400 – How to Attend Trade Shows to Get Wholesale Accounts with Jim Cermak

This is Gift Biz Unwrapped Guest,

episode number 400.

Wow. There's something here that is just so amazing.

And then I just got to learn more and more about

trade shows and what made them so magical.

Attention. Gifters,

bakers, crafters and makers,

pursuing your dream can be fun.

Whether you have an established business or looking to start one

now you are in the right place.

This is Gift Biz Unwrapped,

helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.

Join us for an episode packed full of invaluable guidance,

resources and the support you need to grow your gift biz.

Here is your host Gift Biz gal Sue Moon Height.

Hi there,

it's Sue and I'm so happy that you've joined me today.

Smack in the middle of what I know to be a

super busy holiday selling season.

Before we dive into the topic of the show,

I wanna make sure you're aware of a resource that I

have for you.

You'll find this particularly helpful if you have to delay your

listening during seasons like this.

In these past seven years,

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How to start and grow your business.

Stories from many of you who have done just that.

How to choose and use social media sites,

build your website.

Oh my gosh,

there is so much information here for you,

but not necessarily easily at your fingertips.

So I've created a tool for you that categorizes by topic

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but only the ones that stay relevant over time.

Because yes,

there are some from past years that just don't make sense

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Today the world is changing so fast,

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To access this free resource,

go to gift biz unwrapped.com/topics.

Today. You've landed on part two of a back-to-back series I

have on wholesale.

If you missed last week's show,

definitely go back and take a listen.

It's not necessary to hear that one first,

but these two episodes together will strengthen your understanding of different

facets of wholesale and help you determine if it's something that

you should go after this coming year.

Perhaps you've already gotten started and have your products in several

local boutiques.

That's amazing and a huge congrats to you based on your

product or company vision.

Local and regional retail shops may be how you'd like to

continue, or depending on your product,

you might want to find bigger wholesale opportunities.

Either way,

exhibiting at a trade show brings you face-to-face with buyers who

are looking for new brands to include in their stores.

But what's involved and how does it all work specifically with

trade shows today I am so excited to share with you

a conversation with Jim Cermack.

Jim is a trade show trainer and consultant who helps businesses

make more money at their shows and events.

He's also the host of the Trade Show University podcast where

he and expert guests help exhibitors and show planners get better

results. Jim understands that the investment of money,

time, and resources is huge and we need to make these

shows work.

Jim, welcome to the Gift Biz Unwrapped podcast.

Sue, thank you so much.

This is awesome.

I am so excited to be here.

Oh, me too.

And I know this conversation is gonna be so helpful and

so interesting.

I'm quite sure I will learn a thing or two even

though I've exhibited at shows for years.

Yeah. You know,

we never stop learning,

right? Absolutely.

I've just worked a show recently and there's definitely things that

I, I came back with.

I'm like,

we gotta do that different next time.

Ooh, okay.

We're gonna talk about those.

Maybe before we dive into all of that though,

I have a traditional question for you,

and this is something I started so long ago.

It helps us know you in a way that's more creative

and that is having you describe yourself by way of a

motivational candle.

So if you were to think of a candle that really

resonates with you,

that would be the perfect match,

what would it be like with a color and a quote

or a saying?

Okay, so the color would be like when you slice open

a pineapple,

that yellow color in the middle,

that's what it would be.

And the scent would be that tropical,

fruity pineapple mango papaya,

maybe with a hint of ocean breeze thrown in there,

but something tropical because that is my relaxation,

my motivation place whenever I need to get inspired,

I think of that.

I love the beach,

I love anything tropical.

So, and every Friday is tropical Friday at my house.

We play steel drum music all day long,

so it's awesome.

No way.

Where are you in the World?

I am in Cleveland,

Ohio. So very not tropical.

Oh wait a minute.

Very not Tropical mismatch.

Well that's why I do it.

I do it to escape a little bit and when the

weather is absolute garbage outside like it is during the winter,

usually I just put that on.

If someone walks into my office and I'm not playing steel

drum, they're like,

what's going on?

What's the matter?

What's happening?

It just becomes a Friday tradition.

I love that.

You know,

they always say like when you start to meditate or they

say before you start journaling or things like that,

is put yourself in that special place that you create just

for yourself,

even if you aren't physically living there.

Yeah, right.

To put yourself in that mindset and envision yourself in that

space. And that's,

this is yours.

There you go.

This is my space.

Yeah. Yeah.

Love it.

Yeah. Alright,

well I'm ready to be there with you cuz I love

the idea of tropical and all of that too.

Yeah. So,

ugh. Perfect.

So good.

And just for everyone who's listening here,

we are also videoing cuz I find it's easier to interact

with guests when we are able to see each other.

And both Jim and I are in like tropical ish orange

today. Yes.

We must have planned this on purpose,

I'm not sure.

Love it.

I love her too.

So share with us how you got into trade shows and

where that interest came from and a little bit of your

past. Yeah.

For someone to have an unhealthy relationship with trade shows like

I do,

or an obsession I should say.

It started way back,

one of my first jobs outta college.

I worked for Fanny Farmer Candy Company.

Anyone who remembers Fanny Farmer Candy,

I was an iconic brand way back in the day and

I was in the product development and marketing department and I

was told by my boss,

Hey, we're going to the candy show in Philadelphia.

