Sales and marketing secret I learned at the age of 8.

My very early introduction into the profession of sales and marketing was as a shill for a boardwalk general merchandise "auction house" on the Jersey shore. The auctioneer asked me to simply stand there looking and listening intently to the auctioneer at the front of the big open room facing the boardwalk while he spoke (to me) about his "ginzu knives" and "magic peelers". 

My being there made it okay for others to stand next behind me to look and listen. Think of what happens when someone stands on a sidewalk and looks up at a building... others stop to look. Then as the the group grows bit by bit the auctioneer moves back into the room bit by bit a few feet at a time. I would move in with him... every few minutes... as he moved back into the auction house so they could "hear better" or "feel the air conditioning" or "see the product better"... step by step until he finally asked them to sit in the seats that were there for them... now too comfortable to get up and too enticed and invested in the story and pitch to leave. They were his for the taking... and I earned my quarters for pinball.

TRADE SHOW EXHIBITOR TIP:

Stand outside your booth and look into it so those walking the aisle will be more likely to stop and see what it is you're looking at. 

Shill

noun

1.

(slang) a confidence trickster's assistant, especially a person who poses as an ordinary customer, gambler, etc, in order to entice others to participate

2.

a person who publicizes or praises something or someone for reasons of self-interest, personal profit, or friendship or loyalty.

verb (used without object)

3.

to work as a shill:

He shills for a large casino.

verb (used with object)

4.

to advertise or promote (a product) as or in the manner of a huckster; hustle:

He was hired to shill a new TV show.

Word Origin: perhaps shortened from shillaber a circus barker, of unknown origin