Kicking off the new year, many of you will be in the process of preparing your business or your clients' business for the shows.

#87 _Showing it off

We always get calls around this time of year from lots of clients getting ready for the new year of marketing.

With all of them, they'll be more worried about how much the giveaways will cost than the real issues of a show. I've attended hundreds of shows, and taken a number of clients to shows. We've planned and built displays, made all the arrangements, even trained booth personnel for the job. What many fail to understand is that getting to the show is only part of the picture. If you're getting ready for a show, please read the following and take heed. Your success will be greatly enhanced if you keep these things in mind:

1. Make sure booth personnel know how to deal with the public. This is of paramount importance. You've spent thousands of bucks to get there. Don't blow it on the show floor.

2. Dress for success! No one wants to chat with a booth person who looks unkempt and/or unwashed. Yes, the show can run you down. But plan a good break for all involved to return to the hotel room and freshen up. If this includes a change of clothes, then so be it. Make sure they're fresh and inviting.

3. Speak the Language. Nothing is worse than trying to get information from a booth person who can't speak English. Actually talk to your personnel before entering the show. If you are from foreign soils, that's great... but hire personnel who can fluently speak and understand the language of the local nationality.

4. Always positive. Never bad-mouth the quality of products from other companies. It's not only rude and in poor taste, it will turn off many important visitors.

5. Reach out. Always talk to showgoers. Most visitors will keep on walking when your booth personnel are talking to each other instead of the visitor.

6. One to one. The best results are obtained when you display and demo your product to no more than one prospect at a time. Each prospect has specific interests and questions. If another horns in on the conversation, and gets attention, the original prospect feels less important.

7. Be visible. If booth personnel are busy giving a demo to one or two people, make sure the demo can be seen by other passersby as well. Elevate the demo and speaker so they can be seen. Make sure your demonstrator faces the audience or the aisle of the trade show. No one wants to see the back of the presenter.

8. Know your stuff. Make sure your presenters know their stuff. They should be able to run the demo without looking at a monitor or projection screen. Nothing is worse than having a presenter admit they don't know something about the product.

9. Take enough. It's far better to haul literature, samples or freebies home after the show than to have to apologize that you ran out. Bad business. The one prospect who gets this lame excuse will turn out to be the head buyer from Wal-Mart who intended to buy 60-gross of the product!

10. Make Contact. This is most important all through the process. Booth personnel should make eye contact with the prospectives. If possible they should make physical contact. (Be careful!) Shaking their hand is best. Once you've made this contact you have their attention, and you've made a link from person to person. Get the contact... get their card and contact information. Then follow up on that contact.

Showing it off is good business. From the local fair or Chamber function to the big-time national consumer shows, it's an ideal opportunity to meet the consumers who use your product or service. Take it seriously, and you'll reap serious benefits.

Fred Showker

Fred Showker is director of The Design & Publishing Center on the web at http://www.graphic-design.com/, and is a co-founder of both The User Group Forum on America Online, and The User Group Network at http://www.user-groups.net/. He has been a user group activist and supporter since 1984.

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60-Second Windowô is a syndicated column by Fred Showker which appears in various monthly news services and many Macintosh User Group Newsletters around the world, and other computer, graphic arts related publications. 60-Second Window is copyright ©1986 - 1998, All Rights Reserved.

Fred Showker, nationally recognized designer author and speaker, is a 25-year veteran of the graphics industry, with his own firm Showker Graphic Arts & Design. Heís an associate editor for the Mug News Service (MNS) as well as Home & School Mac. You can see Fred in action at any of his Design & Graphics workshops around the country sponsored by Dynamic Graphics Educational Foundation, InHouse Graphics, PrintFest and others. You can chat with him directly on America OnLine, where he is ìAFA Shwkrî, a forum assistant in the User Group Forum (UGF), or in eWorld as co-host of the WORKING SOLO forum.
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