesome. And people just want to support you. You know, when you put yourself out there and you just ask, just like a Kickstarter campaign, you'd be amazed at how generous and how much people want to help you. I mentioned this earlier, but that whole idea of you know at the show you're on stage and you're saying, Hey, thanks so much for coming to the show. It means a lot to us tonight for our CDs in our music. Man, we're doing this thing tonight. We're just pay what you want. It really means us a lot to us that you at least get a copy of our CD. It doesn't. What if you can afford a dollar cool to five? Whatever. Just pay what you want. The main thing is we just want you to walk away with our CD tonight so that you can remember this experience that we shared and you can really smooth that over and make it really clear and just really connect with the artist is like a guys. Thanks so much for coming to the show, our CD at the back tonight. We just want to give it to you or pay whatever you can. We just want to make sure that you walk away with a copy of our new CD because it means so much to Was that you rocked out with us tonight and we look forward to coming back. So pay whatever you can. If you can't afford anything that's cool. Still, take one, because we'd love to have you out. And you know that just that generosity thing, you know? I mean, you're giving. And then people tend to want to give MAWR. My buddy did this again. Killed it. Well, it's the same thing with this tip jar again, you know? I mean, you connect with the people, you're not begging, you're just giving them the opportunity to give. And there's a really good book. I put the link to it below here, but it's Amanda Palmer's book, The Art of asking, You know, I mean, where she would pass that bucket around or passed the bag or the person around at night just allow people to give. It's amazing when you just put yourself out there toe ask. You know, those that ask received. So I really encourage you. Try it out if it works with your brand and see the impact and see how much extra money you can raise so that you can keep doing what you love. You know, people want to see you keep doing this, so hey, try it and let me know how it works. 14. How To Calculate Your Per Head: Hey, guys, in this little bonus lecture, I want to talk about the per head calculation. This is a term we use at live events, concerts and basically what it is is. It's how much merchandise you sold compared to how many people were there. For instance, there's 1000 people. Or let's just say there's 100 people at this event and you sold $1000 worth of merch. Well, then you would divide the $1000 worth of merch by the 100 people that were there, and you get a total of 10. So that means that you did $10 per head. Okay, which is very good. Maybe you'll hear people say, Oh, if you could do at least a dollar a head, that's awesome. Well, I think that anywhere from like, you know, 3 to 10 is really awesome, because there's been times where there has been only 100 people there, and we sold $10 per head and made $1000 merch, as that is, the amount of people tends to go up when you get you know, hundreds and thousands of people. The per head tends to go down because Normally there's more competition, and there's more bands there and things going on, but it really depends on the event or what not. But you really want to aim for a good between five and $10 a head, and you do that by practicing, engaging in implementing some of the things I've taught you in this course to drive that number up. And you do that by having awesome merch. You do that by connecting with the audience, being able to accept credit cards, having good volunteers having a beautiful display, not being pushy at this shows, and basically going through this course and doing all the things that I showed you and practice, practice, practice, make things better, improve on it and drive that per head number up so that you can crush it at all your live events. I want to say thanks so much for taking this course. Keep going out there, keep practicing, keep making new designs, trying something new. Remember, the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results. If you want different results, you've got to try different things. I believe in you guys and I'll chat with you soon. Cheers 15. Hanging Out At The Merchandise Table: You know, I feel kind of funny talking about this, but I see it happen again and again and again. You know, a new band. They'll start out and Bill after the show, they'll hang out at the merchandise table, which is so important because it's the fans that you want to connect with. But then the band or blow up and they'll have success and they'll stop hanging out in the merchandise table. And I understand that, you know, obviously, once you get to a certain level has to be very organized and you've got security and you've got people around you and the shop is already sitting at the table, and after the show, you'll go down and, you know, they just send the people in one by one, and they can take the photo with, um and sign an autograph. But if you're not at that level yet, you know you should still be going out to the merchandise table to network with other artists. Meet the people, meet the fans, hang out there, just chill out. You're having a drink or whatever, and just socializing with people on making friends because you're building super fans. Your building lifelong customers as well by hanging out with these people in building relationships. Sometimes just the