OK, it’s slow and it seems there is nothing to do. Well, quite the contrary, get out the calendar and let’s do some planning.

Each trade show program and calendar are unique, but many milestones are common. When is your keystone show? That is, what are the two or three large shows that anchor your calendar and help you shape your planning and revenue (and sales)? Let’s try a few examples: Read More...

I was reminded today of how long it takes to establish a relationship.

A colleague in Tucson, Fred Narcaroti, and I spent some time talking about how to build business. Fred pointed out that it takes a minimum of three contacts for a person to know you well enough to ask you about your business, let along award you business (a contract). When you apply this to trade shows and the world of face-to-face selling, you have to agree: a trade show is a step in the process of changing suspects into prospects and then into clients. Read More...

What do these three things have in common? They are all about making positive, direct contact with people.

While I am, and probably always will be, the advocate for face-to-face contact (the first two), the third item is growing in both popularity and effectiveness. But I have learned, as with the other two, these methods work best when they are a part of a larger campaign. Read More...

Dear Steve,

In yesterday’s release about MacWorld 2009, did you really say “Trade shows do not deliver the same return on investment that they did in the past.”? I realize the real news in the release was about you not being the keynote at this event, but, come on, that isn’t really the kind of message you, an advocate of effective brand selling, wants to deliver in this economy, now is it? Read More...

Recently a client asked her incumbent exhibit house a simple question and got the runaround. I’m still not sure why.

The question she asked was for a set of set up or construction drawings. She is adding a graphic to a backwall of a booth she has in her warehouse and needs the dimensions of the wall for her graphic vendor. Read More...