Product Startup Podcast Episode 148: Grow Product Sales at Trade Shows

00:00:00 Kevin Mako: Hello, product innovators. Today we learn from a 30-year trade show expert on some advanced tips and trips for making your product a huge success selling at a hardware trade show.

00:00:11 Narrator: You're listening to the Product Startup Podcast, the show that helps bring your product idea to life by chatting with successful inventors,

00:00:21 Narrator: product developers, and hardware industry professionals. Our goal here is to get to the bottom of what makes a product successful, from initial

00:00:29 Narrator: idea to getting your product on store shelves. We're taking you. step by step to build a functional product and scale your product business.

00:00:38 Narrator: Hosted by Kevin Mako, one of North America's leading experts on hardware development for small product businesses. Now, onto the show.

00:00:48 Kevin Mako: Welcome back, everyone. Today, I'm very excited to introduce Jim Cermak to the show.

00:00:52 Kevin Mako: Jim has spent over 30 years helping hardware companies educate, navigate, and conquer selling their hardware products at hardware trade shows.

00:00:58 Kevin Mako: He's also the founder of the Trade Show University, an organization that educates and consults,

00:01:03 Kevin Mako: small businesses on winning at trade shows, including his new video series, which answers seven key questions on how to tackle the show.

00:01:09 Kevin Mako: Today, Jim is going to share some valuable knowledge on how inventors, startups, and small manufacturers can plan for launching or scaling your hardware

00:01:15 Kevin Mako: product at a hardware trade show and how to maximize success when it comes to managing your trade show booth at the show itself. Now, on to the episode.

00:01:24 Kevin Mako: Hey, Jim, welcome back to the show. Oh, Kevin, this is an honor, an honor and super excited to talk to you in your audience. Well, last time we talked about

00:01:31 Kevin Mako: launching a new consumer products to the market. And if you haven't listened to that podcast episode,

00:01:36 Kevin Mako: it's amazing. It talks about the value of trade shows and especially to launching a consumer

00:01:42 Kevin Mako: product. But what we're going to talk about today is taking it one step further, not just how to launch

00:01:46 Kevin Mako: a consumer product at trade shows, but really how to gain exposure and make it a big hit. So maybe it is your

00:01:51 Kevin Mako: first trade show, or maybe you're thinking about trade shows in the future of launching or scaling your

00:01:55 Kevin Mako: product. Or maybe you've been to some trade shows and I've either had some success or some failures.

00:01:59 Kevin Mako: Jim today is going to give you some insights as to how to beat the odds in the trade show game and some of the tips and tricks from somebody who's been doing this a long time.

00:02:08 Kevin Mako: First of all, congrats, Jim. I know you just went through a long process. I know it's a lot of work.

00:02:12 Kevin Mako: You've actually completed a full video series around this topic and have actually launched

00:02:16 Jim Cermak: it live and you've done it for free, which is very appreciated it as always. Absolutely. The first video is out.

00:02:21 Jim Cermak: There's going to be more coming, but that video is all around how to pick the right trade show.

00:02:26 Jim Cermak: So if anyone listening right out there that you're considering trade shows and you're like, well, which one do I go to?

00:02:31 Jim Cermak: So obviously there's a lot of research involved there, but I go through seven questions that

00:02:35 Jim Cermak: you have to ask yourself and have the show answer for you on how to pick the right show.

00:02:39 Kevin Mako: So it's fantastic. It's super valuable. Well, that's great. And we'll touch on some of those things today. But of course, that's just the tip of the iceberg.

00:02:46 Kevin Mako: If you want the full stuff, you've got to go listen to the videos here. And if you're doing a trade show, you know a ton of time and effort goes into them.

00:02:51 Kevin Mako: So this is really valuable content to understand the basics around it, to plant the seed.

00:02:55 Kevin Mako: And then, of course, you'll go on and work hard to figure out all that planning that goes into a great trade show.

00:03:00 Jim Cermak: So let's kick it off, Jim. Where do we start? Well, if you're considering going to a show, just some of the basics, you've got to know why you're going. Why are you going?

00:03:07 Jim Cermak: Obviously, if you're launching a new product or maybe you've already launched it and you're trying to get that additional exposure,

00:03:14 Jim Cermak: a trade show is, in my opinion, bar none, the most effective, most efficient marketing tool you have available anywhere. I will argue that with people all day long.

