Busy Busy Busy

For any of you that tuned in yesterday hoping to read another fascinating installment from the ramblings of my brain, I apologise. As you know, this week we've been exhibiting at International Confex and I'm delighted to say that we were incredibly busy.

So busy in fact, that by Thursday my brain was operating at the same frequency of porridge and all of us just wanted to go home, put our collective feet up and relax.

However, now we're back in the office we get to carry out what I feel is the single most important thing that you can do at a trade show. Ironically, you won't actually be at the trade show when you do it, and that is to follow up.

I spoke last week about the importance of planning. Well once you've got your stand ready and your strategy in place, make sure you plan just exactly how you're going to follow up on all of the leads that you collect at the show.

In most cases, it's unlikely that you will have closed off much, if any business at at the show itself. People have come to the show to shop around for new suppliers, but you really can't expect them to make a decision surrounded by loud music, flashing lights, pretty girls in T Shirts and of course, your competitors.

So what's the best way to follow up? Well however you do it, the best way is QUICKLY. People's attention spans at trade shows is poor - you may well have been exhibiting at a show with hundreds of other stands there, and as much as you feel your stand is easy to pick out from the crowd, the sad truth is that people are not likely to remember everyone they meet. Oh sure, they may have been very enthusiastic on your stand, but how do you know that they're not like that all of the time anyway? For all you know they've just downed their tenth espresso that morning and showing their love for everything they see.

I'll let you in on our strategy. We hired some data capture devices from the show - most shows will have this facility and I thoroughly recommend that you use it. With just a couple of clicks, we were able to get all of our visitors' details, as well as who they spoke to and what course of action we had agreed upon, such as a meeting, a quote, some samples and so on.

Every evening that data would come back to the office and every visitor received an email from us thanking them for coming to the stand. We also included a photograph of the stand as a little reminder.

Now that we're back in the office, every one of us is on the phone (apart from me right now because I'm writing this blog) to reinforce the message - thanking them for their time and asking them what they would like us to do next.

The key in all of this is to express gratitude. These people made a point of stopping at your stand and giving you the chance to do business with them, so acknowledge that and then make sure that you make the most of the opportunity that you've been given.

Next week, I'm going to show you which products proved to be the most popular on our stand, and the results may well surprise you.

Have a good week.

Confex Here We Come

Good morning my blog loving friends - I trust that the day finds you well.

This week we've been putting the finishing touches on our stand for the International Confex Show, which takes place at Earls Court from the 23rd to the 25th of February. It's a show where anyone and everyone who is involved in the world of conferences and exhibitions comes to peddle their wares to the business buying public.

There'll be venues such as conference centres and hotels, right up to the tourist boards of countries eager to drive more commerce into their fair nation. There'll be stand builders, furniture providers, audio visual companies and of course, a category lovingly called 'Exhibition Support', which is where we come in.

I'm proud to say that this year our stand is going to be better than ever.

But what are the keys to a successful show stand, especially when you're a company that has a lot of products and services to offer? Well if there's one word which can help sum it all up then it's this one - PLAN.

Plan everything single detail, and be as anally retentive as possible. I'll use my stand as an example.

We have a total of 22 shelves on which to place merchandise. Now the way we used to do things was to take our best and shiniest merchandise, pack it neatly in bubble wrap and then put it out on the shelves at the other end. The problem was that we invariably ended up taking about 2 boxes' of merchandise back to the office as we ran out of space.

Well no more. Now we get the sizes of the shelves from the stand builders, create a mock up in the office, lay out the merchandise just as we want to see it at the show, and then pack only what we need. Now sure, it does take a little longer at this end, but the result is that when my team are putting everything together on the stand, they'll know exactly what goes where and we won't have anything wasted.

