Three Days - Max!

Trade shows should not be four days. There's just no need for it. My feet hurt, my back hurts, my head hurts...ok, pretty much everything hurts. Jeanette says she's hurting as well.

Seriously though, four days for a trade show is just rough. By the fourth day all the exhibitors are toast and the buyers are really just looking through to see if you'll sell them any of your samples at cost. Today I felt like one of the old women I used to see when we lived in China using a newspaper to swat the flies away from the fish. And with that analogy you can see why I'm not a very good saleswoman!

A few notes about this weekend's tradeshow if you care to read on:

1. It was nowhere near as successful as I had hoped. Everyone told me it would be better then the one I went to in San Francisco earlier this year but honestly I had better sales in SF I think in part because my product is higher end and has a higher end price point as well. This show had a lot of "small town" folks who may have loved my product but, understandably, didn't think the price point would work with their clientele.
2. I kind of knew I was in trouble from day one when I walked in to set up the booth and realized how much stuff that was for sale there was stuff I would never put into my home. Not that it was bad stuff - just that it was very "country craft" stuff which, while it works for many many people - is not the same audience who will be buying my product.
3. However, I did have a chance to meet one of my potential new biggest accounts at this show. I've already been working with them but hadn't met the head honcho in person so it was great to meet her and give her some samples of the product to look at. She seemed excited about it and loved our packaging so that is all good.
4. I also had a really random contact with the PR director for a major race event that falls within the realm of my industry. He just happened to be at the show accompanying his wife but loved our product and was wondering if there would be a way to incorporate it into this major race. I told my husband that if there is - even if we make no money off of it - we're going to the race simply to be there and take part in the atmosphere because it'd be pretty cool.
5. Lastly, and thankfully, we did make enough money to cover the cost of this show. That was probably partly due to the the fact that the show was local for me so I cut out a huge amount of expense by not having to ship product, not having to fly down there, not have to pay for hotels, etc. So at the end of the day we at least came out even.

I'm waiting to hear back from one of my sales reps who took some of my product to a huge show in NYC this past weekend as well. It was a show we were thinking about going to next year so I'm very eager to hear how it turned out. Keep your fingers crossed that the reason I haven't yet heard is that she's knee-deep in new orders for us.

And lastly, this show helped me realize that sales really is not a strength of mine. To be really good at sales I think takes some real talent and skill and it's just not something I have. Mainly because I don't enjoy doing it. I LOVE to create the product, work on marketing, develop new product ideas, etc but really don't enjoy the sales end of things. I think I realized that I need to more seriously look at getting sales reps who will not only have relationships with their local stores but will also be able to make "housecalls" to those stores to showcase product, get reorders, etc. Thankfully my product pricing is such that I can handle having the 15% commission taken out and if they bring in more sales then it seems worth it to me and would free me up to focus on the things I do enjoy and am better at. And give me time to get back to my accounting which I've managed to ignore for the last quarter or so.