National Clothesline

As I enter my 12th year of consulting, I look at the importance of supporting the regional trade shows for keeping our industry moving forward into the 21st century.

After participating as both a speaker and an exhibitor at the SEFA show in Tampa and Fabricare 2012 in Long Beach, I am impressed how hard the regional shows work to bring vendors, operators and vital members of organizations without getting much credit.

I hate to see the shows “shrinking” in everyone’s eyes and after conversing with people from coast to coast, I created a list of eight observable lessons learned as an outsider looking in. I believe everyone can play a part to make shows better and stronger, giving both exhibitors and attendees reasons to be at the show, year after year.

Vendors should promote the show by providing reasons to attend. I consider myself a vendor at each show and I am there to not give out free advice, but to get business like everyone else.

Where I fell short is in giving prospects reasons to stop by the booth. When I started listing new services we provide, attendees were more inclined to listen to my sales pitch.

A vendor should announce reasons why prospects and current customers should visit their booths. This will help them as well as everyone else.

More consultants should have a booth. I am a bit surprised by the fact that only a few consultants have a booth at the shows.

For me, I feel like I owe it to the industry to give back for the success we have had as well as supporting the associations for promoting my services. Plus, it is a great way to network with other vendors.

Make the booth fun. WestVic is awesome at this. They are like GEICO commercials in their guerilla marketing of their piece counter.

My booth was boring and had a couple of wrinkled banners as well as my ugly mug. I am preparing a list of ideas for the next few shows.

Speakers during the show. This was a hot topic of debate at the Fabricare Show in Long Beach. However, many attended to do both. Some vendors loved it and some hated it.

I see both sides. But one thing was sure, attendance was up in California and all drycleaners know that numbers never lie. Speakers held to less than an hour gave attendees plenty of time to visit all of the booths.

Promote outside groups to meet. Another hot topic, but I chatted with many who attended user groups or other meetings and they commented on how they would not have attended the show otherwise.

I had a Route Pro Meeting at The Clean Show; half of the attendees at that meeting would not have come to the show otherwise.

Stay positive. I have fallen into this trap too many times. I see empty aisles from time to time and I get discouraged.

Look for this to be an opportunity to learn about other vendors’ businesses. Refer clients back and forth so that you can build up each others’ businesses.

Bring your staff. The biggest lesson learned from some cleaners is how their staff reacts attending these shows. They tend to buy in a lot more about their job position when you do this. My wife bought in more to what I was doing when she starting going to the shows.

Keep communication with attendees simple and consistent. Some regional shows are really good at this while others either make it complicated, guarded or weak. I asked for feedback from both vendors and attendees and this tends to make or break attendance at each show.

Don’t get me wrong. I understand the discouragement on both sides of the fence and I see the best of the best at these shows.

However, with all the comments about our “shrinking” industry, I feel that everyone should strive to support each other in order to ensure growth into the 21st century.