Which leads on to point number 2 - what goes where? Your stand needs to hold a combination of your best selling merchandise along with the newest and most exciting items. If you've been pitching what you consider to be an exciting item for the past 6 months and haven't sold any yet, don't bother bringing it. You need to make the most of every square inch of space that you have and so you have to be ruthless. You may love the item in question, but you can always pitch it to your visitors in a follow up meeting.

Point 3 - less is more. It's easy to create an Alladin's cave of products and services, but it only means that your visitors will leave you with a headache. Think about who is going to be coming along and what services will interest them. Take my stand for example - 22 shelves means I have 22 'themes' I can work with right? WRONG!

22 different themes is far too many. You're better off creating sections on your stand. Now we have 3 shelves dedicated to our environmentally friendly range. If someone comes onto the stand expressing an interest in eco friendly stuff, we know exactly where to lead them. Now they may well want to look at everything else too but that's an afterthought.

Remember, the most important thing that your stand should do is attract people onto it - and don't be tempted to use sweets and drinks to get people on - those people are just after the sweets and have no buying agenda. You don't need them and they don't need you, so don't go wasting your money.

So I hope that a lot of you will be at Earls Court next week. We're on stand G110 and I can assure you that our stand is awesome. There will be lots of special offers darted around the stand - anything from 10% discounts to the chance to claim your free Flip Digital Video Camera, so please pay us a visit and feel free to make my day by telling me you read this blog.

See you there.

Something Weird has Happened

Well here we are in the run up to Valentines Day. Just another excuse for us to visit restaurants charging twice as much for a complimentary glass of champagne, giving "mystery" cards to our husbands and wives and helping florists tear their hair out with just how busy they are.

Do you know, a couple of years ago I tried to call through to a florist to order a nice bouquet for my wife and they were constantly engaged. I later found out that they had taken the phone off of the hook because they simply could not handle the level of business they were getting! That's foresight for you isn't it? Your busiest day of the year and you don't prepare for it? Just how much would it have cost to bring in some extra help for the day? When you compare it to just how much business they lost to someone that was answering the phone, it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

But this blog is not for florists. Don't get me wrong - if you are a florist who enjoys this blog, then you are more than welcome, and please do leave a comment for me so that I know you're there.

No, this blog is to address something very weird that happened last week. I, Paul Rose, being of sound mind and round body, did hereby get mildly excited about......wait of it......building suspense........here we go.....a pen!

YES! I said it - a pen. Finally a pen has come along which actually makes sense to me. An inexpensive promotional item which is more relevant now than it ever would have been before.

What's so amazing about this pen? Well I'll tell you. Of course I'll tell you, I mean what would be the point of all of that fanfare if I just chose to leave it there? This pen is treated with a special antibacterial coating which kills 99.9% of cold and flu viruses on contact.

That's right. We're all being made aware just how long a virus lingers once a surface is touched by germ laden hands. Well not on this pen - it's like the Kleenex Tissue of pens - it is a trained killer.

Not only that, but the special coating is actually 'alive', so if the surface is scratched, the coating will actually grow back! Don't worry though - you won't feel a tingling sensation - it just works.

This is a pen which is perfect for anyone working in a heavily populated office, a school, a hospital, a restaurant - you name it. We're all getting to the point of finding hand sanitizing gels under every street lamp, and so here we have just one more weapon in the war on germs.

You can find out more about this pen by visiting www.antibacpen.com and if you'd like to receive a sample, you have only to ask.

We're getting ready for the International Confex Show at Earls Court from the 23rd to the 25th of February. We'll be on stand G110 and we'd love to see you there, where you can not only check out the latest merchandise, but can also find out how to claim your very own Flip Digital Video Camera*

Have a good week

*Terms and Conditions apply. Obviously. It's not like we're just giving this stuff away.

I've no problem being a guinea pig

Hello everyone. For those amongst you who logged on first thing on Thursday morning to read the latest installment from the voices in my head, I apologise. It seems that our office had a power cut in the night which all but killed our server, and only now are we able to start reading our emails and checking the web for videos of cats being forced to dance and lip sync to Britney Spears records.