And I was like,

okay, great.

I had no idea what the candy show was.

All I knew was I got to travel,

which was pretty cool.

And there was no internet back then.

So that was back in the early nineties,

So I couldn't go on the internet and find out what

is this thing that I'm going to,

had no idea.

So I went along for the ride,

I got there and I was absolutely blown away and it

was this massive,

I don't know how big it was,

but one of those massive trade shows with candy vendor after

candy vendor and then everything that went around it.

So there was people in the gift BA business,

you know,

they were putting together candy baskets and boxes and all sorts

of things.

And being a marketing guy,

I was just enamored with the sites,

the packaging,

the colors,

and then obviously people handing me samples nonstop all day was

not a bad thing either.

So I just fell in love with the entire experience and

then fast forward a couple years and I switched companies,

I made that natural jump from candy to over the road

trucking. Oh,

very natural Jim.

Yes, very natural.

And so I was told,

hey, we're going to this trucking expo and I'm thinking,

ugh, this is just going to be dreadful compared to candy.

I got there and it was the same energy,

it was the same kind of environment,

it was completely different industry,

but I had all these people that wanted to talk and

they were excited about their companies,

excited about the services and the products and all of a

sudden I'm like,

wow, there's something here that is just so amazing.

And then I just got to learn more and more about

trade shows and what made them so magical.

But I just fell in love with them there.

And I've since then have planned or worked at hundreds of

trade shows of all shapes and sizes from little small community

exposed to multinational shows and there's an overlapping success pattern for

all of them.

So whether you're working a big show or a small show,

the same elements of success are present,

which I have found is just so it enabled me to

be able to help others.

So that's what I've been doing for this past 30 plus

years of this experience and I just wanna share.

And so that's why I started the podcast cuz I go

to shows and I see companies that they are doing things

wrong, they're leaving money on the table,

they're not doing themselves a service and they're not doing their

audience a service either by doing things incorrectly.

And so that's why I started the podcast to really help.

I wanna give and I,

I want to help people get better and help businesses get

more out of their investment.

So there's a long-winded answer to my background and why I

love shows.

It's perfect.

And you're leading me right into my first question so you

couldn't have planned it better.

But I do want to frame the conversation for everyone who's

listening here.

So what we're really gonna be talking about today,

cuz we talk about shows a lot here,

Jim on the podcast,

but we're not talking about craft shows and direct to consumer

shows today.

We're gonna be talking about trade shows defined as wholesale.

So if you are someone who is looking at starting to

get your product into local boutique shops or some of the

bigger guys,

then you would go to a trade show and you are

selling to a different person,

right? Than you sell to at a consumer show.

At a consumer show,

you're selling to the end consumer,

the person who's going to be buying and using your product

at a trade show.

You're selling to a store owner who's going to display your

product and sell to their customer.

Just wanna lay the groundwork here,

Jim. I'm sure you could speak to both,

but like that's how I wanna frame it.

Or else we're gonna be talking for many,

many, many hours.

Cause there's so much to talk about.

Plus it's easier to channel things,

you know,

into certain segments so that we keep the understanding.

Yeah, Absolutely.

So what I love about your experience is you've done so

many different types of shows covering so many different types of

themes that I'm really interested to hear what you see are

the similarities,

especially in terms of the mistakes that people make.

So I think let's start with that.

Like what are you seeing that people could be doing better?

Let's go that way.

Okay. Because the first thing you're doing right is going to

a show,

right? Right.

Yeah, Maybe you didn't get the right show,

but you may tell me that.

Okay, so what are some common themes,

like the biggest mistakes that you're seeing people making?

Wow, biggest mistakes.

I would say number one,

and this is not evident to anybody at the show,

Oh I'm so curious.

There's so many companies that do not set goals.

They don't set goals for what do they wanna accomplish?

Because the way you think about it,

at the end of the show,

people have a feeling more than data.

They have a feeling that was a good show or that

was a bad show.

And when I press people on that question and I say,

well what made it good or what made it bad?

And they're,

well yeah,

we didn't get that many leads.

Well how many did you get?

I don't know what,

what was your goal?

And they never set goals.

And so you don't know if you had a good or

bad show until you get to the end of it and

you have something that you could actually measure.

But what do you set goals on?

I mean there's so many things,

but at the very basic,

you've gotta have a metric.

One thing that is gonna be your main metric for the

show for most businesses,

unless you could sell right there at the show and maybe

that's what your thing is,

you're writing orders and you're in front of those wholesalers,

they're walking in front of you and those retailers and they're

ready to buy,

they're ready to make commitments.

Then maybe that is your metric is dollar sales or cases

sold or number of products sold or something like that.

Maybe that is your main metric.

But for most businesses there's going to be a follow-up process.

And so you need to make sure that your main metric

is qualified leads.

Qualified leads.

And I know Sue,

you know all about this is about qualified leads because we

get leads,

we can easily get leads by having a fishbowl there where

people could throw in a business card or you have a

badge scanner,

you could just scan every badge of someone walking by.

And a lot of companies look at those and go,

oh we got a hundred leads,

great. But then when you go to follow up with those,

you find out that 95 of those are people that will

never buy from you.

