An Interesting Kiosk Experience...

Hi guys,

I'm a frequent lurker of this forum. I've enjoyed
the many business ideas and sales stories others
have shared here. I just had an interesting
experience at my local mall and thought other
visitors to this forum would find my experience
interesting as well. I'm not much of a writer, so
I apologize in advance for poor syntax or
grammatical errors.

I was walking through the mall yesterday,
browsing the display windows of the "brand name"
shops, not paying much attention to the many
kiosk vendors who had their stands set up
throughout the center isle of the main mall area,
when I heard a woman's voice say "Excuse me,
Sir". As she spoke to me, she literally pulled me
by my coat sleeve and lead me over to her kiosk.
As I turned to look at her, without saying
another word to me, she ripped of the baseball
cap I was wearing, and stuck a foreign object on
my head.

Normally, I would not have been too happy to have
someone violate my personal space like that, but
as soon as I got a good look at this woman, I had
no problem with what she was doing to me. She was
very pretty, about 20 years old, olive skin, long
flowing brown hair, brown eyes and spoke in what
I believe was a french accent. If some burly-
looking man had attempted to do the same thing to
me, I probably would have slugged him.

Anyway, this lovely young woman placed the
foreign object on my head before I ever had a
chance to see what it was. She immediately began
rubbing the object around on my scalp. Within
seconds, I received this very unique tingling
feeling throughout my entire head. It really felt
quite pleasant. In fact, it may have been the
most stimulating feeling I ever felt. No kidding!

As the young women continued to roll the object
around on my head, she asked me how it felt. I
told hear honestly that it felt great. My
statement put a big smile on her face and she
began to tell me all the benefits of the product
(relieves stress and headaches, great inexpensive
Christmas gift, etc, etc), as well as the many
different ways you can use it.

Her demonstration lasted approximately 45
seconds. When she was finished, she told me the
name of the product, which was something
like "The Octafessuer" (if anyone knows the
correct name of this product, please let me
know), and she told me the price. It was $25 for
the first one, and only $15 more for a second
one (it was a good incentive to buy at least
two). She then asked me (very sternly), "what
color do you want, and how many do you want.".
She did not ask me if I would like to buy one.
She asked me "how many....".

Now I want to tell you, this product really sells
itself. I was impressed by how it worked from the
demonstration. I was interested in purchasing two
of them. Plus, the fact that a pretty young lady
was staring me in the face while she confidently
asking how many I wanted, I just did not want to
say "no thank you" to her.

Unfortunately for me, she was running a cash-only
business, and I only had credit cards on me. When
I told her I only had credit cards, I don't think
she believed me, because she said if I buy from
her right now, she will take 10% off the purchase
price. When she said that, I was ready to tell
her to give me five minutes while I run to an ATM
machine. But, I did not tell that to her. I just
thanked her for the demonstration and walked way.
I may return this weekend with the cash :)

NOW THE MOST INTERESTING PART.....
Being a quasi-businessman myself, I was very
interested in knowing how well this lovely young
kiosk vendor was doing with her operation. When I
walked away, I bought some coffee and returned to
a bench near her kiosk so I could observe how
much actual business she was doing.

For the next 15 minutes, I paid special attention
to how much product she sold. In that 15 minute
time frame, I saw her demonstrate the product on
12 people (4 of which were couples she
demonstrate on at once). She sold a whopping 10
units to 7 of the 12 people (3 of the customers
bought 2 units each), and I don't know how many
of the customers bought at the 10% discount
she was offering to those who were hesitant to
buy. I'll let you do the math on how much cash
she is potentially making per hour, per day, etc.

BACK TO THE PRODUCT: As I mentioned above, I
don't remember the name of the product, other
than "The Octa... something or other". If
somebody knows what I'm talking about, please
reply to this post or drop me an email to let me
know the name of the product. Or, let me know if
you found the web address for it. I searched the
Net for it, but only found a similar product
called "The Tingler". "The Octa something or
other" looks similar to the "The Tingler",
but "The Octa..." looks more complex, which I
think gives "The Oct..." greater perceived value.

As I said before, this product really does sell
itself. But the key was the demonstration, and
how it was demonstrated. If I just walked past
the kiosk, and saw someone else being
demonstrated on, I would not have been interested
in the product. It would have just looked like
another gimmick, because the product itself does
not look like much of anything. But, the fact
that this pretty young women pulled me to the
side and placed this thing on my head (without
warning), I had no choice but to realize the true
appeal of the product.

Anyway, if someone is looking for a great product
to sell face-to-face for the holidays, you may
want to look into this one.

Well that's my story. I hope some of you found it
useful, or informative.

Thanks for letting me share,

- Eric Snyder