My Yelp friend Sandor has a habit of only reviewing closed or failing restaurants… after an analysis he always concludes with “and so it goes”. When I walked into the once-proud New York DM Days yesterday, I felt like I should start doing the same thing for trade shows. Attendance was sparse, far down from peaks of a few years back, a problem made more noticeable by the cavernous reaches of the Javits Convention Center.
There wasn’t a lot of business to do, so I started asking exhibitors what they thought of the show and how they were coping. Many predict better times when it moves back to the NY Hilton next year. This is a hard-core direct mail show (vs web) and the Hilton is close enough to 6th Ave. that publishers can stroll over on their lunch hour.
My colleague Dick Goldsmith points out that with fewer attendees, he has a better opportunity to work each one of them. His company now has a service called Per-Keys that allows mobile text messages to be personalized for higher response rates. The Per-Key is a unique code used to access the system, so he sent a Per-Key to every preregistered attendee so they can check it out. With slow traffic, he also has the opportunity to issue codes at the booth and do a more elaborate demo.
Other exhibitors abandoned their booths at lunchtime to man a “lunch with the experts” area where they and attendees could discuss topics of mutual interest. Better than staring off into space or just folding the tent and leaving, as several of the exhibitors had done.
In other news, I did not see any “suitcasing” at the show—a relief, I guess, but also sort of a disappointment. I had a side project to find cheap eats in the garment district which was unsuccessful because most of my recommended places were closed (“and so it goes”) but did stumble into Lunch Box, a clean and brightly lit spot right around the corner from Penn Station. Five Chinese dishes for $5, or an assortment of sweet and savory pastries from 95 cents to a couple of bucks. Better than $10 sandwiches at Javits.
When the show is slow, it’s human nature for the staff to do one of two counter-productive things:
1. Start talking to each other.
The people you bring to staff the booth are usually the most outgoing people you have. So after 30 seconds of staring down the aisle, they get bored and want to talk to someone. Hey look, there’s someone to talk to, your fellow booth staffer! The problem is, now you’ve got two staffer out of commission. It takes discipline and patience to instead resist the temptation to “chat amongst ourselves.”
2. Pounce on every passerby.
It’s slow, so go for the gusto and grab every attendee! We need to get a return from our investment in the show! Well, that may get a conversation started, but you won’t start a good relationship through intimidation. Instead, wait for the attendee to make eye contact with you (as you’ve been patiently waiting for them to come by your booth, instead of talking with your fellow booth staffer). Once (and if) they look at you, have your best smile ready, and ask a good engaging question, like “Are you familiar with (Your Company Name)? That way you can start a conversation that will lead somewhere.
When the traffic is slow, avoid chatting with your own staffers and pouncing on the rare attendee. That way you get the most out of the traffic you do have. Whether it’s slow or busy, you can only talk to one person at a time, anyhow.
Trade show booths may be small compared to your showroom but it should still give the same feeling as if they are in your place of business. Try to wow them in the same ways but be quicker with your pitch. With so much competition surrounding you, getting your message across quickly is crucial.