fact that you hung out with people and your meeting with them will mean they'll just want by your stuff all of a sudden because you hung out with, um But if you don't grow there, you don't have the ability to kind of make that connection with people. And so I encourage you after the show, wipe the sweat off, get a drink, spray some clone on yourself, and then head up to the merchandise table and meet people. Okay, Hang out with the make sure you got, you know, one of your guys coming up there with you to you know, if you're in a band, make sure everybody is there Networking, hustling, moving CDs. Okay, I remember walking up to people after the shows and the clubs in the in the early days and asking them to buy my music if they weren't walking up to the table. I was like, Why? I need to put gas in my tank. And so I would walk around and say, Did you see the show? Did you like it cool? You want to buy a CD, and some people will look at me like what? The strangest look on my face. And some people would be like, Yeah, I'll pick one up. But you know what? That was the scariest, the most uncomfortable thing ever. But you know what? I did it because I needed to pay the bills. And if you want to do music is a full time career. You need to get your butt at that merchandise table and meet people. Take photographs as many as they want. Selfies. Let them ask you all the questions. I was out of show here today and this guy had a little note pad of all these different questions. He wanted to ask me because he thought he would forget. He wanted to write them down and remember his wife was even like. Okay, enough, Enough. And I was like, No, it's fine now. That's why I'm here. That's why I came out there is because I want to meet with you guys and guess what he was wearing. My honey, Same with his wife. Bought more stuff and guess who was rocking front row. Just going nuts the whole time. It was that guy and so man like he's gonna be an evangelist of my music. You know, if you heard that whole story of all you need is 1000 fans. I would love to have 1000 guys like that that air that passionate about my music, telling other people, becoming evangelists of my music. Well, how do you do that by going and connecting with people, taking the time, not being rude or too cool to go out there, You know, and I understand when you get to a certain level, it needs to be a little bit more structured and organized because I don't wanna be mobbed because I've definitely been at those festivals where it's just like people are just like it's just like too much, just like I got to get out of there, you know? But if you're not at that level yet, get out there so you can get to that level. Because remember, it's the fans that make you. And when you do make it, don't be one of those artists are bands. That's just like that. I'm not gonna sign tonight. Now I'm not gonna sign and we sign if you got the time. Make the time. Get out there, sign. Meet your fans because it'll pay dividends years down the road. 16. Mentioning Merch From The Stage: in this lecture, guys, I want to talk about mentioning your merchandise from the stage when you're performing, whether it's in between songs or at the end before you get off the stage, it blows me away that so many bands don't do this. They don't take the time to do it or they don't do it well because they feel uncomfortable about telling people about merchandise. But look at it. They're there to see you perform. You just rocked their faces off. You just sung songs that really touched their lives. Tell them about your CDs. Tell them about the deal that you got back and how excited you are about this new merchandise designed you got back there. You don't have to be weird and awkward about it. You could be encouraging, exciting and be like, Hey, guys, we just got our new CD. It's got that song we just saying on you guys were walking out to will sign it for you would love to meet you at the back and hang out with the activist show come you to sell, take photos with you as well. People get excited about that and you know what they go back and I encourage you during your show. If you can at least mention it once, if not twice, or even three times if you can fit it in there at least two times will make a huge difference at the middle. And also at the end of your show you do it at a high point where you're really connected is once the Hey, guys, Thanks so much for coming to the show is awesome hanging out with you We've got this new shirt design of the back about this song. It's got this on It would love to sign it for you and hang out with you guys at the back again at the end of the show. You could be like, Hey, guys, thanks so much. This is our last song. We'd love to meet you and sign autographs at the show. We brought a bunch of merchandise. We got these new sick hoodies that we just got done that got our logo on the back and our new album cover lyric or something like that and would love to meet you at the back. Just mention it, just mention it. Or maybe you want to say even this Say, you know, tonight we're giving away our free music or free CDs. If you sign up on our email list, say anything that you can to encourage people to go back to the merchandise table sometimes will say, Hey, we're giving away free skateboarder Freed this If you sign up at our email list at our merchandise table, whatever you can do to encourage people to go back to the table, to meet you and hang out is amazing. Some bands will even turn around and take a photo with them in the audience, right? And