How ever did we survive before the Internet? I'll tell you how - we actually worked, but who am I to criticise those amongst us who choose to slack off and yet convince themselves that it is all in the name of commerce. Face it, without them I wouldn't have any readers would I? So I'd best give you something by way of an education, otherwise I'm just another overweight bald guy with way too much time on his hands, or to use the technical term - Sci Fi Fan.

Yesterday I managed to fulfil a small and yet life long ambition of mine. I've always wanted to be so annoyed in a restaurant that I could stand up, tell off the manager and then walk out without paying for anything that I had consumed so far. It's a bit of a rubbish ambition, but it's been simmering for close to 40 years so allow me my small victories.

The service in this particular restaurant was so poor that I found myself struggling to understand why anyone would go there at all. I was reliably informed by the person that suggested I go there, that the service was crap but that the food more than made up for it. Well I never actually got any food, so I guess I'll never know.

Now without going into too much detail, the problem was our waiter. He was brand new to the role and really didn't speak all that much English. The language was not really the issue, but his incompetence quickly became so.

Now after a catalogue of errors surrounding our drink order - one diet coke, one glass of port and some sparkling water - yup, he even managed to screw that up - we found ourselves less than impressed. The icing on the cake however, was when the manager came over to ask us if we were ready to order, which would have been fine, if it weren't for the fact that we had already ordered twenty minutes prior!

I made it abundantly clear to the manager that if our order had not yet started, that we would rather just leave it and walk away. She goes over into a corner and in plain view of both of us, starts to put the order through. Then she has the audacity to tell us that the order was going through and that it would just be a couple of minutes.

This is the point at which we grabbed our coats and headed for the door. The manager's explanation was that the waiter was new and did not completely understand their computer system yet. A reasonable explanation, but I felt compelled to point out that he should have been given the proper amount of training before being unleashed on paying customers. I didn't wait around for her reply - I was angry and hungry, and that's no combination you ever want to find me in.

Now inexperienced staff are not a problem - we all have to start somewhere. I don't even have an issue with people training whilst they're serving me. The problem I had in this instance was with the management of that restaurant.

Imagine my reaction if the evening had started like this: The manager comes over with the waiter and says "Good evening. This is John (I don't know his name so I'm calling him John. I don't know any Thai names. Did I mention it was a Thai restaurant? Well it was) and he's going to be your waiter. Now John is new here so I'm going to keep an eye on what he's doing to make sure everything goes well. Will that be OK with you both?"

Who would seriously have a problem with that? Certainly not me. In fact I would have wished the young man good luck in his job and would have been comfortable pointing out any mistakes that he was making in the interests of helping him improve in his job. Come on - I'm a very critical individual, but I only dispense this advice because I believe that there are better ways of doing things.

I mean think about it. When you go into McDonalds or Tesco or some other massive chain, the Trainees all wear a badge that lets the customer know that they are in training. Our expectation levels are instantly set at low and we find ourselves more forgiving if the service is not as stealthy as we would like.

If we're in a rush or know that we need to speak with an expert, we'll politely point that out to the trainee and ask if we can speak with someone in a more senior role, all the while pointing out that we don't wish to be rude but that our enquiry requires just a little more expertise than we believe they have.

So how do you let your customers know that a particular member of staff is new and is in training? More importantly, are you allowing your customers to be a part of that training process? If not, ask yourselves why - your customers will always tell you exactly what it is they need from your company. They are your best resource in so many more ways than just revenue, so make sure that you capitalise on that.

If you're the customer, don't be afraid to be critical - it really is the only way you can hope to improve upon the service or products that you're getting. It's easy to vote with your feet, by which I mean go elsewhere, but why not vote with your words instead? Chances are that the supplier in question will ultimately be grateful for the advice you gave which helped them to grow their business.

Have a good week in business and please do refer this blog to at least one of your friends or associates. Together we can change our small corner of the world.