00:03:23 Jim Cermak: Hopefully not argue. Hopefully we become friends. But it is definitely because there's so many opportunities.

00:03:29 Jim Cermak: First of all, if you pick the right show, your ultimate target audience is at that show. If they're not at that show, that's not the right show for you.

00:03:35 Jim Cermak: That's one of the things that we talk about in the video series. But pick the right show because your target audience is there. And whoever that is, maybe you're

00:03:43 Jim Cermak: looking for distributors, maybe you're looking for retailers. Maybe you're doing direct to consumer. Whatever it is, make sure that your target audience is at that show.

00:03:50 Jim Cermak: And if they're there, you have more are those there in one place, in one period of time, then you will find anywhere else. You could spend

00:03:59 Jim Cermak: months and months trying to do marketing of every type. You will not have the same potential exposure as you are at a trade show.

00:04:06 Jim Cermak: So for example, if you're going to the hardware show, the same people that are there to shop the big brands, and you know what they are, whatever they are in

00:04:15 Jim Cermak: your space, whether that is a Stanley or it's a Bosch or a Milwaukee Tools or whatever part of hardware you're in.

00:04:22 Jim Cermak: The same people that are there to see those guys are walking right in front of you. So how do you get in their viewpoint is by just

00:04:32 Jim Cermak: grabbing their attention and doing it in an effective way? And the same thing goes for the buyers from Lowe's and Home Depot and all these other places are right there at the show.

00:04:42 Jim Cermak: So you have that opportunity like you can have nowhere else at a trade show. That's number one. That's why you go there. First of all, figure out why

00:04:50 Jim Cermak: you're going and then you got to set some goals as to what are we trying to accomplish while we're

00:04:54 Jim Cermak: there. And you need to get people down as far through the sales funnel as you possibly can. I don't know where that is for you.

00:05:00 Jim Cermak: If you haven't figured out what your sales funnel is yet, we're just trying to get leads and we're going to follow up on those to qualifying those leads to can I write an order

00:05:08 Jim Cermak: or an initial order or set up appointments, whatever that is. Get them as far down as you possibly can right there at the trade show and have a way to do that.

00:05:15 Jim Cermak: Don't just go into it guessing and hoping that it's going to lead there. You've got to have that orchestrated ahead of time. So a couple things just to get you

00:05:24 Jim Cermak: prepared, because it's a lot of work. Like you said earlier, Kevin, it's a lot of work at these shows,

00:05:29 Jim Cermak: not just getting all your display pieces and your literature and all that together, but having that

00:05:34 Jim Cermak: plan and have everyone in your booth locked and loaded ready to go to engage people while you're there

00:05:38 Kevin Mako: at the show. It could be a make or break, really, for a product. Well, and so many hardware products have made it.

00:05:45 Kevin Mako: You've got a number of clients alone that have had their product launches, let alone scale up opportunities at trade shows.

00:05:51 Kevin Mako: One of the things that people don't really realize, I think, in terms of the sheer caliber of these trade shows, is just how many product buyers are there. Now, this is their job.

00:06:01 Kevin Mako: Their job is to go to the trade show. And at the end, they're going to have to give a report to their boss and say, I went to the trade show, I walked all over the place.

00:06:09 Kevin Mako: I met a whole bunch of people. And you're going to really think I'm a hero because here's the new products that I have made connections with. That's somebody's job.

00:06:17 Kevin Mako: So as much as you're going there, to pitch your new invention idea. Keep in mind, there's thousands of people on the floor of this

00:06:23 Kevin Mako: trade show who their job is the exact inverse of that. They're there to buy what you're selling.

00:06:30 Kevin Mako: That's the power of trade shows in such a very quick and immediate way that gives you the idea that, okay, I want to be at a trade show.

00:06:37 Kevin Mako: And of course, as you said, Jim, then trying to figure why you're there and which trade show you should actually go to. All of this should happen,

00:06:44 Kevin Mako: in my opinion, as far in advance as humanly possible. Remember, these shows run every year.

00:06:48 Kevin Mako: One of the things that we hear clients all the time, we're doing the design and engineering and prototyping on a product and they say, ah, you know what?

00:06:54 Kevin Mako: I just came across CES and I want to launch there and it's coming up at three months. Let's go. That's way, way too late to the game. And it's so aggressive.

00:07:01 Kevin Mako: At least for this year, right? But you might be in a really good position to start thinking about what you're going to do at the show next year. Yeah.