They were just there at the show and they're not qualified,

they're not in your industry,

they're not your target audience,

whatever the case is.

So you've gotta make sure that they are qualified.

And so how do you do that?

You have to take people through a process of qualifying them

at the booth.

And that doesn't mean that you're having them fill out applications

and things like that to make sure that they fit the

credit profile or anything.

Like that's not what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about just getting to that.

The basics of,

I'll give you an example.

Early on in my career I worked for a consulting company

and we only did consulting work for manufacturing companies in northern

Ohio. Very,

very specific market.

We are at a large national show.

And so it's very easy to get into conversations with manufacturers

about their processes and their manufacturing and all this stuff.

But if they weren't located in northern Ohio,

we didn't wanna talk to 'em.

And so you had to ask that question,

are you a manufacturer?

Yes. Okay,

where are you based?

Where are you located?

Oh, I'm in Detroit.

Sorry, I can't help you.

Oh I'm in Cleveland.

Oh fantastic.

Great. And then you can lead them into a conversation about

what you offer and find out.

Also another mistake that companies make is they immediately dive into

their 32nd or 62nd or 15 minute pitch about their products

and their services.

Without asking questions,

you've gotta ask questions,

you've gotta find out who's in front of you,

what are their needs,

what are they looking for?

What are their big issues and their struggles and where's the

opportunity there?

So make sure you're asking them these questions before you dive

in, but make sure they get qualified first because you don't

wanna be spending a lot of time talking to and not

just the company,

you wanna qualify the company.

That's number one.

Number two,

you wanna find out who am I talking to at this

company? Okay,

I've qualified the company,

they buy products that I sell or they're a retailer that

I wanna get my products into.

But maybe I'm talking to a part-time clerk who just happened

to be at the show because they wanted to see what

was going on in the industry,

but they have no decision making ability.

You wanna find that out as well.

And maybe the owner of that store just happens to be

a couple boots over and that's the person you really need

to talk to.

So make sure you are finding that out or who is

the decision maker.

You don't wanna blow off the person or make them feel

unimportant or anything like that but you.

Wow. Fantastic.

But you know what?

Who is the decision maker at your company?

Oh, that's Joanne is two booths down.

Can I,

why don't you go grab her and come on back and

then that way I'll make sure that I give you the

right information.

So you're qualifying the the company and then you're qualifying the

person and getting to that decision maker if that's who you

need to talk to.

Would You not say that once you know,

to your point about understanding who it is that you're talking

to, even if this isn't the full decision maker,

there are some questions that you can ask them first before

you go off to get the other person.

Absolutely. Cause they are probably in a position,

they wanna show that they're important.

They have inside information of what they're probably looking for.

So you can garner so much good information from that other

person. And I've had this happen at my booths too,

like they're kind of filtering the booths where they want the

decision maker to come back to.

And if you get to the point where that decision maker

comes back,

you've already talked to that first person and know what's important

for that decision maker to hear.

Right? Yep.

I'm sharing with everybody,

just my thoughts as you're talking is you don't want to

discount and not show number one importance and find out everything

you can from that person and build a relationship with them.

Cuz they could,

they could be a gatekeeper down the road too.

Absolutely. Yes.

Yeah, like you said,

so key,

make them feel important because they are,

they are.

They're a human being.

They're in front of you,

they're interested,

they're talking to you and you could ask them all those

basic questions about the company.

So when you have that decision maker in front of you,

you're not taking all their time asking them basic questions.

You have gotten a little further down the road and you

could dive right into,

I was talking with Mary and she said that you really

have some struggles and some issues or you're looking for this

type of product,

you've never had anything like what we have before.

Then you can build on that conversation and get to a

a place quicker.

You can get to your good conversation quicker.

Here's a question for you.

Yeah. And I dunno what you're gonna say about this,

but I always find that the higher up someone is in

the business,

the more direct they want you to be with the answers.

True. They don't wanna take all this time and go back

to the beginning and learn how your business started or like,

you know like all these other more,

they're important to us but I'm not gonna say kind of

fluffy things unless they ask you.

Right? I find the higher up you wanna get more direct

to the point,

more succinct,

tell 'em what they're asking to know first and if they

wanna know more,

if they wanna back it up fine,

but be very cognizant about answering their questions.

Would you agree with that?

Oh a hundred percent.

A hundred percent.

And obviously a lot of it,

if you're familiar with the personality profiles,

the disk model,

you have a lot of business owners that are high D

personality, which means they're driven.

They're that,

give me the facts and let's move on.

I don't want a lot of chit-chat.

I've got a lot to do.

Okay, I'm here.

I'm only gonna spend my time at places that I'm really,

really interested in,

in finding out more information and give them,

be very short,

very succinct with your answers and you should be asking them

more questions.

What are you looking for?

Why the what I have intrigue you?

What is it about?

Is there something else that you're currently carrying that my I

can replace?

Or would this be a supplemental to what you currently offer?

Ask them some good questions but don't think that you're gonna

get into a long conversation and definitely don't dive into a

15 minute spiel about what you've got to do and try

and walk them all around your booth unless they're ready for

that. Yeah.

Unless they give you the indication that they want That.

Absolutely. I think another thing that you said that was really

important is make sure you understand why they're coming to your

booth. I'm freshly back from our most recent show,

which you'll love was the Philly Candy Show.