then they'll say, Hey, if you want to get this photo that we just took of all of us together, go sign up on our email list and will make email it to you for free, order Toby on our Facebook or follow us on Facebook or Instagram or Snapchat and we'll post it. This is great ways to engage with your audience and build that relationship because this is the thing you know. You connected with them. You rocked their faces off you perform. You shared a story. You shared an intimate experience together. How can you continue that relationship with the wall by then buying your CD, wearing your shirt, something that they remember that night. You know, I've heard some bands even just say, Hey, you know what? Tonight we just wanna, you know, really share this experience with you. We're doing this thing with our music is pay what you want If you don't have any money, please still take a CD because we want to share tonight with you And he was amazed at how many more CDs he sold merchandise he sold just by saying, I just wanted to connect with you guys and people even paid more than the standard $10 for a CD. Some people paid 23. I'm sure some people only paid a dollar and some people took some for free. But the thing is, your building fans, and then the next time you go on, play that city or play that club, you know what? You're gonna have Even more people you want to think about building for the long term 17. Travel Hacks: Hey, guys, in this lecture, I want to give you some of my travel and packing tips and hacks. After 1000 shows in 22 countries, I've learned a few things, and here's my best. Okay, so let's start with this. When you're packing your traveling as faras bags go, I love Oh, Geo bags. Okay, I'll put up a little image here for you so you can see the O Geo bags I use, but I love these bags. Why? Because the wheels on them are awesome there, so smooth going in going out there. Lifetime warranty, their strong, durable and they freakin last. And if something goes wrong with that bag you send down, you send a thing in. I think you got to cut out the the little you PC or the logo on it, but you send a picture toe geo and they replace the bag. I've had tons of bags replaced. Yes, it's like 152 100 bucks up front. But you know what? That bag will last way longer. It's more durable. It's smoother, it's easier, it's nicer. The quality doesn't ripping all this stuff. But then again, if something does go wrong, the freakin replace it for you for Brie so I can highly recommend enough. Oh, Geo, I'll put a link so you can get to it on Amazon and get a really good deal there. But I highly recommend Oh, Geo for the backpack, for the bags, everything the small roller at the big rollers, everything. The only time I ever not using Oh Geo is if I may be doing a a certain fly date where I have to bring tons and tons and tons of merchant and I'll get maybe I'll just, you know, by one of those 20 or $30 kind of like duffel bags that are like, really skinny and like that you just zip up because they're even lighter and I'll just cram every last bit of merchant there. But most of the time, I swear, bio geo, I live bio geo than not paying me to say this actually didn't spots me a long time ago and used to give me a cost dealing. Get that deal again. But I just really believe in that company. Just love. I just love their products. Love the products. The second thing for active is stay loyal when it comes to flights when it comes toe hotels , when it comes to renting cars. Okay, because once you get status on an airline for, say, I fly with United Airlines, Once I hit silver, I got one free bag. Once I hit gold, I got three free bags. Plus, I got to get to the lounge. Plus I got priority boat boarding. And when I get to go to the lounge, that means I get free food. It also gave me started to give me free upgrades on their flights. And so, you know, saving money huge on bag fees because I always bring at least three bags and some airlines . I think it's after two bags. It's like 100 mawr per bag. Okay? And just, you know, the amount of money I have saved on free bags once I hit that tear is huge. Got my bags quicker. I got priority boarding. I got free upgrades. So free food. So I just saved so much money, especially when I'm connecting in a different airline like I'm living in Canada right now, but I would connect to like, um, you know, Chicago or Denver. Whatever. There's always be a layover somewhere. Well, I'd go to the United Club, you know, because I'm status. I get to go to the club and there's free drinks. But that's like alcoholic drinks, food, you know, desserts, Internet. You know what I mean? A nice bathroom where it's quiet. You can work and just chill out. And you don't have to be out in the out in the airport, where it's all noisy and crazy is get that nice calmness. Rest, read, do some work. Whatever. Oh, my gosh pays dividends. Plus, you get the points. You know, a bunch of free miles and points that you can use for other flights. So every year, because I fly so much, I would get just so many flights for free. And I said, Can't tell you how much it's worth it, as opposed to just jumping from whatever airline all the time. Just trying to get the cheapest. You know what it's not worth. It pays to be loyal, and this is the exact same thing when it comes to cars. When it comes to hotels, try and find one that you like. Stick with it. So you can get those rewards because it pays off in the end. Those are a few of my travel hacks for you. I hope it helps stay inspired and keep rocking.