00:07:08 Kevin Mako: So that's where we want to think about planning really far in advance, further in advance. And you've probably planned for almost anything else. Yes.

00:07:15 Kevin Mako: Put that not years in advance to when you're planning that. trade show, at least in your mind. And then as you get closer and closer, you've got to ramp

00:07:22 Jim Cermak: this up. Really interested here with you today is that ramp up period. So as you're getting toward there, make sure, are you going to take orders?

00:07:29 Jim Cermak: Make sure you have a way to take orders. Make sure you know your lead times. Make sure you know all the basics, because those are all the questions. What's your pricing?

00:07:37 Jim Cermak: What's your distributor pricing? Your wholesale pricing? All that stuff. How quickly can we get this into our stock? Make sure you know all the answers to those questions.

00:07:45 Jim Cermak: Don't go in there going because if you have the potentially largest customer of your business

00:07:54 Jim Cermak: existence in front of you asking these questions, they're interested, and you don't want to flub it. You don't want to mess up.

00:08:00 Jim Cermak: So make sure you understand exactly what everything you have. And then be very clear in your branding, in your messaging, do not be vague.

00:08:09 Jim Cermak: Don't think you have to say everything on your banners, on your literature, on your display pieces behind you. because no one's going to read it.

00:08:18 Jim Cermak: People do not read all the little type. Be big and bold with what makes you different. Because if you're there, maybe your competitors are there.

00:08:26 Jim Cermak: Maybe there's a competitive product or things that you have now created an innovative spin on an existing product. Talk all about the innovation.

00:08:35 Jim Cermak: Don't worry about the stuff that you share in common with your competitors. Talk all about why you're different and those benefits that companies are going to get.

00:08:43 Jim Cermak: We might also speak their language. So if you're talking to a wholesaler, you could say, we have products in stock now. We are ready to ship now. We do drop ship.

00:08:52 Jim Cermak: Whatever is important to your target audience, talk about that stuff because that's who you're trying to grab, grab their attention.

00:09:00 Jim Cermak: They may not care about all the little specific features and benefits of your product, but they might want to know what's going to make it easy to do business with you with supply

00:09:09 Jim Cermak: chain issues and everything that we know is going on all over the world. If you're in stock, that might be a huge advantage. that you have over your competitors.

00:09:16 Jim Cermak: I don't know what it is for you, but make sure you understand what are those advantages and make sure you are ready at the show. The next thing you want to make sure you're doing

00:09:23 Jim Cermak: is plenty of pre-show marketing and making those connections with people that you want to get their attention. So if you know that there's going to be a specific buyer

00:09:33 Jim Cermak: from a retail chain or a wholesaler that's going to be there at the show, connect with them. Try to find out who's going to be there. LinkedIn is a great way to do this.

00:09:41 Jim Cermak: Just to go on LinkedIn, do a search on the company name, start scanning through what is the positions that you want to reach

00:09:49 Jim Cermak: with someone in purchasing the president of the company, whatever it is, depending on the company,

00:09:53 Jim Cermak: and then reach out to them, make those connections, try to get an appointment with them. Hey, please stop by our booth. I've got a special demo for you.

00:10:01 Jim Cermak: I've got this talk to them and try to set up that appointment ahead of time because once people get there, their appointment books get completely filled.

00:10:08 Jim Cermak: They're inundated with appointment requests, dinner requests, and all this kind of stuff.

00:10:12 Jim Cermak: So try to do as much as you can to fill up your calendar ahead of time and make those important connections well in advance of the show so that when you get there, you

00:10:21 Jim Cermak: are rocking and rolling and you've got all those connections already made. A lot of the planning, preparing, but when you get to the show, that's where the magic happens.

00:10:30 Jim Cermak: All the stuff that you've done, it's too late to go back and do anything else. You're right there at the show. And it's all about engagement. It's all about

00:10:38 Jim Cermak: engagement because that person, that buyer, that ultimate person that you've never met before

00:10:43 Jim Cermak: could be your best potential customer ever is there's walking past your booth. They're not even look at your booth.

00:10:48 Jim Cermak: You've got to grab the attention of people because you don't know who that is. That might be their only time going past your booth. So if you don't grab their attention,

00:10:56 Jim Cermak: you could be doing them a disservice and definitely you a disservice. And what do you say when people are walking past your booth? I know we don't want to bother anybody.

00:11:04 Jim Cermak: You know, what do you say when people are walking past your booth, have one or two really quick questions that are going to grab someone's attention and qualify them.

00:11:12 Jim Cermak: Okay, you want to make sure that they're qualified, that they're the person that you really want to talk to. If they're not qualified, then just let them go.

00:11:19 Kevin Mako: That's okay. You don't need to talk to people that are never going to purchase your product or

00:11:23 Kevin Mako: anything like that. Well, I want to highlight a couple of things that you mentioned in the planning

00:11:26 Kevin Mako: phase, which is really helpful, especially the startup clients I've seen, but also a lot of the scale up companies or companies are looking to expand their exposure. You mentioned,

00:11:35 Kevin Mako: understanding what you have to sell. Easiest thing you can do to prepare for this is have your own one page,

00:11:41 Kevin Mako: maybe front side only or front and backside, but a one page sell sheet. It has this key information on it because it might not be just you that's at the trade show booth.

00:11:50 Kevin Mako: You might have staff there. You might have colleagues. You might have business partners. Whatever your situation might be at the trade show, know that everybody might not have

00:11:57 Kevin Mako: all the answers that you have. So it's really important that you write this stuff down and keep it simple. That comes to your second point that you mentioned.

00:12:05 Kevin Mako: about planning your marketing pitch, what are you actually going to sell? Keep it simple. Less is more.

00:12:12 Kevin Mako: You really want to highlight just your one or two key features, your competitive advantages,

00:12:18 Kevin Mako: your pain points that you're solving, the opportunities that you're creating, but not listing all this

00:12:23 Kevin Mako: stuff. And I see it quite often, especially with hardware startups, when they're designing the backdrop

00:12:27 Kevin Mako: of what's going to be behind their booth, even if it's just a small 10 foot by 10 foot booth,

00:12:32 Kevin Mako: They look at this 10 foot by, let's say, six foot square behind them, six foot high, 10 feet wide. And they say, great.

00:12:38 Kevin Mako: We can put paragraphs of information, all kinds of images, video. I'm going to get a TV that's showing video reels of testimonials and all this sort of stuff.

00:12:47 Kevin Mako: But attention spans are critically low. And Jim, we'll talk about that in the moment because I want to get into the depths of what you can do on the floor.

00:12:53 Kevin Mako: Right now, talking about planning, the key is to write it down, plan as far ahead as possible, think big and bold, plan your meetings in advance.

00:13:02 Kevin Mako: It also makes a trade show so much easier. When you already know that you're, say, 50% booked or you know that there's already

00:13:07 Kevin Mako: a handful of exciting prospects that said that they might come by your booth or at least gave some kind of interest, right? That's already established beforehand.

00:13:15 Kevin Mako: All of these things can be planned the year prior to leading up to that actual trade show.

00:13:22 Kevin Mako: Before we get into the actual nuggets of the trade show, I just want to ask you about logistics of the booth and this sort of stuff because that's one of the things that are fairly

00:13:29 Kevin Mako: daunting to folks. What have you seen are some best practices around choosing a booth design? How big should you really go as a hardware startup?

00:13:38 Kevin Mako: What do you need to show? Because I think everyone's inundated by these images of General Motors and Ford and all these companies at CES with

00:13:46 Kevin Mako: these like multi-million dollar installations. And you think there's no way I can compete with that.

00:13:51 Kevin Mako: But from everything I've seen at trade shows, it's completely unnecessary to go big with your splash,

00:13:57 Jim Cermak: let's say, your PR splash or your media splash physically on location, if you simply have a great product to sell. Absolutely. I couldn't agree with you more.

00:14:07 Jim Cermak: Don't think you're competing with, like you said, the GMs or the Sony or the Nintendo's of the world, you know, that they're going to outspend you by a hundred times and have

00:14:16 Jim Cermak: staffs way bigger than you can ever imagine. Don't worry about that. The buyers that are looking, and you mentioned this earlier, buyers, they're looking

00:14:23 Jim Cermak: for innovative new products. They're searching out the 10 by 10 boots. They're looking up and down those aisles to see what is new and what's innovative.

00:14:30 Jim Cermak: And so making your booth as attractive as possible, again, doing a lot of that pre-show

00:14:35 Jim Cermak: marketing, reaching out to people, doing your social media posts, getting people excited about

00:14:40 Jim Cermak: coming to see your booth, reaching out to your current customers, your prospects, all that kind of stuff to get the traffic to your booth.

00:14:47 Jim Cermak: But make it your messaging super clear, super simple, have it focused on your differentiation. And then it's, it's all about the engagement. But you brought something up.

00:14:57 Jim Cermak: And I'll share a story of one of my clients who just launched an innovative bathroom product at K-Biz this year, which is a kitchen and bath industry show, massive show.

00:15:06 Jim Cermak: So think of any name you could think of in the kitchen and bath and plumbing world. They're there. And so he came to me and he's like, I've got a 10 by 10 booth already booked,

00:15:16 Jim Cermak: but I got to approve of my board to spend more money. And so they gave me an extra $5,000. And so for that $5,000, I could even.

00:15:23 Jim Cermak: either double the size of my booth, go to a 10 by 20, or I could spend that on marketing. He was, what should I do?

00:15:29 Jim Cermak: Without hesitation, I just said, get a bigger booth because you have now a better opportunity to grab the attention of the people that you're there to see, way more than, you

00:15:38 Jim Cermak: could spend $5,000 in marketing, Kevin, and you know, you can spend that in a heartbeat and get nothing from it.

00:15:44 Jim Cermak: Here, you have that opportunity to grab the attention, and he just rocked it. So he had, you know, brought in a few more of his products,

00:15:52 Jim Cermak: put him into a design where it looked like they were in an apartment, looked like they were in a home, and he made him working. They all had working water going through him.

00:16:02 Jim Cermak: So he spent a little extra money to make sure he had that. He had the water hook up and all that. But by getting the bigger booth, he was also able to get a better booth placement.

00:16:12 Jim Cermak: So that was part of the thought as well. So instead of, he was originally tucked back further.

00:16:17 Jim Cermak: And now he was able to not only get a closer to the entrance, closer to the main aisle, but he also got into the new product pavilion. He got extra exposure.

00:16:27 Jim Cermak: So there's a tip for anybody going to do a show. Reach out to the show, the show managers and say, hey, do you have any sort of showcase, anything? We're launching a new product.

00:16:36 Jim Cermak: Do you do anything? A lot of these shows, especially if their industry is focused or hardware focused or product

00:16:42 Jim Cermak: focused, they want to show the world what's new at our show. And so you might have an opportunity. It doesn't cost you a penny to be able to put your product,

00:16:51 Jim Cermak: Maybe even do demos, have it up for best new product awards, be able to give a pitch to some of the industry veterans. There's so many opportunities that you have.

00:17:00 Jim Cermak: Anyway, going back to my client, going to that 10 by 20, and he brought one or two more people so that he had the coverage.

00:17:07 Jim Cermak: And that's the thing is that when you are at this mammoth show, when you've got tons

00:17:12 Jim Cermak: of people walking past, if you only have one or two people working, you're going to miss so many people. So double your chances, bring a colleague.

00:17:19 Jim Cermak: It doesn't have to be anyone that even works for your company, but someone you trust, someone that's engaging

00:17:23 Jim Cermak: and train them on what to say on how to engage people and bring them in. And then if you get to a point where they can't answer a question, then he can turn them over to you.

00:17:31 Jim Cermak: You want to take advantage of every possible person that's walking past your booth. And that's what he was able to do.

00:17:37 Jim Cermak: He brought in more samples, more things for people to think about and look at and try. And then one golden nugget. I'll shut up for a second.

00:17:44 Jim Cermak: And this is a tip that I absolutely love what we did, is that when someone came up, And anyone could do this. You've got your cell phone in your pocket at all times.

00:17:54 Jim Cermak: So if someone comes up and they start looking at your product and they start going, wow, I really like this. I love this application.

00:18:00 Jim Cermak: They start saying something positive about your product or how they would use your product. Say, hey, can you take a second? Can I videotape this? Is that okay?

00:18:08 Jim Cermak: Can I give a quick recording of what you're saying right now? Yeah, just say your name and who you're with and just say those exact words again. And then take out your phone.

00:18:17 Jim Cermak: And now all of a sudden, what do we want? When we're launching a new product, you can't have enough testimonials, good testimonials from people in the industry.

00:18:26 Jim Cermak: And he got some people from the industry association itself saying, wow, we love this. And then he put this huge reel together of 30 different testimonials.

00:18:35 Jim Cermak: And he put it on his website, but now you have social media tools for months that you can launch one, you know, one every couple

00:18:42 Jim Cermak: days, a new testimonial, new testimonial from people in the industry, from people who are major buyers. So he did that so effectively and came back and just had all these great

00:18:52 Kevin Mako: tools to further get the public all excited and all lathered up about the products. That is a super valuable tip.

00:19:00 Kevin Mako: Jim, much appreciated for you in sharing that because anybody with the hardware product can do this at their show. In fact, you can do it not at the show as well.

00:19:07 Kevin Mako: Keep that in mind. If you meet somebody great and they love what you're doing, get them to talk about it. What do they like about it?

00:19:14 Kevin Mako: And especially at a situation like this, or it could be a network event or an individual.

00:19:17 Kevin Mako: industry event, whatever else, where you have qualified people that are in the industry as real buyers, talking about what they like about the product.

00:19:25 Kevin Mako: This isn't just somebody that was walking by that you're doing these impromptu in-person marketing studies with or customer survey studies or potential interest studies.

00:19:34 Kevin Mako: This is real industry professionals that are on the floor, right? And that is so powerful.

00:19:38 Jim Cermak: I love to hear that that worked out really well for them. And then they use that. They essentially created an asset out of the event that they could use essentially forever.

00:19:47 Jim Cermak: Yeah. And it was free. Free, real time. And people that are excited about your product, they're more than happy to tell the world why they like it.

00:19:55 Jim Cermak: And if they don't want to say anything, then that's fine. Don't berate them or anything like that. Just, oh, thanks for, oh, yeah, no, you don't want to say anything. That's fine.

00:20:01 Jim Cermak: You don't want to go on video saying this. That's okay. You're going to have a lot of people that will, that be happy to share a few seconds while they're right there at the show.

00:20:10 Jim Cermak: You're not reaching out afterwards. Hey, what did you think about our product? No, it's real time. And it's powerful. It is really, really powerful seeing people going, wow, I want

00:20:18 Jim Cermak: to put this in every one of

00:20:20 Kevin Mako: my stores. He had people going, I own 1,300 apartment units. I want to put these in every one of them. I mean, just stuff like that was just so powerful.

00:20:29 Kevin Mako: Let's talk about other tips on the floor.

00:20:32 Jim Cermak: So you're there. You've got your booth and you're trying to attract people. What are some of the

00:20:35 Jim Cermak: best practices for both you and your team in working with people that are coming by? Yeah. I would say speed. If you're at a big show, especially speed. is your best friend.

00:20:45 Jim Cermak: So have those couple of, a couple of questions that will qualify people. And that's that question right up front. You don't want to talk to somebody. If you're only

00:20:54 Jim Cermak: looking to go to a distributor, you don't want to talk to the general public and you don't want

00:20:58 Jim Cermak: to talk to a retailer, maybe you want to talk to just distributor, then that's your main question. Hey, are you a distributor? Yes, I am. Okay.

00:21:04 Jim Cermak: And then you can follow up with another question that further qualifies them or brings them into your booth where you can start that good conversation.

00:21:10 Jim Cermak: but go through quickly to find out what it is that they're looking for, why they're at the show, would they be interested in a new innovative product?

00:21:18 Jim Cermak: So have those couple of quick questions that qualifies them, capture their information. And you can do this in about 90 seconds by capturing their information and then just say,

00:21:28 Jim Cermak: are there any quick questions? Otherwise, I want to let you go. And depending on what you're trying to do, if you're trying to get them to a sale,

00:21:34 Jim Cermak: then obviously that's going to be a little bit longer conversation. But if you're just trying to get a qualified lead, then you bring them in,

00:21:39 Jim Cermak: give them the information maybe given that that one page sell sheet about your product you capture

00:21:44 Jim Cermak: their contact information can i reach out to you next week or when's a good time for me to reach out to you write that down okay great i'll follow up with you in two weeks

00:21:54 Jim Cermak: i would love to get on the phone with you and we'll go from there how's that sound okay this is a huge show i want to let you go

00:22:00 Jim Cermak: people are appreciative that they're not being trapped into a conversation and but if they have questions

00:22:05 Jim Cermak: let them ask their questions but if they don't don't keep them around and continue to talk

00:22:09 Jim Cermak: to them because I've heard sales people before, you talk them into a sale and you talk them right out as you keep on talking. So let them go.

00:22:16 Jim Cermak: So that's a great best practice, just to have those couple of questions, have everybody armed with the exact same questions so that you're quickly

00:22:23 Jim Cermak: going and everyone feels comfortable and confident and going out and engaging those people as they're walking past. And don't make any judgments. Just talk to everybody.

