One of the easiest ways to lose a sale if you are selling something to the public is to NOT have the price of an item where it can be easily seen by a potential buyer. Customers do not want to shuffle through items of merchandise looking for a price tag, Plus, they do not want to chase down a seller to ask for the price!
I recently went to an outdoor art festival in Florida where I came upon a vendor selling her art and prints. I stopped to admire the prints (1) because I wanted to know the price and (2) to see if her prices were competitive to other artist. (Ok, I admit I was doing my own little market analysis of what prints were going for in the area since I too am an artist. Unfortunately, she had stepped away from her booth and had someone else filling in for her. I asked the salesman the price of the prints and boy was he flustered. He had no idea what the price was, but was willing to make me a deal. I had to laugh, Naturally, had I been a paying customer and not doing research for my own benefit, he would have lost a sale (which I am sure in his mind, he thought he did!) I thanked him anyway and proceeded on to look at other artisan’s work. Just as I had taken abut 10 steps, he came running up to me, explaining the art was that of his wife’s and she said the prints were $30. I still had to laugh and politely excused myself, but I wondered how many sales the vendor had lost because she failed to properly price her art products!!
Lesson Learned: Always price your products where customers can see the prices of every item clearly and DON’T TAKE YOUR HUSBAND TO WORK WITH YOU!