1. It's very hard. You really put yourself out there for people to criticise and be rude. You need to have a thick skin and be confident enough in your product to know they are actually just rude.
How do you do this? Well start small, don't throw yourself at the mercy of a craft fair 1st time out. Take you stuff in to you work colleagues, church group, toddler group, where ever you have people who are your side. You still will get people who are a bit of hand but most people will find something positive to say. Take these comments and use them.
2. Know your market. I sell a wide range of bag sizes and I have discovered different bags for different people. Before the craft fair I thought how much do I usually spend as my max in a single purchase at a fair and with this in mind I made more of my 6inch bags. This was by far the most popular size and outsold the others hands down.
3. Find a natural born seller and befriend them. If you are quite shy about selling yourself, get someone else to do it for you, until you can see that people are interested. It is much easier for someone else to say how fab your stuff is. My person is Max, she is a true drama queen in every sense of the word, but only has my best interests at heart (btw I didn't befriend her just to sell my product). However be warned don't hard sell you customers, they will just walk away. I do.
4. Have lots of product. We all like to look and we will stop to look at someones work if there are plenty of things to look at. Have a good variety of price range, everybody has a price range and your need to cater to all.
5. Make your customer feel special. Go that extra sticker, it will pay off in the long run. No-one wants to get a lovely handmade item, or anything for that matter, shoved in a plain white plastic bag. Wrap it, stick it with some printed stickers, bag it in paper or wrap it.
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