Aaaahhhhh!!!
I was totally unprepared. I had no clue what to say to these people. The artist was giving them a guided tour of the show and as soon as she saw me in my booth she thought it would be good to introduce me to these customers. Well, it was really nice of her to do this, but I was completely unprepared.
I managed to stumble through a couple of sentences, but I just wasn't in "artist" mode yet. Needless to say, what came out of my mouth was not very compelling. And so, they walked away. They continued their tour and ended up buying several thousand dollars worth of someone else's art.
Moral of the story... Always be prepared to talk about your art. Have a couple of short, easy to say sentences that describe what you do. And, most important, practice them so you can say them instantly.