Making the Best of Trade Shows & Conventions

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure – what you get out of a Convention or Conference depends on what you actually do with all of that training and the info in that ‘wonderful plastic bag’

We’ve all got them, those beautiful shiny plastic bags at the convention we most recently visited. We walked around, visited the booths and attended the classes with anticipation. In our head we’re saying, “this document imaging idea is great – I can’t wait to get into it” or “the vendors that I met at that last booth are really going to help me improve my bottom line” and even “that training that told me how to make it easier for me to have my people sell was awesome”.

I bet you filled your beautiful plastic bag up with all sorts of great things: brochures on all of the latest products, the new vendors’ business cards that you’re gonna’ call and even those handouts that the trainers gave to you on ways to make it easier for you to run/improve your business.

Of course you did! You filled it up because that’s what you always did and that’s what everyone else does right? Why would you ever want to act on contacting all of those vendors and/or begin to actually use the training ideas that you learned (smile). Here’s a rough outline of what probably happened:

1.      Paid for tickets and flew all the way to …….
2.      Paid for the show as well as a room
3.      Walked around and visited all of those great exhibitors
4.      If you exhibited, paid to do so and you put out that wonderful  “fish bowl”
5.      Stepped up to the plate at that video baseball machine – that was cool!
6.      Went out after the show with some friends to see the sights/have some cocktails
7.      Flew home with your precious plastic bag in tow
8.      Got back to your office and put that bag under/beside your desk
9.      Said last week that you should get to it – but “you’re just so busy”

Now, I know that there are a few of you that actually took some of the info and called the vendors and/or thought about implementing the training ideas. For those of you who haven’t done anything here’s a “Planned Growth” game plan for starting to take some action.:

What To Do When You Return To Your Hotel Room – With Your “Plastic Bag”

Towards the end of the show (the night before you leave to go home), spread out all the collected collaterals and product samples on the bed (or on the floor) and put them in to product categories STACKS: 1) traditional products; 2) new/innovative products 3) consumables; 4) business ideas; etc..

Spend enough time, as you review what you’ve collected, to choose the information that looks promising.  Anything other than promising information/sample/training material should be disposed of immediately. Remember, PAPER WEIGHS A LOT and you have to carry it home.  Why carry something that has little, if any, value?  Keep the stacks separate – put a rubber band around each stack and label it with a post-it-note (or equal).  Put all the business cards into a special 9X12 envelope and mark it business cards for follow-up.  Any business card, which you recognize as being of NO interest, should be thrown away now rather than taken back to the office to be thrown away there (smile).

Pack everything carefully because you really ARE going to look over the material when you return to your office.

OK – you’re back at your office – now what do you do?

As you return to your office, recognize that you’re not likely to be able to avoid dealing with time sensitive issues such as:

1) Responding to voicemails

2) Responding to emails

3) Dealing with pressing internal issues

4) Responding to customers who want/need you to get back to them, etc.

So schedule time – an early morning time is best before normal business hours where you can schedule time to go back through the materials you’ve already qualified and determine which products/ideas/concepts are worthy of further time or effort.  This shouldn’t take you more than one hour. If you’ve started early enough, you can begin to plan and determine what needs to be done to properly “evaluate” the information. Who will do the evaluation, how it will be done and how they will report back to you with the results.  A meeting needs to be scheduled for 2-3-4 weeks away – with each person who has been assigned the responsibilities for reviewing the material aware of the timeline and what they are expected to deliver at that meeting.

The Meeting

The designated individuals who have been assigned the responsibility for evaluating the collaterals/product samples/training information you’ve brought back need to report back to you on your scheduled date.  Prepare a detailed agenda for the meeting – calling on each individual separately.  Allow yourself a minimum of 30 minutes for each presentation – and take good notes. Remember, don’t just say, “We should look more at that” and not do anything with it.

Decision Making Time

Upon completion of the meeting, return to your office, close the door and re-review the information presented.  Make a decision based on what you have heard and your “horse sense” – based on your many years of experience and knowledge of the marketplace.

An action plan should come from this step – which will assign responsibility for doing what’s necessary to take advantage of the knowledge, product selling opportunity, new “selling approach”, etc.  Give your people the opportunity to succeed and don’t be overly critical.  But hold them accountable for doing the job.

The Result

When you look at this issue “from 20,000 feet” as I like to say – it is nothing more than developing a process to solve a business issue (a plastic bag full of “stuff”). The successful business people that have figured that out have already taken that plastic bag and done something with it – everyone else will give it the old “I’ll get to that when …..”