No way.

Yeah. Oh my gosh,

that's awesome.

But our booth,

we've kind of gotten to the point where people know like

if they're customers of ours,

they know they can use it as a home base.

Like if they wanna drop their coat,

their stuff behind our thing,

like you know,

we love you,

we know you use us as a home base.

This one woman comes back and she's like gonna believe it.

She says two rows down,

there's this new company and I'm really interested in their product.

I go up to ask my questions and she pulls out

her pad and is like,

like okay you ready to place an order?

Ooh, not even high.

Not even,

who are you?

It's like order taking.

Wow. And she said,

I just walked away.

Like that was such a turn off.

Isn't that crazy?

Yeah, that's just bad training.

That's bad training for your booth staff.

Yeah. My goodness.

That could be a complete turn off forever.

Forever. Well I tried to say,

you know what,

go back and give it a chance.

Like maybe she thought you were someone who she was talking

with earlier.

You're like maybe I don't know if she did or not.

Give them the benefit of a doubt.

Yeah. Okay.

So are there any other signs or signals or something else

that you suggest we watch out for not to do?

Yeah and I'm sorry I went but go back to the

goal setting.

You know,

make sure that you are setting goals not just for what

you're trying to accomplish,

but set goals to do other things at the show.

This is another big mistake.

Oh that I see.

Another big mistake is that there's some people that never leave

their booth.

And I understand that sometimes you could be at a show

that is wall to wall,

crazy busy the entire time and if you're working the show

by yourself or you have a small team,

then maybe you're stuck there.

Maybe that's all you can do.

And then I would say plan to get to the show

early, like before it opens and just walk up and down

the aisles and make note or take pictures with your phone

of booths that you want to come back to and have

a conversation with later.

Oh there's someone that I can partner with on because they

have a product that I would like to include in our

offering. Or maybe there's a company that could be a vendor

or maybe there's,

ooh, there's our competitors.

Oh I need to take pictures of their booth and maybe

get, grab some of their literature,

do that competitive information,

take a look at,

wow, I love how their booth is laid out.

I love how the use of colors,

take pictures of that,

do your research and take it back with you so you

can make changes going forward.

But don't make that mistake of not leaving your booth.

If you can do it during the show,

then do that.

Get out and walk around and engage with people and make

those key connections and network however you can.

And this goes to another thing that I see a lot

is that especially,

and Sue,

I'm sure you've been a veteran of multi-day shows and that

last day is typically a daw.

It is just a big dud and It's horrible.

It's awful.

And you're there for several hours and you're like,

nobody's here.

Half the people left already.

And so I would say everyone have a plan for when

the show is slow because it will be slow at some

point. And so at that point,

and maybe you have three or four people on your team

that are gonna be there and you say,

okay, when the show is slow,

I will stay here at the booth or two of us

will stay here at the booth.

The other two I want you going and you need to

meet with these four companies and make a contact.

And you go and take pictures and engage with our competitors.

And you over here go and find the rep from the

industry association and find out if they're having any breakout sessions

or talks about industry trends.

So give people things to do and take advantage of all

that the show is offering and all those connections that you

could possibly make and network like crazy when you're there because

that's where our opportunities come from.

You never know when you can make that connection.

And don't look at your competitor as,

oh I will never talk to them unless something bad happened

between you.

But look at them as a possible friendly competitor and go

and introduce yourself.

Hey, I'm Jim from Trade Show University.

I noticed you do trade show consulting as well.

I'd like to introduce myself.

I think it's fantastic what you're doing.

I think it's all just talk to them about your business

because you never know when an opportunity will come along.

I've worked for companies before that were manufacturing companies that all

of a sudden got a huge,

huge order and that we couldn't fulfill in time.

But since we had friendly relationships with some of our competitors,

we were able to reach out to them and say,

Hey, can you do some private label manufacturing for us?

And if that wasn't there,

we never could have made that good connection.

Yeah. Or would've taken a lot longer to get to that

point. So get outside your booth,

that would be another thing.

Yeah. And you know if you are slow,

everyone else is slow too,

right? Yep.

And so that's an excellent use for the third day because

you can't do it the first few days cuz if they're

active in their booths with potential customers,

you can't go in and interrupt them.

That would be horrible.

Right, right.

You know what else I do on the third day,

depending on the show,

that's another idea for everybody.

I'll go on Facebook and do a live show.

I'll just say,

Hey, I'm here at the show,

it's the last day.

Last days are typically slow.

I'm gonna walk you up and down the aisles and show

you behind the scenes of the show.

And then I'll go up and down the aisles and find

those people that you're talking about,

Jim, and say,

Hey, I'm on live.

I'd like to introduce my audience to your business and your

booth. And then like you kind of do a little impromptu

if they're interested in willing.

I think it in the whole time I've done that,

I've had one person say no.

But you are offering up more value to them too by

doing that.

Yes. Love,

love, love that.

That's fantastic.

Yeah. Get creative.

Yeah. It just depends on the show but at least then

you're being productive with your time and I think that's huge

Jim, because you know if you have like a half a

day or even sometimes those last days are,

they usually end early afternoon,

but they're still like,

I don't know,

five, six hours do something that you can only do at

the show.

