Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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LOCAL BUSINESS TO BUSINESS Tradeshow Tactics: A Five-Step Program by LOUIS FERACA Tradeshows: The love and hate of all marketing directors and sales reps. For those it yourself, then it would be wise to make use of a graphic artist to create it for you. who love rejection they are a feast! A good sales rep can be rejected more times in Draw A Crowd. To draw a crowd, you should offer something different. It can be one day of a tradeshow than they would in a month's worth of sales calls. Then there staff dressed in costumes, music, food or fun promotional products. Do something are the crowds of Just Lookings and Trick or Treaters mixed in with a sprinkling of that catches attention and brings people in. potential customers. How do you separate them? And if you do, how do you focus Separate Wheat from Chaff. Once you have them, the hard work starts as you have on one without neglecting the others? to quickly separate the Trick-or-Treaters (people who just want As an opportunity to pick up new customers, tradeshows to collect goodies) from the hot prospects. One way to do this are hard to beat. If you are comfortable talking to strangers is to request a business card in exchange for whatever you are and believe in your product, then tradeshows are a prime handing out. Most freeloaders don't have cards, so they move venue. But it helps to choose the right type of tradeshow on. Another tactic is to have prospects fill out a short questionfor your product/service, and then have effective tactics for naire with questions designed to convey your message as you reaching your customers among the crowd. gain information about the prospect. Note that you may need at Choose a venue. Tradeshows come in different types and least two people to staff the booth when the crowd hits. sizes. If you specialize in a particular sector, then general Use Handouts. One good tactic is to use three levels of handshows may be a waste of time for you. But if your service has outs. Level one is a small inexpensive item (stick pens, note pads, broad appeal, then almost any show can be good for you. magnets etc...) set out in a bowl for the general traffic. Level two The most important concern after choosing the type of show is a nicer item (a useful tool or desk top item) kept hidden someAs an opportunity to pick up new customers, is whether the crowd is large enough and whether the cost is where handy but out of sight. When a visitor turns out to be a tradeshows are hard to beat. commensurate with the size of the crowd. good prospect, they receive the better gift. Level three (a travel Plan Your Display. Displays that are planned are far more mug, brass pen etc...) is like level two but reserved for someone effective than those that are thrown together. Your display can who commits to a presentation or follow-up contact. This way range from simple tablecloth and banner to what I call the Taj-Ma-Booth that has a you aren't left financially strapped by giving away too many of the more expensive items lighted TV-mounted in the background, plush carpet and upholstered chairs. Your but still are able t give a nicer and more memorable gift to the really strong prospects. display should reflect the taste of the customer you are trying to attract. If you sell Follow Up. Yes, you made a good impression with your display and nice gifts but plumbing services, then simple but neat is good. If you sell custom homes, then your if you think the calls will suddenly flood in, you're dreaming. You have booth should reflect some sense of style. Also, display colors from banner to tableto follow up! Organize the leads into three piles, hot, warm and cold. cloth to rug should coordinate with one another. Any logos or printing needs to be Call the hot ones within a day or two. The warm ones soon after. Then consistent in image and color. Don't have competing versions of your logo in different reach out to the cold ones. LOUIS FERACA, Owner, U.S. Logoworks, colors if at all possible. Confused branding is far less effective than a unified message. Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@ If you don't already have unified branding in your display, and lack the skills to create upancomingweekly.com. Good Morning Fayetteville with Goldy & Jim W Weekday Mornings 6-10 a.m. Talk Line: 910-864-6400 Local News, Weather, Traffic & Sports 14 UCW MAY 29 - JUNE 4, 2013 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM