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.

As I’ve mentioned before, it’s been a few years since I’ve worked a tradeshow floor. (A fact my feet are reminding me of, even as I type. Some things never change.) I’m happy to say that I successfully anticipated most everything that could happen. But not everything. And some things, honestly, I would have done differently. Here’s a rundown on my DGS Tradeshow Experience:

THE GOOD:

The people have been universally nice and receptive. All the vendors share a spirit of camaraderie and cooperation. The attendees are polite. Most people dropping by the booth have been very receptive to my product.

THE BAD:

One guy I saw was walking around wearing a shirt saying “If it’s too loud, you’re too old.” Um…Not so much. I don’t mind loud, but I do mind guys that think the entire Dallas Market Hall wants to hear every riff he knows, cranking the amp to “11″ – over and over again. It gets so loud, you can’t THINK, much less talk.

THE UGLY:

The weather on Friday and for part of Saturday was Dallas’ very own version of the monsoon season. Rain and gusts up to 60 MPH tend to put a damper on the visiting public. Not fun. And don’t get me started on the economy.

THE TRULY STUPID:

I’ve done a lot of tradeshows. Some things I’ve just come to expect. Like booth numbers. Vendors listed on a map, given to each attendee. A P.A. System you can actually HEAR. WiFi access that doesn’t cost $250. (I’m NOT kidding.) A press room.

THE RESULTS:

I’ve gotten a lot of interest, but as I write this on Sunday morning, no sales in hand – yet. I’m not alone. Only one guy on my row has sold ANYTHING – and that was a couple of low-end, used guitars. Everybody else – nada. I don’t know if it’s the economy (I suspect it is), a “keep your powder dry for ‘great deals’ mentality” or something else, but nobody seems to be selling anything of note. The good news is that I’ve gotten a lot of interest from both guitar manufacturers and guitar specialty stores, in carrying my products. And I’ve made a huge number of contacts, which I expect will be valuable.

THE LESSONS LEARNED:

Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, guitarist extraordinaire of Steely Dan and Doobie Brothers fame, said at a clinic yesterday, “Play with everybody. Play everything you can. You never know where the guitar will take you.” He’s right. Much the same can be said of tradeshows. I set out, expecting this to be a show where I’d sell stands to “end-users,” bypassing manufacturer and dealer relationships to “go direct.” Looks like I was wrong. If I hadn’t been paying attention, I’m also learning that the people that are excited about this product want to order it once they get home, instead of at the show. (At least I hope that’s what will happen.) Some of the other vendors there have told me that they’ve found the Dallas Guitar Show to be big for used guitar sales and information gathering – a place for people to touch and see…and order later. Fair enough.

THE SURPRISES:

I’ve seen only two booth bimbos. Babes in short skirts, low-cut tops, and the IQ of a carrot were a staple of tradeshows (both musical instrument shows and computer shows) in the 80′s. I guess some things do change.

My strategy is a simple one – show the product to as many guitarists as I can, and let the product speak for itself. I want to get as many orders as possible. I also want to show it to the visiting guitar gods (Bugs Henderson, Rick Derringer, and Jeff “Skunk” Baxter) to see if I can score some endorsements.

More reports forthcoming, as details warrant.

Then again, it may be the BEST time to do so.

So, in the spirit of “eating my own dog food,” that’s exactly what I’m doing. Next week, I’m taking my latest invention – a six-instrument guitar stand – to exhibit at the Dallas Guitar Show (April 17-19, if you’re interested).

Here’s my idea. I’ve come up with a guitar stand that is beautiful (it looks like a piece of Mission-style/Arts & Crafts/Stickley-style furniture), it’s portable (sets up or tears down in under 60 seconds), durable (made of solid oak), and stable (with a low center of gravity, it’s not prone to tip-overs like lightweight metal stands can be). I’ve gotten such positive feedback on it from just about everybody, that I feel as if I can’t pass up this opportunity. The Dallas Guitar Show is the largest exhibition of its kind in the country – maybe even the world. A booth there should give me a way to definitively prove the market potential of the stands. This way, I can spend under $1,000, and test the market. I’m hoping to come away from the show with a fistfull of orders. If I do, I’ll be able to bootstrap production, prepaid. If I don’t get orders, I’ll be able to rethink my plans without losing a boatload of cash.

Before I leave, I’m going to be feverishly working on my website (gotta enable it for mobile phones…the Dallas Convention Center wants $250 for WiFi access – and I’m not gonna do it). It’s been some time since I’ve done a trade show. Knowing how to do tradeshows (and having seen people do them the wrong way) means I’ve got a lot of work to do between now and then, so I won’t screw things up. Bootstraping this as I am, I’ve got virtually no margin for error. That makes things both exciting and terrifying at the same time. I’ll report back here as things progress.

There was a time when companies I worked for did a dozen or so tradeshows a year – COMDEX, SIGgraph, PC Expo, you name it, I’ve been there. Back in the day, if your company wanted to be a player…urm “playa”…you did tradeshows. Today…not so much. So why am I doing it?

Aside from my “day job” running a marketing/advertising/design agency, I’m trying to bootstrap a company to manufacture and sell high-end guitar stands and other accessories for musicians. Doing this on a shoestring and a prayer is, to put it mildly, challenging. I don’t have a big budget, nor do I have any cushion – one little misstep can kill the whole thing. In order to jump-start the company, my plan is to exhibit at the Dallas Guitar Show, and take orders for as many stands as I can. This particular trade show attracts thousands of guitarists with discretionary income – my target market. I suspect this will prove to be the most cost-effective way to reach a large number of prospects – far more efficient than display ads or any other method.

