One of the most effective things you can do when you work a tradeshow is to sit down after its over and figure out what worked, what didn’t, what you wish you’d done and what you learned from the experience. I’ve not had time to really clarify my thoughts on all this yet, but I wanted to share with you my initial impressions, while they are still fresh in my mind.

The best money I spent on the show was in making name badges for myself and my crew.
Normally, most trade shows will issue ID badges that get you into a show, that have your named printed on them. This is beneficial for both exhibitors and attendees, as it puts you on a first-name basis, the minute you walk up to someone. The show didn’t provide badges with names – just a logo and your type of badge (exhibitor, artist, access all areas, etc.) Big mistake. I don’t know why – they should have. But my badge told everybody immediately who I was, without an introduction. That was valuable.

The biggest waste of money was on a poster I had done at the last minute at Kinko’s.
It didn’t turn out well, and it wasn’t big enough to do any real good. If you can’t afford to go large – go home.

I am still always surprised at how people don’t put their brains in gear before engaging their mouths.
I had an 11 x 17″ sign made that read: “Show Special: $395 (plus shipping and handling).” I can’t tell you how many people ignored the sign and asked how much our guitar stands were. I don’t know that anybody actually read the bloody sign.

It’s always a good idea to hedge your bets regarding expected behaviors.
I expected to see lots of sales. Nope. Not a one. I did NOT expect to see a lot of dealer interest, nor did I expect a lot of manufacturers to be interested in our products. They were. Because I went ahead and spent money on printing up brochures, I had something to put in their hands. Without a brochure, I would have been up the proverbial creek, without a proverbial paddle.

Don’t let your plans blind you to opportunities.
I went into this thinking that I’d do best selling the guitar stands direct to the public via the web. The tradeshow was to be a test of how well the product would be received, test the price point, and get some much-needed feedback from the public. We received universally-positive feedback, no stated resistance to the price, and a lot of interest. But…we didn’t sell any. This is what’s madning about marketing – we suffered through a day and a half of rain, the current enconomic downturn, and what I considered to be a less-than-optimal booth location. How many could we have sold if these factors hadn’t come into play? No way of knowing. But the dealers were seeking us out, asking about dealer margins, as well as other models. That’s encouraging. Even better, we had a lot of interest from manufacturers who are interested in offering the stands through their own dealer network. That could be huge. Had we insisted on sticking to our plan to sell direct, we’d have completely missed the potential deals with manufacturers and dealers.

You have to get someone’s attention before you can sell them anything.
I spent money on a nice, retractable banner (31″ wide by 84″ tall!) a carved wooden sign with my company logo, business cards, brochures, et cetera. Some worked. Some didn’t. But because you never really know where your booth will be located ahead of time, or what your neighbor’s booths will look like, you can have no real idea of what kind of impact your booth will have on passers-by.Your best laid plans can all come a-cropper, for no better reason that your booth is in a bad location, or you get stuck in among vendors that don’t draw others to your booth. It’s a crapshoot, and there’s little you can do, but go in with a reasonable plan and be ready to improvise.

Trade shows are physically and mentally draining.
Especially music trade shows, which are, by default, incredibly noisy affairs. When you are surrounded by amplifier manufacturers, you’re gonna get blasted. Even worse, every guitarist that equates being good with showing off, is going to trot out every riff he ever learned, and play it fortissa-issa-issimo, so the people in the next three counties can hear him.

That’s it for now. More later.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 19th, 2009 at 9:12 pm and is filed under marketing.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.