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Trade Show Mastery at 40,000 Feet
By Jeanne McLaughlin
At a recent food trade show in the Midwest, I bumped into a hypothetical entrepreneur I’ll call Marty. He’d been balancing a display of canned goods.
"No problema," Marty smiled, making eye contact briefly as he restacked the central display with a practiced hand.
Marty was on to other things long before I had a chance to apologize. As he schmoozed a bunch of supermarket buyers from the EU, I began to size him up as a sharp operator.
First, I watched him entice a passing troop of smiling Yokohama businessmen to stop by. Pretty soon, Marty was passing out price lists, translated into Japanese. Then he flagged down a group of buyers from Ghana, notable for their colorful garb... waded into an entourage of Middle Easterners... flagged down an entire cavalcade of Italian grocers. Whew!
It took several minutes for traffic to die down in front of his booth, but when it did, there was Marty, in the middle of the center aisle, comparing notes with one of his chief competitors.
The man is a natural, right?
Wrong.
A Flight From Trade Show Reality?
On a long flight home, guess who plopped down wearily in the seat next to me. Ah, but then he recognized me from our previous bumpy encounter.
Although my first reaction was to fake being asleep, it soon became clear even that wasn’t going to stop this guy from yakking. Instead I took an unplanned short course in one of the most specialized forms of performance art, the trade show-biz. And here I was, at the knee (or armrest) of a master.
An Art and a Science and a Lotta Work
The first thing I learned from Marty is that success is basically the effective execution of plans made weeks and months before the show. Although they may look impromptu, trade show successes don’t just "happen."
Of course he didn’t put
it quite that way. What he said was, "If you want to be at
the top of your class, you have to make sure you do your
homework."
"The first thing is to is decide on what you want to get out of it," according to Marty. Your objectives might include any of the following:
Only after Marty has written out his objectives is he ready to tackle the logistics of booth design and publicity.
Making Magnetic Moves
According to Marty, your booth should reach out and grab people--enough to break the ice and start a conversation. One way to attract people is to develop a theme that ties in with the purpose of the show.
When you plan your display area, consider plants, lighting,
carpeting, literature and giveaway displays–in Marty’s
words, "the whole works."
"Samples, shmamples," says Marty. "For certain products, there’s no getting away from them, but review your sampling policy carefully–especially if the cost of samples is significant."
Even if the products themselves are of small value, the cost in time and effort of hauling them and storing them at the show can be, as the master put it, "a real pain."
Worst of all, a "come-one, come-all" sampling policy can create crowds that may keep serious buyers at bay.
Yes, of course your booth concept is important. Equally important, though, is pre-show publicity that can help you make contact with the right attendees–the people who will be most receptive to your message.
Establish a fax list of buyers, agents, and distributors with whom you’ve worked in the past. You’ll find it’s a tremendous tool, so be sure you keep it updated.
The personal touch means a lot. Marty lets his contacts know exactly where and when he can be found at the show. In his note, he never fails to mention his booth’s highlights. Take a tip from Marty–don’t fail to mention anything that you feel is "a big deal."
Present a Professional Image
The Marty I met at the show was a pretty spiffy guy. And even if he wore jeans on the plane ride home, Marty insists there’s no place for casual attire on "the floor."
"I’ve got to portray a professional image to my clients. And what are potential customers going to think of me, based on first impressions?" he says.
Uncertain of the answer, I fiddled with my foil pouch of peanuts.
"Trade show selling is different from the personal selling your company personnel are used to doing. This time, the customers come to you–which means they already have a desire to learn about you and your products. Don’t let anything disappoint them–including the way you look."
"Remember, the best buyers are busy people. They appreciate the value of time. So be knowledgeable, friendly. . . and ready to deal on the spot."
"And don’t
keep people waiting, whatever you do," he stated with flat
authority.
"But above everything else...," he smiled, liveliness again burbling forth, "always be enthusiastic!"
Use the Buddy System
This guy was pretty sure of himself. I couldn’t resist throwing him at least one curve.
"So--what do you do if someone finished their business but just won’t go away?"
"You’d be surprised. That happens a lot," he replied, not missing a beat.
"If you’re smart, you’ll develop a strategy in advance to handle them. One of the best methods is to work with a buddy. I give my partner the signal–scratch my head or something. My buddy comes over and interrupts,as politely as he can. Tells me I’ve got to return a phone call right now. It makes it easy for me to apologize and detach."
. . . But Don’t Crowd Me
The buddy system’s a winner, but, according to Marty, two people to a booth are usually enough.
"Too many workers, and it can scare off potential customers," he points out.
As we taxied along the runway, Marty was winding down. But not quite. Ready to grab his luggage from the overhead compartment, my fictitious friend lingered long enough to pass along one last pearl of wisdom:
"There’s one more thing I’ve got to stress." An almost lyrical tone entered his voice.
"Be kind to your people if you expect to get good work out of them. Schedule booth staff for no more than three hours of continuous booth duty a day. Longer periods and you’ve got fatigue, strain...," his voice trailed off, then suddenly became brusque. "You’ll never meet your objectives that way."
My fictitious friend rose and debarked into a hypothetical airport.
______________________________
Jeanne McLaughlin is the editor of AgExporter. Tel.: (202)
720-0061; Fax: (202) 720-3229; E-mail: jmclaughlin@fas.usda.gov
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