Like don't you see a lot of people who will sit

them behind their booth on their phone just sitting on a

chair Yes.

Doing nothing.

Like use those hours for something better than that.

You never know what's gonna come of it.

Absolutely. So I love that you bring this up.

Yeah. Another thing that I would say is I see a

lot of people a mistake that they made some kind of

a minor mistake.

But if you're planning on going to the show and there's

certain customers you know are gonna be there or prospects that

you would love to connect with,

don't wait till you get to the show to try to

book a time with them.

Do it ahead of time.

Reach out to them if you don't know who they are,

connect with them on LinkedIn.

That's usually a great way.

Or go to their website and try to get in touch

with them somehow and say,

Hey, are you gonna be in Philadelphia for the candy show?

Would love to have you stop by our booth.

Or if you have time,

let's grab a coffee.

I would love to talk to you and learn more about

your business and fill up your calendar before you get to

the show.

Because once people get to the show,

they're inundated with opportunities,

they're inundated with networking events and after hours and lunches and

dinners and all sorts of things.

And if you're not well-planned and well-prepared,

you could be stuck having dinner by yourself every night when

you could have been with a possible major prospect of that

store, that chain that you're trying to get your products into.

But do that research ahead of time and fill up your

calendar. What do you think about emailing people who are on

your list who might have been at the show the prior

year? I mean any that type of thing?

Oh yes.

Any pre-show marketing you can do to get people to your

booth is phenomenal.

So if you know people have been at the show before

or maybe they've never been to the show,

but you're like they should be at the show and maybe

send them a little notice that hey,

are you familiar with this show?

And maybe they're not even in that direct industry,

but because they have ties to it,

you know,

Sue, you're not in the candy industry but because your product

serves people in that industry,

that's a great place for you to be.

So everyone that's listening,

I want you to think about that as well.

It's like maybe a baby fair or a wedding event,

bridal event might not be something that you're thinking about because

your product isn't a hundred percent right on on par with

that. But you might be the only gift business at that

event if you're trying to get to,

obviously that's more of a direct-to-consumer play,

but think about outside of the industry,

you can make a huge splash if it makes sense,

if your target audience matches the audience that's gonna be there

at the show.

So really do your research and figure out what else is

available to you to make sure that that's the right show

for you.

Well how do we do that?

What are some tips of finding the right show?

Finding the right show.

You'll hear what Jim has to say about this right after

a quick break to hear from our sponsor.

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Oh great question.

And I just did a video recording,

a video training on how to pick the right show.

So that's a perfect segue into that.

So I am happy to offer that to anybody.

All you have to do is sign up for my email

newsletter and you get immediate access to this video training.

It's brand new and it's absolutely a hundred percent free.

And I go through the seven questions of how to make

sure you're at the right show.

So how do we sign up for your newsletter and get

that? So just go to my website,

which is trade show you.is.

So that's trade show,

the letter u biz right there on the homepage.

There's a place for you to scroll down and add your

email address and you'll get an email back from me with

a link to the training.

Super simple.

Okay, so will you give us a teaser?

Maybe a couple of the questions.

Okay, So the first question is,

what's your purpose for being there?

What's your purpose for wanting to exhibit at a show?

And that comes back to,

I'm looking to make sales or I'm looking to break into

a new industry.

I'm looking to do just get a bunch of leads,

whatever it is.

And it could be,

I think also I want to increase my wholesale by getting

placement in three new boutique shops,

Right? Yeah.

So it doesn't have to be overall sales numbers,

it could be the number of new places where people can

run into and see your product.

So, so many different ways.

So you can think outside the box about that.

Absolutely. So yeah,

so that's the first thing you just understand why am I

going And then talk to the show organizer or whoever it

is that is your contact at that show and say,

this is the reason I wanna come to your show is,

is this the right show for me?

And please be honest with me cuz if this isn't the

right show,

I have a limited budget and I need to find the

right show And you won't be back again.

If it's the wrong show,

you're not coming back.

Exactly right.

So do your research,

ask the right questions,

figure that out first,

and does that show a good match for what you're trying

to do?

And maybe you're saying,

I need immediate cash,

I need to sell,

sell, sell on there.

I need to write orders as many as I can because

we have a huge Christmas season coming up and I need

that cash to fund all those orders.

So if that is a show that you're going to where

people typically don't place orders,

then that's not a good show for you because you're gonna

be sorely disappointed with doing all the follow up and all

that is necessary.

So again,

going back to that,

that very first thing is make sure you understand what's the

reason why you're going and if you don't know,

then really think about it and figure out why are we

going to this show?

The reason for shows can be a million different reasons why

you're going for branding for exposure,

because my competitors are there.

There's a ton of reasons,

but make sure you have that dialed in.

Second thing is you wanna make sure your target audience is

gonna be there.

And again,

make sure that this is right.

I'll give you an example.

So this is obviously not the gifting industry,

but I was working with a company that was an upfitter

or a builder of emergency vehicles,

think ambulances,

wheelchair vans,

things like that.

And they were going to this big EMS show,

they went all in,

brought vehicles and stuff like that.