00:22:31 Jim Cermak: Talk to everybody that's going past. Another thing that I would say is, as a team, come together and say, what are the top

00:22:37 Jim Cermak: questions we're getting asked about our product or about our company and come up with answers

00:22:42 Jim Cermak: for all the top 20 questions that are the most common questions you're getting. That could be something about the product, about the features, the benefits.

00:22:49 Jim Cermak: It could be things about lead time, about, you know, where's the product manufactured, about, you know, whatever is important to your product, whatever those top questions are.

00:22:58 Jim Cermak: And then give answers to everybody on your team, have them study up so that there's none of that. Oh, yeah, that's a good question. But I think

00:23:05 Jim Cermak: we got to ask Kevin, oh, he's in the middle of a conversation, you know, can you come back later? You don't want any of that. You want to be sharp and on it.

00:23:13 Jim Cermak: And if you've studied those questions and those answers, you're probably going to have answers to just about any question that may even come out of left field.

00:23:21 Jim Cermak: So study those so everybody's prepared. You're on top of it and you're going to get the best results possible the more you do that.

00:23:28 Jim Cermak: Last thing I'll say as far as one more thing about working the show, if you have a small company and it's just you, if you're an

00:23:35 Jim Cermak: and you have this new product, do not work the show by yourself. Even if you have a little 10 by 10 booth, don't work by yourself, get a trusted

00:23:44 Jim Cermak: colleagues, somebody you've worked with the vendors that would be willing to come with

00:23:47 Kevin Mako: you, somebody, because if you're by yourself, you are missing so much. If you're getting that one conversation, then there's nothing else that's going on and all

00:23:55 Kevin Mako: these people are walking past that you're missing. I appreciate that a lot. I think the most important thing, and it's really difficult, especially for an owner-operator

00:24:03 Kevin Mako: inventor to do is to just be quiet about your product. It's so difficult because when you do finally

00:24:10 Kevin Mako: have that distributor that rolls up and they're interested, you get so energized and captivated. It's exciting. It's special. And they're asking you questions.

00:24:19 Kevin Mako: But understand that they're being polite and you are likely holding them there too long. Know that most people are not placing a purchasing

00:24:27 Kevin Mako: decision at the show unless, of course, they prearrange it with you. That does happen. Sometimes there are

00:24:31 Kevin Mako: are those types of meetings that are happening at the show, but almost always those are handled in

00:24:35 Kevin Mako: advance, plan in advance, and then set for a specific meeting time, meeting room or at the booth or

00:24:40 Kevin Mako: whatever else. If somebody's coming by, you just need to capture their information. If they're

00:24:44 Kevin Mako: interested, of course, be polite, answer their questions, but you also need to get them out as

00:24:48 Kevin Mako: quick as they need to also get out because you have other people that are potentially waiting,

00:24:52 Kevin Mako: even if it seems like you've got a good fish on the line, know that that may or may not work out. Be polite, collect their information, be quick, and then get onto the next person.

00:25:01 Kevin Mako: Let them go and they'll let you move on. And especially if they're more experience at trade shows, they get it and you get it. You've captured the information.

00:25:09 Kevin Mako: That's a big one as well. A lot of people, when they get caught up in the excitement of a really good conversation,

00:25:13 Kevin Mako: they forget to get the card because they think, oh, they were so interested. I gave them my brochure and my business card.

00:25:20 Kevin Mako: They're for sure going to call me back because we had such a great call. Know that that person just went home with hundreds of pamphlets and business cards and stuff in their bag.

00:25:27 Kevin Mako: They might even lose it. You never know, right? That is not to be relied on. what you need to be sure is that you both have your information, and I like how you mentioned to

00:25:35 Kevin Mako: take your notes. So figure out a way that you're going to note, bring two types of pens, a normal

00:25:39 Kevin Mako: pen for writing a normal business cards and a Sharpie for writing on something else that they might hand you. Because the pen doesn't always work, right?

00:25:45 Kevin Mako: So you've got to have those in your back pocket. You've got a notepad that you're taking or you're writing on people's actual business cards

00:25:50 Kevin Mako: on the back of them or their brochures or whatever else. But make sure you're tracking that

00:25:54 Kevin Mako: information because what you'll find after the show, especially if it's the first show you've done,

00:25:58 Jim Cermak: you will not remember the important things you thought you would remember. That's for sure.