Tradeshows are (generally speaking) expensive, time-consuming affairs, that often don’t return in sales what you spend on them. That’s not necessarily the fault of the show. Most of the time, it’s because companies don’t know how to take advantage of them, and get the biggest bang for their marketing buck. But getting the most out of a tradeshow is not rocket science. (Unless, of course, it’s a tradeshow about rocketry, catering to scientists.) Here are some common mistakes – and some ideas of how to do tradeshows the right way.

1. PLAN AHEAD. Most companies I’ve worked for never had a solid plan going into a tradeshow. They never said, “What do we expect to accomplish?” Their thinking was more along the lines of, “If we attend, we’ll get leads.” That’s not an effective way to work. You need to look at attendance numbers from past shows, look at your booth location for traffic, and guestimate how many people will see your booth – then extrapolate how many leads you think you can get. Estimate the value of the leads and you’ll see how much you are likely to earn from the show. If you’re spending more to do the show than that, you’re either engaging in brand-building, or you’re wasting your money.
2. QUALIFY YOUR LEADS. Not everybody who stops by for a look is going to buy your products. Some are just curious. Others are tire-kickers. Some want your product…but not now. Some are ready to buy. How do you tell them apart? It goes without saying that you need lead cards – take down their information so you can build a database. (You knew that, right?) You need to rank the leads with a code – “A” is somebody who’s an immediate, hot prospect. “B” is someone who’s interested, but won’t buy within the next 30 days. “C” is someone who’s interested, but not a decision-maker or somebody without buying power. A “D” lead is a tire-kicker…somebody who’s just wasting your time out of boredom.
3. FOLLOW UP WITH CALL-BACKS. If you learn nothing else, learn this: If you don’t call back your “A” leads within a week, the become “B” leads. If you don’t call your “B” leads within 30 days, they drop down to the “C” or even “D” categories. You have to ask for the sale. If you’re not going to follow up on leads and ask for the sale, why did you do the trade show in the first place?
4. DON”T LEAVE LITERATURE OUT ON THE TABLE. You’ve gone to the expense of printing up some expensive brochures. You’re proud of them. You want them to work for you. Great. Now hide ‘em. That’s right. Hide ‘em. Pull them out for “A” leads no matter what. Give them to “B” leads upon request. By keeping them out of sight, you’ll prevent literature grazers from wasting your money.
5. TREAT YOUR STAFF WELL. Tradeshows are NOT a paid vacation. I once worked for a company that would have me fly out to Vegas two days early for setup, work the show 8 to 10 hours a day, then stay for two days after for booth teardown and pack out. They believed that just getting to go to Vegas was a priveledge, and that we should all be happy to be allowed to work the show. Bull. Tradeshows are WORK. None of us felt like painting the town red after a day of being on our feet. Hire enough booth staff to keep your booth manned with fresh bodies. Working people to the bone is a recipe for offending prospects with cranky, unhappy staffers.
6. DRESS APPROPRIATELY. I’ve done the suit and tie thing, the khakis and polo shirt thing, and even the costume thing. You have to go with your company’s policy on this. But one area where I will NOT compromise is on shoes. You gotta wear comfortable shoes. Rockport makes some great men’s shoes that look like wingtips, but feel like sneakers. Buy em. Ladies – I dunno. If you’ve gotta wear pumps, rotsa ruck. I can tell you my secret for dealing with muscle pain, though. Each night after the show, get a half-gallon of apple cider vinegar. Pour it in the hottest bath you can stand, and soak in it. The vinegar will leech the lactic acid out of your muscles through your skin, taking away your muscle pain. Try it. It works.
7. NO BOOTH BIMBOS. I’m as interested in looking at attractive women as the next guy, but when you hire booth bunnies to staff your booth, it screams “our product is so bad, we had to resort to cleavage and short skirts to distract you.” Unless you’re selling sex to begin with, avoid this.
8. WEAR NAME TAGS. Sounds simple, but your tradshow badge is seldom the best way to get people to identify you. A custom badge is an effective way to tell prospects who you are.
9. FIRST IMPRESSIONS ARE CRITICAL. While you’re “on duty” you are your company. You don’t work for them. You become the physical embodiment of your company. Act accordingly. It only takes one rude remark to turn a prospect into an evangelist who is dedicated to spreading the word that your company is to be avoided at all costs.
10. KNOW YOUR PRODUCTS. There’s nothing worse than walking up to a booth to ask a question of somebody, only to find out they don’t know the answer. (Another reason to avoid booth bimbos.) If you’re gonna represent your company, know your products – features, benefits, and talking points.
11. GIVEAWAYS. People love free stuff. That can work for you or against you. Wanna get people talking about your product at the show? Trinkets and trash are one way to spread the word. I favor things that they’ll wear – buttons or shirts. But speaking of shirts, you can lose yours if you give away so much stuff that you blow your profits from the show on giveaways. Think before you commit to logo’d products, and don’t be afraid to be stingy. Gifting your “A” leads makes sense. Giving some prize to every Tom, Dick and Literature Grazer that stops by is stupid.
12. SMILE. A LOT. Ever seen somebody light up a room? Ever notice someone who is instantly a people magnet at a party? They have a couple of things in common – they smile a lot, and they listen a lot. They make you feel as if you’re the most important thing in their universe. They make you feel special. Find people that have those qualities, and your tradeshow will be a huge success.

That’s about it. Follow those principles, and your tradeshow should be a huge success. Ignore them at your peril. Oh, and if you’re into guitars and around Dallas next week, look me up at the Dallas Guitar Show. I’ll be the guy in the Guitar Furniture booth, smiling and pressing the flesh.