Another twist to the "dumb" questions from customers: I attended a
workshop on sales techniques that was put on by Bruce Baker (somewhat well
known in the crafts world for his tapes and articles on the subject). He
suggested that the "dumb" questions like "did you make this" or "how long
did this take you" are really not requests for acutal information but what
he calls "giving you permission to sell". The concept is that the customer
is just saying something, anything, to get you to start talking about your
work. It's not about the actual question, but about the customer wanting
to know more about the work and letting you know it. This really opened my
eyes to a new perspective. So know when they ask how long it takes, I
launch into a description of the process, or my inspiration, or anything I
can come up with. But the question that really makes me roll my eyes and
groan is "what is woodturning? what is a lathe?"......

CD
boulder, co