Trade show discussion video

[Steve]

Check out this video on how to get more out of your trade show interactions and presentations.

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How to get lawn care customers - Vol 2

Originally Posted by Steve Check out this video on how to get more out of your trade show interactions and presentations. Trade shows in another company put us on the map, exposure but it was the product offerings, we were outside the box and ahead of the big guys. At the same time trade shows are (can be) expensive, the key I learned from an employee we hired as VP Marketing is to look bigger than you are, know your stuff inside out, and be very professional, you have to produce results, have the gear at the booth etc. I was the CEO so the final decision was mine, at the cost of $65,000 for the show (3 days) he wanted I balked but gave in, the benefits we reaped were far beyond my wildest dreams. I probably won't bother with trade shows this year for the Yard Care as we are now fully booked from mid April to the last week of May which is great, I think trade shows are an excellent marketing tool......wonder what the stats are cost vs return in our business.

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Andy
Halifax, Nova Scotia

[Steve]

Do they have yard care trade shows in your area that homeowners attend? Have you ever attended one?

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Originally Posted by Steve

Do they have yard care trade shows in your area that homeowners attend? Have you ever attended one?

Yes they have them here but I work the John Deere Booth.

[Steve]

When you were working with them on the booth, did you pick up any new ideas from them or did you find yourself teaching them how best to utilize their booth?

hi Steve,
Great video on "doing a trade show right". How did you find it?
I agree with Jeff (the man in the video) that trade shows are still important and can be an effective way to get business, but that you need to "do them right".
I also agree with the comments below that trade show exhibiting can be very expensive and one can lose a lot of money quickly if you don't know what you are doing.
But I think the most important message in the video applies to all business, not just trade shows. Build personal relationships and treat people like humans!
It pains me that walking down the aisles at a lot of trade shows is like going on to a car lot. I am suddenly pounced on by all sorts of people popping out of their trade show booths (sort of like gophers popping out of their holes in my lawn ) wanting to sell me something! All these gung-ho sales people would do well to watch Jeff's video.
As an unimportant side note, I kept wishing the camera would swing around a little bit so that vase wasn't directly behind Jeff's head... I thought it was a little distracting...
Anyway, great video about trade show marketing and business marketing in general. Thanks, (another) Steve

[Steve]

I found it through twitter, amazingly enough

It pains me that walking down the aisles at a lot of trade shows is like going on to a car lot. I am suddenly pounced on by all sorts of people popping out of their trade show booths

Oh I so know what you mean. I HATE trade shows for this reason. Sometimes it gets to the point where I am walking down an aisle and trying to not make eye contact with anyone at their booth for fear I will get sucked into a sales pitch. I scope out the ones I am interested from a distance and try to make my way to them without looking at any others.

I am suddenly pounced on by all sorts of people popping out of their trade show booths (sort of like gophers popping out of their holes in my lawn ) wanting to sell me something!

Did you ever operate your own booth? How did you conduct yourself so you projected a different feel?

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Originally Posted by Steve

When you were working with them on the booth, did you pick up any new ideas from them or did you find yourself teaching them how best to utilize their booth?

Image, knowledge of your offerings in lawn care are key, the five largest in our city were there, two had good marketing material but the people runningthe booths had limited knowledge when i asked key questions.

[Steve]

Did any of the booths at these show ever really draw you in or were they pretty bland? I bet a lot of lawn care business owners struggle to find ideas that would make their booth exciting and attract people.

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Originally Posted by Steve

Did any of the booths at these show ever really draw you in or were they pretty bland? I bet a lot of lawn care business owners struggle to find ideas that would make their booth exciting and attract people.

The excavation/Yard Care/Lawn Mowing booths were tired rented booths, nothing stood out.

Personally I would set a piece of my gear in there, have a very nice polite lady handing out fliers (laugh but it works, I have done many shows where we hired models, I realize this is over the top for us) and as an owner I would work my butt off answering questions and have a few well dressed staff that knew their stuff, once again it's presentation and image, all I had was a truck and trailer with a new 2520 and chipper on the trailer in the parking lot as I was too late to get space and already told Deere I would work their booth, I picked up around 27 small to med sized jobs in April then hell broke loose and I haven't been able to keep up since.