Hello! It’s Avis from Avie Designs again with my series on Preparing for Trade Shows. This is my last post in this series and I have thoroughly enjoyed sharing this with you, I hope you all have found my tips useful.

Today we’re going to talk about what happens when you get back from the show. More likely than not, you will have a stack of business cards, some catalogs and many many opportunities in front of you. Or maybe you don’t.

Rifle Paper Co. at the National Stationery Show by s. treatzone

There are 3 potential outcomes of a show: You were successful beyond your wildest dreams; you had a moderate amount of success; or you had no business, no visitors and terrible feedback. If you fall into the last category, you may honestly want to sit back and re-think your business plan or product. As I mentioned last time, you can learn a lot about what retailers want by listening to them at the show. If everyone that stopped in your booth told you that no one would ever buy your product, they might be right and it might be time for you to shake things up. I’m not advocating giving up, I’m just saying you may be headed in the wrong direction.

If you were successful beyond your wildest dreams, you don’t need my advice, you probably need financing. You’re probably scrambling around figuring out how to deliver on the promises you made. And that is something specific to every business and I can’t really help you there.

If you had some success, some orders, some positive feedback, then this is where I can help you:

1. Review everything that happened: You need to sift through everything that happened so that you can prioritize your next move. There are some things that need to be dealt with immediately and some items that can wait a little while. You can also go ahead and weed out anything that you don’t need to deal with at all. Since you took very detailed notes, sorting through the information will be a breeze.

Mr. Boddington at the National Stationery Show by sadjeans

2. Fulfill orders that were placed at the show: If orders were placed, then you need to move towards filling those orders. Contact whoever you need to contact and get going on those. You also need to contact the stores that placed those orders with any information they need too. Hopefully you gave them an accurate ship date when they placed the order at the show but if something comes up and you cannot deliver as promised, you need to keep them in the loop, you’d be surprised at how patient they can be. But get going on it, you don’t want them to forget about you and your product.

3. Contact everyone else you see potential with: You will meet so many people at a show and not everyone is going to be a good fit for you. Once you have decided what contacts you are interested in pursuing, decide how to contact them. I would suggest a simple email to start. Many people will request information from you, or want you to mail them a catalog so go ahead and email them acknowledging that you are in the process of filling their request. Then you can think about a more elaborate follow up.

This is just like your pre-show advertising, you can spend tons of money, or not, to refresh their memory of you. Since you will probably have many contacts gained from the show that you want to turn into potential sales, this is an important step. You may want to include photos of you at the show to jog their memory, samples of your product, a catalog or other items specific to you and your product.

Gold Teeth Brooklyn at the National Stationery Show by the obsessive imagist

4. Investigate the people that want to do business with you: Not only is there great potential to meet people that will purchase your product at the show, there is also great potential to meet people that will become your vendors or collaborators. You need to do your research on each and every one of them to see if they are a good fit for you. Just because you were all excited at the show when you met them, does not mean they are right for you and your company. Really sit and think about where you think your company is going and where you want it to go before jumping into any relationship from the show.

5. Figure out the lesson from the show: You can really learn from your customers and now is the time to integrate that knowledge. Decide what changes you will or won’t make in your business based on the show feedback and start to implement them.  You may have noticed that only high-end boutiques were stopping and placing orders at the show. How can you further cater to their customer and therefore enhance your sales?

Again, it has been such a pleasure sharing this with you and I hope to be back soon with another series. I better get working on one!

- Avis Wampler, the creative force  behind Avie Designs, writes the column Growing Your Business: Preparing for Trade Shows series. Read more about her on the contributors’ page.

Hello! It’s Avis from Avie Designs again with my series on Preparing for Trade Shows for my post called “You’ve made it to the show, now what?”. I am right off the plane from my trip to the National Stationery Show in NYC so this subject is fresh in my mind.

At a trade show, you’re pretty much tethered to your booth for a few days and it becomes your home. A better way to think of it is your very own retail store. And as with any retail store, there are a few techniques to make sure that you sell the product successfully.

1. Look alert and attentive:

I can tell you that I walked by booths at the show where people were reading magazines, sitting down and looking disinterested. This does not help to make your booth look inviting to passersby. You do not need to stand the entire 4 days, but standing or sitting, you need to look alert and ready to answer questions.

2. Anyone can walk into your booth so be friendly to all:

These shows attract all sorts of industry people. Press, buyers, artists, resources and competitors. It can be hard to tell right off the bat what role each person will play in your business so it’s best to be nice and greet everyone. At the National Stationery Show, badges are worn to differentiate the many industry groups but they can be hard to spot or read and it’s really not nice to look at someone’s badge before their eyes. Greet everyone like you would want to be greeted. You never know when someone from a major magazine or retailer is going to walk into your booth.

3. Be informative but not pushy:

When someone walks into your booth, great them, let them know you’re there to answer questions but do not overwhelm them. It’s a good idea to let them lead the conversation from that point on. You may feel free to add little tidbits of info as conversation starters but if they’re not into it, they’re not into it. Being too pushy can run someone out of your booth. You’ll learn quickly through trial and error during the show which information is exciting to buyers and which isn’t. When you stumble upon those magical words, you can then make sure you drop them with everyone that comes by. You should be able to answer all of the major questions that come up but there is bound to be one customer that asks you a crazy question and don’t be afraid to tell them that you’ll get back with them.

4. Listen more than you talk:

You can learn so much from the retailers at a trade show. They are your customer and you need to listen to them. If one person tells you something, it may not be relevant but if you hear is over and over again, it’s time to listen. This is a great place to learn about your customer so that you can give them what they want and in turn make more sales.

5. Have your materials ready:

Be sure to have your business cards, catalogs and order forms handy. There will be a lot of people that are seeing you for the first time and want to just take your information so that they can keep you in mind. You never know when this will turn into something later down the line, so freely give out that information but make sure to get their card too so that you can follow up with them. We’ll cover that in the next installment. Also, you never can tell when someone is going to say “okay, I’m ready to order” so you need to be ready at all times to take an order.

6. Be flexible:

Just this week, we realized pretty quickly that we needed to move one product to the front because it was a traffic stopper, so we changed everything around the first day. It helped a lot and many more people stopped than would have with our original display.

7. Be open to the possibilities:

You may think that you’re going to the show to sell your boxed stationery but you end up licensing your artwork instead. These are the types of possibilities that are available at trade shows and you need to be ready for them.

8. Write everything down:

There is so much going on at the show that you will not remember everything you promised everyone or the information you are given. Prepare a system for keeping up with notes and stick to it. Do not move on to the next item until you have documented what just happened.

9. Bring a chair, an extra person, water, food and comfy shoes:

A trade show is exhausting. Make sure you have someone to cover for you when you need to use the restroom. Make sure you have a place to sit down every once in a while and make sure you have provisions. It really is a marathon so be prepared.

Next time (June 7th) we’re going to be talking about “Post Show Follow Up”.

- Avis Wampler, the creative force  behind Avie Designs, writes the column Growing Your Business: Preparing for Trade Shows series. Read more about her on the contributors’ page.