The important part of trade shows is what what happens with information gathered during the show. For those of you who attended the PPAI Las Vegas Show, you should be ready to receive an onslaught of samples and catalogs that you ordered while there. Designate a place in your office to hold these items. By doing so, upon arrival, they will not get lost in the shuffle. By organizing them this way, you will be able to get them out to clients and prospects faster. Always put yourself in a position to make sales before your competitors do!
Moral of the story: Don’t put off to tomorrow what you can do today!
The show season offers several locations to chose from and we consistently attend The PPAI Expo. Every supplier we do business with is present and every year we renew old friendships with the people who process our orders. Last year we stayed at the MandaIay Bay, but this year we are going to try the Delano for some variety. We find that by attending the PPAI Las Vegas Expo, we can meet all of our show needs in a convenient and organized environment. If you have any questions about the show, we are happy to answer them at don@sellpromoproducts.com. If you would like to learn more about the Expo directly from PPAI, click on their logo below or the following link for the show information: http://www.ppai.org
Moral of the story: If the shoe fits, wear it!
Your actions after a trade show are as important as what you did during the actual event. After having your badge scanned by hundreds of suppliers, you will soon be receiving a multitude of catalogs at your office. Make sure to open them daily, not ganging up the envelopes and boxes for a one-time filing. By dealing with each upon arrival, you will have more time to look at each supplier’s catalog, which will give you the opportunity to learn about new items you missed at the show. If you wait to file everything at once, you are missing the reason you attended the show in the first place.
Moral of the story:
Don’t put off to tomorrow what you can do today.
As strange as it may seem, the most productive time at a trade show is the last hour. By then most of your competition has left, giving you the opportunity to easily visit with suppliers, because their booths are less crowded. Suppliers usually have catalogs and samples left over and many would rather give them away than have to pay shipping charges to send them back to their offices. Suppliers are also more likely to remember their last show presentation rather than their first. This will give you the time to form valuable relationships that will come in handy when asking for help on rush orders in the future.
Moral of the story:
Be there when others are not!
In less than three months the trade show season will be upon us. To make sure you get the most benefits from the shows, it is important that you begin making plans now for the ones you plan to attend. Although a show’s location is one important factor to consider, what really matters about a show is that it gives you the opportunity to gain more product knowledge, build stronger supplier relationships, and learn from your peers. A trade show is for business, not for a vacation.
Moral of the story:
Use time wisely and reap the rewards.
Since I started in the promotional products business in 1983, I have always made a point to attend one particular event each year–the annual winter PPAI Show. It was great during the many years it was held in Dallas; but since it has moved to Las Vegas, it has become even better.
The Las Vegas location has tended to attract more new suppliers who can introduce us to many new products. We also enjoy attending some of the events that take place before and after the actual show hours, because we never want to miss a chance to network. From the Education Day to opportunities to meet suppliers and visit with new and old friends, we find that this show offers everything we need under one roof.
Moral of the Story:
The PPAI Show is the place to do real business!
If you’re planning on attending the PPAI Expo in Las Vegas in January, you need to know about some convenient services available to you.
One is Package Mail. Show attendees can go to an area located on Level 2 at the back of Hall 3 (Mandalay Bay Ballroom), in order to ship show materials back to their home or office.
The other is the Valet Service. After attendees fill their purchased valet bags with samples and catalogs, they just drop them off at one of several Valet Stations throughout the exposition floors. When the show is over, they return to the Valet Service area and their box(es) will be ready for them to ship back home via FedEx. If you’re interested in this service, don’t forget to bring your FedEx account number to the show.
We have found these to be very useful and time-saving services that have added to our enjoyment of the show. To get more details or to add one of these services to your registration, visit www.theppaiexpo.org.
If you plan to attend the annual PPAI Expo in Las Vegas, be sure to spend as much time as you can at the show. This is the world’s largest promotional products trade show and to see it all takes a great deal of enthusiam, perseverance and energy. It provides the invaluable opportunity to see and meet the industry’s most innovative promotional products experts. So come as soon as the doors open and stay as late as you can to get the most out of the show. It will be worth the tired feet!
