Ladies and Gentlemen: Trade Show World

My small business friend and I were commiserating about the toils of Trade Show World. She told me how she’s cried at every trade show. This is your baby (no pun intended for Punkster), what your selling is yours, out of your brain, your world every day all day. And if you sit at a trade show and they don’t like your goods, if they think you charge too much, if they walk by without looking in your booth, your little heart breaks. At least the business side of it. Punkster has had a great track record, except for Atlanta. The Atlanta Mart is a huge building and I think the biggest market in the country, but everyone warned us, that the South was not our market. Every one said they wouldn’t get us. We didn’t believe them. Maybe we should have. We spent the first day sitting . . ..  . Sitting . . . waiting . . .. looking out for people. . Waiting . . .. Nothing. The mart explained to us that they had switched the dates this year, that buyers had already come and left before we arrived. But it still didn’t help the self-business-esteem. We were personally offended, we were bored, we were over it. So we left. We posted a sign, “Be back in a minute. Call if you need us.” And we left our number, and our line guides and our invoices. And we came back one minute and three days later. It’s funny about trade shows, everyone down the aisles talk about how today is slower than normal, about how tomorrow it’s supposed to pick up, how its everyone else’s fault but theirs. And that’s fine. We will do the same thing. There are techniques to Trade Show World. We have a few popular ones. 1) The EVERYONE LOVES THIS ONE technique: As soon as you tell the buyer that this is the biggest seller at the show, everyone is getting this one, they will get it.  No fail. We thought about trying this out by saying the least popular ones were big sellers, but we can’t bring ourselves to give the customers bad shirts. Honesty, man! 2) The THIS BOOTH IS THE BEST or MOB MENTALITY technique: This one is very interesting, this one involves playing off what we know, which is, people are interested in what other people are interested in, no fail. So when no one is coming into our booth, my partner and I take turns pretending to shop. “Oh this shirt is amazing!” just walk around and such. It works every time, people feel more comfortable liking what they know other people like. It’s pretty funny to see this work! 3) The WE’RE TOO BUSY TO HELP YOU technique: This one is also very strange and the inevitable happens, as soon as you open your lunch, the crowds come. As soon as you are helping another customer, the crowds come in. As soon as you are talking to a store for 20 minutes the press badges pass you by. Always be busy, and you will always stay busy. Try these no fail techniques for success at any trade show, seeing as they are all the same. I can say this about trade show world; it is a great thing for business. I recommend doing trade shows as soon as you have all your production and back end of the business ready to go. Because as soon as you go to a trade show you better be ready to actually make the shirts people order. Many businesses have failed by not being able to fill the orders they get. But my best advice ever came from a friend that sell handbags, “Treesje Handbags” she said go to trade shows. She said you will sell retail online and make double the profit per shirt, but you will never get the bulk you need until you sell to other stores. This has proven to change our company. We did not become a legitimate business until we entered dreaded and exciting Trade Show World.