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Despite the credit crunch that we are supposed to be in the grip of, there are still many, many companies who are thriving against the efforts of the media to frighten us into a recession. These companies are still producing the goods and services that they have to sell. Unfortunately, selling has gotten harder. The days when, 'if you invented a good mousetrap people would beat a path to your door' are gone. Selling now has to be on a more personal basis.
One of the most successful ways of selling on a personal basis is the TRADE EXHIBITION where you can meet potential and existing customers who are interested in your products and services; where you can give presentations (lots of them) and collect the details of people interested in your products. This is still a very big market.
One of the most useless ways of selling on a personal basis is the TRADE EXHIBITION. At trade exhibitions it's a case of meet me, meet my competitors. You may get a lot of people visiting your stand, but so will the opposition. You may get to present to a lot of people ... well, actually, you won't. Say you have a sales team of five. By the time you've wheedled out the people who are there for free drinks, you may, if you're lucky, have each salesperson present to five people a day in an atmosphere similar to King's Cross at rush hour. Your potential customer can then wander off to your competitor's presentation down the aisle.
By the end of the trade show, usually three days later, everyone is exhausted and sales performances are falling off dramatically.
However, that little box of customer contact details is full and all those very expensive brochures are gone. So it must have been a success, right?
Yes, that is, until you follow up your leads just as your competitors are doing. Then you find that you are the sixth person to phone Mr. Jones of XYZ Components that morning and he's not taking any more calls for the moment. He seemed such a nice man at the show too.
Will you have better luck with the contacts box? No. Trade shows, especially engineering type ones, are notorious for being inundated with students who stroll round with carrier bags bulging with brochures, free pens and key rings. Ah well, back to the drawing board.
PLAN B
Trade shows can actually be a good way to sell your product. Imagine if you had your own private mini exposition that you could hold at any time of the year where:
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