We’ve never had problems with credit card fraud until recently; but now, we, too, are victims Three weeks ago, while at a trade show, one of our Master Cards was compromised by someone who charged $3,000 worth of airline tickets on the card. Fortunately the early warning system caught the bogus charge and contacted us. Then we had trouble using the card ourselves.
The fact that we had to do this took valuable time away from our selling day, not to mention the aggravation and concern it caused us.
Yesterday, another one of our credit cards was placed on fraud alert because someone tried to make a $1,000 charge using it. When I called the credit card company, they told me that even though we managed our cards correctly, thieves are becoming very sophisticated. They said that our card information was probably obtained by someone using a video or cell phone camera in restaurants.
When we laid our card down on the table for the wait staff to use to pay the bill, someone probably walked by and photographed the card as it lay on the table. So we urge you to watch your cards as closely as you can and trust no one.
A great way to focus your time at trade shows is to look for suppliers who feature domestically made products.
Here are four reasons why you should be looking for American suppliers when attending trade shows:
1. Service — Since they make the products in this country, they don’t run out of stock.
2. Quality — You can’t always be sure of the quality of overseas items until they arrive in the factory. American supplier manufacturers deliver batch-to-batch consistency.
3. Open account credit — Domestic manufacturers understand this to be an essential part of the customer relationship. Credit is usually not available for imported products. If an overseas factory closes, you have little chance of recovering your deposit.
4. Intellectual property — American manufacturers understand the importance of rights to distributors and end-users.
Markets for domestic goods are often service-oriented. If you’re selling to unions, schools, nonprofits and health care organizations, you know that they tend to be value-and-service-oriented, rather than price-oriented. American-made promotional products can show solidarity, help with team building or identify volunteers.
A supplier that we recommend for American made products is the Dooley Company.
I gave up on pencils a long time ago. Maybe you did, too. I guess I thought of them as something only to be used in school and it’s been a while since I finished college! But I also didn’t think about selling them, unless a client asked directly for them.
How wrong I’ve been! I was recently given a box of Shepenco pencils at a trade show and have loved writing with them. I keep a pencil sharpener handy on my desk and when the point dulls a bit, I sharpen my point right up. I like writing with them because they give me a different feel that pens really cannot match.
Now we show this product to customers by pointing out that pencils are the most economical form of advertising around today. For very little money, they offer a six-inch-long ad space that can be wrapped around the product.
Many distributors overlook sales opportunities because they are too conventional in their thinking. Promotional products range in style from downright silly to extremely sophisticated. The photo below shows me wearing Vonco’s new Rally Hawk certainly proves the former!
Instead of dismissing this as a silly item not worthy of our time, we are showing it to as many people as we can. And the reaction is consistently positive. If you show samples of this product that was recently introduced, I guarantee that you will sell many new orders to booster clubs, tailgating groups, and sports marketers at colleges and high schools. Thinking ‘outside of the box’ and occasionally being silly is what separates really successful distributors from just average ones.
The best place to find to find products like this is by attending trade shows!
Every once in a while we meet clueless suppliers.
Recently we had our credit card payment rejected by a supplier that we met at a recent trade show (even though we made the payment five days after we received the invoice–pretty quick payment), because they told us that they only take credit cards for payment at the time orders are placed.
This practice didn’t make sense to me because our card payment would have given them instant access to our money. Due to this archaic business approach, they had to wait three weeks for the money since I waited that long to send them a check for our payment.
Our other problem occurred with an old-fashioned jacket supplier that we re-connected with at a show who we hadn’t ordered from in years. They made us send them a money order because they don’t take credit cards after orders are entered online.
My mistake was that I could have asked about these issues in person when I met these two suppliers at a trade show!
Many distributors are reluctant to directly import products and in most instances, they are smart to be wary. Too often distributors have been “stiffed” for their deposits, had ships sink with their goods on board (with no insurance in place), and had delivery dates missed because of foul-ups with Customs. There are many other horror stories associated with the direct importing.
We, on the other hand, have never faced problems like these because we employ honest and reliable agents who guide us through the process. You shouldn’t fear importing if you do the same.
If you’re thinking about bringing orders in yourself or have questions about the process, we recommend that you contact Alex Woo of STI Certified Products. He is a completely honest importer who can handle whatever you need. If you’d like to know more about his services, please send an email to me at don@sellpromoproducts.com
We met Alex in person at a California trade show.
