WAHM Forums

I just signed up to do a local Woman's Expo. There will be 90 vendors total and they said last years attendance was over 1000 people. This will be at the end of April, so I'm starting to plan now especially since this is my first show. I'll have a drawing for some products, a mailing list sign upand have products there that people can buy. I need help with suggestions on how to prepare- how much product should I have on hand? Should I spend money on magnets or pens w/my logo or just hand out brochures and my biz cards? (and how much of these should I have on hand?) Any suggestions are appreciated!! :)

Hello Christa,

The first thing you need to di us decide what your main goal for is
that event. Will it be to sell a lot of product, get bookings or
bring on new Consultant to your team. You really need to focus on
that goal.



Selling product takes up a lot of time, focus and energy. If that
is your primary goal then you will need more people to help you out at
the booth. If your main goal is to market your parties to get
bookings then having a really nice eye catching display will be
critical.



You may just want to do a demonstration every so often and have those
times published or announced. Talk to the person who is
organizing the show to see if it can be put in the schedule.



It is a lot of work to facilitate a successful trade show, but it can be so worth it. Good luck!

I did a 3 day event and tried to do tastings, selling anda raffle. We did our raffle with clipboards and sheets that looked like they would be torn apart. 2 of us manned the table most of the weekend and it was really busy to do all of these things at once. However, tasting the food, definitely helped sales on those particuar items. We didn't sell all that we had purchased in hopes of selling and now I have some of that product left over. I would advise you not to buy much, just tell people you'll take their orders. Looking back, I wish I hadn't bought anything to sell, even though my sales did okay.


On my raffle sign up we had boxes to check - interested in mailing list, interested in hosting a party, interested in becoming a consultant. That way I knew if someone was only signing up to win a prize and I knew not to bother them after the event is over. It was a great way to get a mailing list out.


We also "chose" our winners of the raffle based on how interested in the products they were. We figured if they could taste more products, it just might hook them to sign up or be a hostess. We made notes beside certain names as to what their interest level was. With the large crowd, this really helped.


Those are just a few ideas that seemed to have worked for us. I think that showing your product and having orders available is the main goal at those shows. If there is someone that has done the same show as you before, it may help to ask them what their experience was.


Hope this is helpful.

I did an event that had about 5000 and we handed out biz cards, brochures and catalogs. We limited the catalogs to those that had the most interest. I also put info on the back of my invite postcards. It cut down on expenses and still got the exposure. I had 100 catalogs on hand per day. 250 biz cards and brochures.


I also did a raffle. That gives you contact info for future follow up. Do different colors for each day. Also hand out the colored ones to those you had contact with and leave white ones on a tableto those that are looking to put their name in for the raffle only. That way you can decifer who you actually talked to. Always take the raffle card from the person so you can jot down what the interest level was so you will have a cheat sheet so to speak when you follow up that lead.


Good Luck

I recommend NOT handing out anything besides your business cards.People will take anything you give them, and are always lookig for freebies, but don't value whatyou give them at aneventlike this.


In my last company, I did several large events annually. I used lead forms for the visitors to fill out. That was also their entry into my contest drawing. I put the forms on clipboards, and had about 8 clipboards out with pens. If someone wanted more information, or a catalog, I told them to be sure to check the boxes so I knew what type of information to mail them. If I really make good contact with them, then I take the sheet from them and write enough of a note on it for myself so that I know later which cards were my "hot leads".


I found that they pay more attention to the information I mail them, then the information that they add to their bag that holds all the other 89 booths' information.


Before the show, I make sure that I have done as much of the advance work as I can...labels on envelopes, catalogs stamped, flyers run, etc. I even handwrite little notes for a couple of weeks ahead of time and put those with my hot leads.That way, when I get home I can sit down, sort my leads by "hotness" and start addressing the envelopes.


I have gotten incredibly good results from doing it this way. People are able to read what I sent them while they are a little more relaxed and at home. They appreciate the effort I have put into gathering the info to mail to them.


Good luck!

I don't have any events planned yet, but these are all wonderful
suggestions. I'm going to copy & paste them all to refer to in the
future. Thank you ladies!



Jennifer

Thank you all for the advice!! It will definitely help me prepare and there were quite a few things I didn't even think of! I'll be sure to keep y'all posted on how things are going!