90% of the people at this show were firefighters and EMTs,

wonderful people,

but they're not the people that they needed to talk to

for, they were there because they had all sorts of C

e U credit classes that they needed to keep up their

certifications. And so that was just a bad fit and it

was a multi-day show and it was just the whole time

we just felt defeated because there was nobody there that we,

you know,

every once in a while someone would walk past or Oh

yeah, you need to talk to my boss,

he's here,

you know,

look for this guy and so make sure you're tired on

he is is gonna be there.

So not just the companies,

cuz that's what we got drawn in by was,

oh yeah,

there's gonna be fire departments and municipal agencies and all this

and we're like,

great, that's who buys our stuff.

But you need to make sure that the people who actually

are making those decisions for buying your stuff are actually there.

Excellent point.

Yeah. Yeah.

So that's two of the seven questions.

I can give you a couple more if you'd like.

Give Us a couple more.

I want everyone to hear how you expand on each of

them. But yeah,

give us just one or two more.

Okay. So say just from the target audience,

say you've dialed in and go,

okay, yeah,

the target audience I know is gonna be there.

Now you have to ask a follow up is,

okay, is this the right show?

I've found a show where my target audience is gonna be

there, but is it the best show for me because I

can only do one or maybe I can only do two

or this show is great,

are there others like it?

Because I'd like to do multiple shows this year,

then start doing your homework and figure out what other shows

in the industry.

And by doing that is not asking the person at the

show, hey what other shows are available?

But see who else is exhibiting there that looks like you,

that's a company like yours.

And then maybe reach out to them and say,

hey, we have similar products,

you know,

might not be a direct competitor but they have similar products.

Reach out to them and say,

do you do other shows and let them,

they'll, oh yeah,

you've gotta be at this show,

you've gotta be at that show.

And then they can tell you that.

Or just start.

Obviously the internet is a huge wealth of information on what

shows are available that you could find that'll match your target

audience. So make sure you're at the right,

right show or that there's other opportunities for you.

Because if you can only do one show,

maybe you do one that's larger or one that's closer to

home that you could save some money because we could drive

to that one instead of having to fly and ship everything,

we can take it ourselves.

So whatever it is that that makes the most sense for

you is gonna be the right show.

Bring it home with one more,

make it a goodie.

Okay, so another thing that,

and I've seen this mistake happen many times is that make

sure you understand your budget and does your budget match what

you're gonna be spending at the show?

I see a lot of businesses get enamored with,

they're like,

oh the booth is gonna cost me $3,000.

Oh great,

$3,000, we can afford that.

And then they commit to the booth and then they find

out, well we need electricity.

Oh yeah,

that's gonna be an extra few hundred dollars.

We need carpet.

Oh, carpet's not included.

What? Oh yeah,

that's gonna be an extra $800 for your booth.

Oh okay,

well what about table and chairs?

That's included,

right? No,

no, you have to rent those.

And so make sure you understand all the fees.

So an all in price just for your show.

Okay, so now you've got that number.

Okay, we're still in our budget.

Fantastic. Okay,

now how many people are you sending to the show travel

costs to go to the show if it's something you have

to fly to and you gotta rent cars,

you gotta get Ubers,

you gotta have meals,

hotels now and you have to ship all your stuff out

there too.

So all the stuff that you're gonna be displaying,

your banners,

your product samples,

all that has to be shipped out to there.

You've gotta figure all that in because that's part of the

cost, that's part of the overall cost.

And it can on the surface,

could look like,

wow, this is gonna be a huge win for us.

But now all of a sudden your $3,000

show is now a $10,000

show or a $12,000

show or even bigger.

And now you're like,

oh shoot,

how much do we have to sell from that show to

just break even?

And is it possible now you're going back to the show

and going,

okay, how many people are you expecting and how many of

those are really good decision makers?

And then you could say,

oh, so if I sold to 10% of those,

okay that would be good.

Okay, my average order size is this.

And you have to know your numbers,

you have to know what and how far down you can

get people into the sales funnels,

through the sales process.

Can you get 'em all the way to the sale?

Just get them to where they're a qualified lead and you

follow up later.

You need to know all that kind of stuff.

But it comes back to what's your budget?

Do you have the budget and then can you get an

ROI on that budget?

Yeah, I'm also thinking for people who we're talking big shows

now too.

Yeah, like if I bring this back to someone who's a

smaller business owner,

maybe one woman show,

maybe they have several employees but still very small.

Yeah. This may be the very first wholesale show they're going

to because they're interested now,

you know,

they've built the business up to a point where they're ready

to take wholesale placement.

Another thing I think is important,

I'm gonna bring up the topic and I'll let you talk

to it.

Okay, Got it.

Yeah, Because I could see with people who are listening here

where they may not recognize the need to do this is

some of your promotional materials might need to be reprinted and

changed because you're not talking to your end user,

you're talking to someone and trying to convince them that they

should carry your product in their store.

So all the promotional materials that you have or the things

that they're requesting are different than if up to this point

you've been at a craft show selling directly to the consumer.

Super, super important and great,

great point.

Yeah, you have to be talking to your audience and you

have to understand who is your audience and what are they

experiencing right now.

Right now we've got a lot of companies that didn't even

survive coming through Covid.

And so now you have maybe a smaller number of companies

that you're going to be trying to sell to.

What are they experiencing,

what are they experiencing right now?

