Summary: To maximize trade show revenue, switch the mindset from, "I'm here to meet people and give away stuff" to "I'm here to collect leads." This changes the entire dynamic. When she did that, she came back from the trade show, we were having a conversation and she said, "I've never had a show like that. I got so many leads. I have all these people I'm going to be following up with. You know, we had great conversations."<br> <br> And all it is, is a shift in the dynamic, a shift in the strategy and the overall approach. Going from "I'm here to be here and to see people and schmooze" to "I am here to collect leads, follow up on those leads and make sales." If you do nothing other than that, you're going to maximize your revenue from trade shows.<br> <br> <br> <br> David: Hi and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing how to maximize trade show revenue. Welcome, Jay.<br> <br> <br> <br> Jay: Hey, thank you for having me on, David. I hope everybody had a wonderful holiday and have big plans for the great new year, and I'm sure trade shows, for a lot of people that's part of their plan, so they should go in with some goals and some ways to make sure that they can maximize those benefits.<br> <br> David: Absolutely. In last week's podcast, we were talking about hitting the ground running in the new year. And today we will continue that trend with the idea of trade shows. In the promotional products industry, this is definitely trade show season, which is why I thought it would be a good idea to address this topic.<br> <br> This week, in fact, the PPAI Expo in Las Vegas is going on. From the standpoint of promotional product suppliers, this is a really big show because that's when they get to meet all the distributors.<br> <br> From a distributor's standpoint, they get to see all the new products that are coming out. They get to visit with the suppliers who decorate the products, and it's a really big show. I sound like Ed Sullivan, "it's a really big show!" Takes place in Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, and that's going on this week.<br> <br> And what we're talking about today, because most of the people who take advantage of our materials are promotional product distributors. They're walking the show this week. So what I'm talking about in terms of this topic though, is maximizing trade show revenue as an exhibitor.<br> <br> Because a lot of our clients who are walking the show this week as attendees, also will very often exhibit at other shows and try to sell their wares there. And so I wanted to touch on that topic a little bit this week.<br> <br> Jay: Yeah. And I'm really glad you are because I've been in both situations. I've walked a show trying to meet people, handing out cards. "Hey, this is what we do." And I've also been an exhibitor.<br> <br> There's nothing worse than being an exhibitor and watching people walk by your booth all day long. You know, you almost need to have the old carnival barker out front, trying to bring people in. And that can be frustrating, because you paid money and you're hoping to generate revenue.<br> <br> David: Absolutely, and I've done the same thing, but on both sides of the equation. Walk shows, and also been an exhibitor at shows. And one of the first shows that we ever exhibited at, we had never done it before. So when you're new at exhibiting at a trade show, you have no idea what you're getting into.<br> <br> You're going to have a booth. You're going to have some sort of backdrop, or you're just going to have nothing and a couple of people standing there. But I don't really want to get into all of that too deeply. I mean, whatever you decide in terms of the environment that you want to create there, obviously you want to create an environment that looks inviting, looks welcoming.<br> <br> You probably don't just want to have two metal chairs and stand ther...
