California Apparel News

It’s easy to lose your focus at a trade show, between the frantic and exhausting working of the show floor, followed by blowing off steam at parties afterwards. Whether you’re an exhibitor or attendee, a clear plan of action will ensure you maximize both your time and money.

Susan Friedmann is known as the Trade Show Coach (thetradeshowcoach.com). Originally from London, the Lake Placid, N.Y.–based consultant has spent the past 25 years coaching clients, including many in the apparel industry, on how to get the most out of the trade show experience.

Q: How did you become a trade showconsultant?A: My background is in PR and marketing. I got into this simply by being very involved in trade shows and seeing that exhibitors really didn’t know what they were doing. They are my major focus. So I started training them to be more effective at shows, because trade shows are an incredibly powerful marketing tool, but they’re not a cheap one. You want a return on your investment, and most people just aren’t getting one.

For both the attendee and the exhibitor, there has to be preplanning in terms of understanding what you want to get out of the show.

Q: What common mistakes do exhibitors make?A: The first thing is [not] understanding why they’re going and what they want to get out of the show. That’s where many exhibitors fall down, because they haven’t set goals. Just collecting leads is not good enough. You’ve got to have something measurable: how many new people you want to see, how many new accounts to pick up, a certain account you want to get.

Q: Why is it important to set goals and numbers?A: One, it’s a motivating factor. Two, it’s a way to measure at the end of the show how well you did. Because one thing you have to take into consideration is, “Is this the right place for me?” What percentage of your target audience is actually going to be visiting the show?

Many exhibitors get dazzled easily by the promotional pieces. Obviously the show organizers are out to get as many exhibitors as possible and as many people to the show. But a mistake that exhibitors often make is going in thinking that once they buy space in the show, all they have to do is show up, because the show organizer is going to do the rest. That’s a myth. You can’t just rent a space and think miracles are going to happen.

Q: So what’s the next step?A: Once you know why you’re going and what you want to get out of the show, the next thing to think about is what you’re going to exhibit. You can’t bring everything, but often exhibitors think that if they don’t bring it, people will think they don’t have it. But I’m a believer that less is more. In the apparel industry, buyers are so overloaded with messages and products that it’s easy to get overwhelmed. If you show less but make a bigger deal about it, it will have more impact.

Q: What about the booth itself?A: A lot of your effort needs to happen before the show. You’ve got to have a pre-show marketing campaign because you want your booth to be on people’s list of must-sees. Your target audience may be only 10 percent of attendees at the show, so you should just market to them. You don’t have to market to the 100,000 people coming to the show.

Invitations are a good way, but give them a reason to come. The more incentives you can give, the more chances you’ll get them to come. Just to say, “Come see our new line”—well, everybody’s saying that. Be a little more original: What else can you be telling them?

Q: Are there gimmicks you recommend for the booth itself?A: I’m not a big lover of booth babes. But obviously clothes look much better on people, or really dynamic photographs of models wearing the apparel.

Q: What about music and refreshments?A: The more sensory an experience you conjure up, the more memorable you’ll be after the show. And anything that will help differentiate you from your umpteen competitors up and down the aisles is good, too. Look at what your competition is doing, and then do the opposite.

I’m a great advocate of educating your target audience whenever you can. If the buyer can’t tell the difference between one swimsuit company and another, why not put out an educational piece?

Q: What should the staff’s attitude in the booth be? Hard selling, or just “come take a look?”A: The days of the used car–salesman approach are long gone. We’re in a relationship environment, and one of the things trade shows are really good for is building relationships. People don’t like to be pushed, but they want you to be knowledgeable, they want you to help make their lives easier. So whatever you can do to help them will only add to being their provider of choice. At the end of the day, we buy from people we like and trust.

Q: What other mistakes do exhibitors make?A: Not following up on leads after the show. Over 80 percent of leads gathered at shows aren’t followed up.

Q: Why is that?A: Because the person given the lead is often only given a name and number, so it’s like a cold call, and salespeople hate cold calls. So one of the major things on show floors is gathering quality information on a lead card, preferably not on the back of a business card.

Q: People at trade shows throw around their business cards, but does anything really come from that?A: Not if it’s just the card. If you just give me a card and I don’t know anything more about you, then the chances are no. But if I’ve had a meaningful conversation with you and I know specifically what you’re looking for, and you say, “Go back and send me a quote for this and that,” then I’ve got something tangible to follow up on.

Q: How do you judge the cost versus benefit, because it may take months to see the full effect of exhibiting?A: Take a half evaluation directly after the show, but then follow up and track for months afterward. Because if you just take at face value what you did at the show, it may be a very inaccurate summary of how you actually did.

Q: How should attendees approach trade shows?A: The number-one thing is to do your homework before the show. I tell people to make up two lists: a must-see list and a want-to-see list. Come with a plan of action. You can’t just roam the aisles hoping to fall over what you’re looking for.

Q: But people also want to be surprised.A: It’s very easy to get distracted. Part of your plan might be to spend the morning seeing people you must see, and then spending a few hours in the afternoon seeing what you can discover.

Q: What else?A: Wear comfortable shoes. Take breaks: The hall is a dry, germ-filled environment, and you really need to take fresh-air breaks and drink plenty of water, not coffee. Avoid taking everything that people give you, so you’re not schlepping 30 pounds of paper around the hall. Instead, ask exhibitors to send you stuff. And make a list of what you’ve asked people to do, because if they don’t do it you have to follow up with them.

Q: Is it generally good to place orders at shows, or do people often get caught up in the hype and make poor judgments?A: You can get sucked into things and make an impulse buy. Keep your impulses in check, and give yourself time. Walk away and think about it, and if you still feel strongly, then go back and place an order.

Q: Finally, a lot of business is done at trade shows. What are the pluses and minuses of this particular sales format?A: It’s the most powerful marketing tool out there, and the only one that encompasses every other marketing tool: research, promotion, PR and advertising, sales. A trade show does all of that at once. It is pricey, but the fact that you’re going to see more people in four days than you may see all year—that’s an incredible opportunity