And understand that and how can your products meet their needs.

So you've gotta change,

maybe all the pictures are the same,

but you've gotta change what you're saying cuz the benefits to

a wholesaler is way different than a benefit to the person

who's gonna actually receive and enjoy your product.

So you have to understand what are they looking for?

Are they looking for drop shipping opportunities,

they looking for other special promotional pricing?

Are they looking for short lead times?

What is it they're looking for?

Then you gotta put that into your talking points like Sue

said on your literature.

Reprint that literature or maybe you add a couple,

if you have pull up banners or a backdrop or some

other pieces of display that the,

you're highlighting things that are very,

very important to your target audience.

The people that are gonna be there at that show.

So when they're walking past and they're making the determination,

do I wanna stop at that booth?

Because at this gift shows,

every booth is inviting,

every booth looks amazing cuz you're only gonna put out your

best stuff and you're gonna make it look fantastic.

But people typically don't have time,

especially at the larger shows,

they don't have time to stop at every single booth.

So why do I stop at yours?

What is it that you're offering that nobody else is offering

that your competitors going,

I can't believe they're saying that.

I can't believe they're doing that.

How can you set yourself apart in a special way and

shout that from your literature,

shout it from your banner,

shout it from your display pieces.

It's just super,

super important to talk their language so that they're going yes

finally a company that gets it,

that understands the issues that we're having right now.

And everyone's dealing right now with lead times with supply chain

issues. So if you can say,

hey we've got product in stock ready to ship and ready

for you,

boom. You may have just hit a real hot button for

a a buyer in a chain of stores that you've been

dying to get into.

Yeah, I mean even your local boutiques like this is a

huge issue right now because some things that people might have

bought at trade shows back in January and they're expecting it

to come in for the holidays might not make it in

time. I remember last January,

do you guys remember there were stores selling things super cheap

and that's because they had all this inventory that they had

bought for the holidays that never arrived in time for them

to sell.

So especially if you are a local maker,

similar to if you're walking into a local,

even if it's a one location boutique and you'd like to

have placement in there,

these are the same types of things then that I think

you would be talking about in the booths,

right Jim?

Like you know I'm right in Ohio,

if you are local here I am right here,

I can help you out.

We've got inventory I make right in the same state as

you even,

so you won't have to worry about that.

But I think this is a huge one right now.

And then also,

wouldn't you say again,

very product based here having a sell sheet ready that talks

to, you know,

if you're gonna sell product in cases,

is it a case of six?

Is it a case of 12?

Is it a case of 36 and what's the price for

that? What are minimum orders?

All of that type of thing you'd have to have ready

and printed out.

I know that's something I learned early on cuz I didn't

have it in the beginning.

What are all the products you sell and what are the

price points of everything and if I wanna buy in bulk,

what would that look like?

And have all that thought out before you're asked and don't

have it.

Yeah, and one thing I would say is if you have

a pretty diverse product line,

a big product line,

don't have individual sell sheets for every single product there at

the show because then it just gets cluttered,

Then you need a whole big catalog.

Yeah. Or even a small catalog where you're breaking things down

but make it very simple for people to find one thing

that they take with them because then otherwise you and your

team when you're going,

Hey where's that sell sheet on this product?

I can't find it because there's 30 sell sheets out there

and you're making it confusing for the attendees as they're walking

past trying to figure out what they want and if it's

too much and it's overwhelming,

they're gonna keep walking and you wanna make sure that they

stop, that you get these good conversations.

Something that you mentioned about the case pricing,

things like that.

Again, it's understanding what are they looking for,

make it super simple and basically you're screaming,

I am so easy to do business with you,

I am going to make your holidays the best ever or

whatever it is.

I'm going to be the best vendor you've ever had.

Okay and here's the reasons why,

because you know what I offer upon receipt of that first

order, we're going to jump on Zoom with your team and

I'm gonna walk them through the products and how to sell

it and what customers are looking for.

Maybe go a little above and beyond by offering training but

make it simple to do business with with people and let

them know how that works.

No, really,

really, really good point.

Making it easy.

Keeping it concise with your messaging and giving them what they

need to know.

You know,

not the whole thing but what they need to know.

Yeah. So for someone who's just starting to dip their toe

into wholesale and now they're considering doing a show,

how do we know if we're ready,

what should we be looking at and reviewing for ourself to

know if we're ready for a show and it might even

be a small regional wholesale show,

you know,

not necessarily a big national show.

The way I would look at is am I ready for

best case scenario?

Am I ready for someone to come up and go,

wow, this is fantastic.

I wanna order,

how quickly can I get this product?

And you are waiting on huge lead times where you won't

be able to fill those orders right away unless it's something

that's very common in the industry.

But if you can't be set up for being able to

turn around and have customers or prospects that you meet at

the show,

having them happy that they met you,

then maybe you're not ready.

If you have to disappoint people,

okay, yeah,

I'm showing you all this great stuff but you can't get

it, I guess is is kind of the way I would

say it.

Maybe that's not the place,

maybe you're not ready for the show,

but okay if you have the budget set aside because these

shows are expensive,

we already went through some of the costs.

So if you have the budget and you're ready to say,

okay, if we get good orders,

if this is a huge successful show for us,

are we happy or are we terrified because how are we

gonna do what we just promised we were gonna do?