00:26:02 Jim Cermak: Because so much happens by the time you get to day three, you forgot even about your best conversations from day one. Yeah. You've got to note that stuff down. Yeah.

00:26:11 Jim Cermak: I'll give you one more super tip about taking notes. This could be a really powerful marketing thing, a really powerful follow-up tool.

00:26:17 Jim Cermak: And this is for the best conversations you've had. You just had a great conversation. You definitely want to follow up with this person.

00:26:24 Jim Cermak: They're that, like you said, they're that hot prospect. So as soon as they've left the booth, pull out your phone and just look in the camera and go,

00:26:31 Jim Cermak: Bob Smith from ABC Distributors. Bob, wow, we just had the best conversation. I loved what we talked about.

00:26:37 Jim Cermak: We talked about our product and how you can bring our product into your portfolio. And I am so looking forward to our conversation. We're going to have in a couple weeks.

00:26:45 Jim Cermak: I'm going to follow up with you. But man, it was really great to talk with you. And I'm looking forward to our next conversation. A quick 30 second video.

00:26:53 Jim Cermak: And now that is your follow-up tools. You can send that in an email.

00:26:56 Kevin Mako: to them as the follow-up, and you remembered and you could reiterate what you just talked about. You've got that great tool.

00:27:03 Kevin Mako: Not only is your notes for follow-up, but you now have a cool follow-up marketing tool that you could send to them as well. Jim, these are pro tips. This is a very

00:27:12 Kevin Mako: valuable episode. I bet very few people actually do all of the things we're talking about here on the show. Oh, yeah. So what an easy advantage.

00:27:19 Kevin Mako: Even if you're just a home inventor startup

00:27:21 Jim Cermak: going to your first show, you could become pro just by listening to these tips. And of course, If you want to dig further, Jim just released that full video course.

00:27:30 Jim Cermak: Jim, talk a bit about that and where people can find that free course and how you're rolling out those episodes. Sure, absolutely.

00:27:36 Jim Cermak: If anyone wants that video course, you just, I have to just go to my website, trade show you. That's trade show the letter you, dot B-I-Z, right on the homepage.

00:27:45 Jim Cermak: Actually, you'll probably have one of those pop-up boxes come up that's going to say, hey, free video course. It is how to pick the right trade show.

00:27:52 Jim Cermak: You just drop your email in there. And after you do that, you'll get an email back for me with, the link and the immediate access to that video.

00:27:59 Jim Cermak: And then there's going to be more videos coming only to a subscribe to the email newsletter. That's it. I go through the seven questions you need to answer.

00:28:07 Jim Cermak: And this can make or break because I've worked with companies where we were at the wrong show.

00:28:12 Jim Cermak: It was the right companies, but the wrong level of people there, the decision makers weren't there.

00:28:17 Jim Cermak: It was all these lower level people that were there because they were getting CEO courses and credits for attending all the seminars. And so it was just a bust.

00:28:26 Jim Cermak: or it was just the absolute wrong show for whatever reason.

00:28:30 Kevin Mako: You want to make sure you're making this time investment, money, resource investment. You want to make sure that you are getting the most out of it, the biggest ROI.

00:28:37 Kevin Mako: And so grab that free video and it'll walk you through so you know 100% that you are on target with the right show.

00:28:45 Jim Cermak: Jim, much appreciated. And as always, I will put all those links.

00:28:48 Jim Cermak: I'll put the link to your LinkedIn as well, the link to the actual video show in your website in the show notes below. So anyone can just click through.

00:28:54 Jim Cermak: Thanks again for all your words of wisdom today, Jim.

00:28:56 Narrator: talk to you again. Good talking to you, Kevin. Thanks so much. Take care. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Product Startup Podcast, the show that teaches you what

00:29:05 Narrator: it really takes to bring your product to market and turn it into a big success. This podcast series is brought to you by

00:29:12 Narrator: Mako Design + Invent, the original and leading firm in North America to provide global

00:29:18 Narrator: caliber in-to-in physical consumer product development to startups, inventors, and small product business clients.

00:29:26 Narrator: If you're looking for product development help on your invention, head over to MakoDesign.com.

00:29:31 Narrator: That's M-A-K-O Design dot com for a free consultation from one of Mako Design's Ford Design Studios from coast to coast.

00:29:40 Narrator: Thanks for listening and see you next time.