So make sure you were doing that.

That Speaks to don't go to a huge show if your

production, because part of this is you don't wanna make more

than you are going to hopefully sell either,

right? And then based on your product,

something that takes a couple of weeks if you have a

curing as part of the process or they're one-offs.

So they take a long time to make you wanna think

through all of that too.

And then decide which types of wholesale shows are actually right

for you if you sell fine art.

And so each of your pieces is unique and it takes

several days to make or weeks,

you know,

depending on what your product is.

You're not selling them number one in cases anyway,

right? You're selling single placement in boutiques probably.

So that might not be the best example here,

but just make sure that your product production matches what potential

orders could look like.

And of course having pricing in line,

right Jim,

having, yeah,

all your prices set for wholesale and how those correspond with

retail. We've done shows on that already.

So you can go back and look at that DM me

if you don't know which episodes actually no,

go to gift biz on rap.com/topics

and you'll be able to find the episodes that talk to

that To that point.

Just not to cut you off,

but make sure you are priced for profit.

I've seen way too many,

especially smaller companies that they get in and they're retail,

you know,

the retail price to the end consumer might be $99 but

they're wholesaling it at like $29 but it,

their costs are so huge in the the labor amount and

everything, but they're just trying to get in the door and

they price themselves so low just to get the orders but

they're not gonna make any money Cuz they're probably not even

making it for that.

Right? And so they get frustrated and I've seen this,

especially with a lot of creators,

artists, they don't put a value on their time.

My paints,

my canvases,

these things,

they cost this much.

So as long as I can recoup that,

I'm fine.

What about the 12 hours it took you to create what

went on that canvas and to,

to actually put it together,

you know,

the finished product,

don't discount your time.

Make sure you are charging enough so that at the end

of the day you are happy and you're thrilled to do

that show again and not go,

Ugh, I lost so much money.

Alright, I can't even pay my bills.

Right, Okay.

No, so true Jim,

thank you for underlying,

again, like anytime I hear someone reinforcing that,

I'm like,

yes, because I agree with you.

And then you're gonna be out of business so fast because

you're not making any money.

Yeah. You know,

you're not even making enough money to cover your costs,

much less invest in a business or the shows.

Really. Yeah.

There's a reason why it's called starving artists.

I mean,

that's a real thing.

That's a real thing.

It's true.

There's so many artists and creators and crafters that have to

work full-time jobs just to support what their passion is.

Get it to the point where your passion can support you.

Ooh, that's a quote Jim.

I like that.

Oh, okay.

Why don't you lay on us a couple more ending words

of wisdom about trade shows and tell us why you love

shows and why you think we could fall in love with

trade shows as well.

Yes. Well I would say do your homework so you know

what you're getting into and maybe your first show,

go walk it.

You don't get a booth you don't exhibit,

especially if it's a big show.

And then look at and go,

what am I getting into?

Is this really for me?

Let me look at how other people are exhibiting and displaying.

And you can go up there and you can start talking

to people and see how they present themselves.

So you could use that as a huge learning experiment,

especially if you're going from that local show up to a

national show.

It's not the same.

It is not the same.

So make sure you're doing your homework.

And for a lot of companies,

I tell them,

let's walk this one.

Let's just walk this show and it's time to learn so

that that's an investment in your next show.

And so that is something that I would definitely say is

a good opportunity for those companies that are looking into shows

maybe for the first time or looking to up level from

local to regional to national or whatever.

And take that time,

especially if you're nervous,

you're unsure about everything and go learn.

Go learn.

And the first place to go learn is from your seven

questions. Yes.

Tell Us again where we can go grab those At Trade

Show U Biz as trade show,

letter U biz.

And right there on the homepage you'll probably have one of

those little fun boxes pop up on the screen that says,

Hey, there's a free training and you just drop your email

right in there.

And if that doesn't come up,

then just scroll down the homepage and there's a place there

for you to drop it.

Beautiful. You get immediate access to that training.

Two thumbs up for popups.

They were.

Yes, I love them.

Wonderful. Jim,

this has been amazing.

Thank you so much for coming on the show,

sharing with us a little bit more insight than we probably

had before we started about trade shows,

their value and what we need to do to make them

be successful for us.

Really appreciate having you here today.

Oh my gosh,

Sue, this has been an absolute blast and the time goes

so fast.

So fast.

Yeah, and I'll just one last part,

get over to my website.

I have a over 180 episodes on every aspect of trade

shows. And just like Sue,

you go to trade shoe.biz/episodes

and all 180 episodes are on one page by category.

So you can go right in there and figure out marketing

displays, promo items,

any of that stuff,

and you can find the the right episode for You.

Excellent, perfect.

More free learning about trade shows come in your way right

there. Thanks again,

Jim. Take care.

Thank you,

Sue. It's been an honor.

Have we peaked your interest in trade shows?

If you're serious about wholesale,

it's definitely worth not just considering,

but doing.

Remember to watch Jim's video training on the seven questions to

Ask to find the right show.

To do that,

go over to trade Show you.biz

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I wanna make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook group

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It's a place where we all gather and our community to

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I got a really fun post in there that's my favorite

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I have to say,

where I invite all of you to share what you're doing

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