Episode 572 - Trade shows as a means of getting leads and generating customers

Welcome to episode 572 of the show before we begin. I'd like to apologize because today is another out and about recording. So you're going to hear a lot of noise in the background cars, moving back and forth. Some people might even pass real close to me and the people having conversations all over the place. So, now, with that warning out of the way, let's delve straight into the topic for today's show. Now today, we're going to look at trade shows for getting leads and chasing customers.

It's a Ation of the topics that we have been discussing the past couple of days, although we started off the The Narrative talking about new school, methods online methods. So, since we've gone into that, in a lot of detail, I'm going to bother to make a recap. So this is your first time of listening to the show. I want to hear about SEO. What else advertising online. What else, newsletters, you know, those So things just keep back the prior episodes, the last 56 episodes, check the head as the subjects and you be able to find more information there to wet your curiosity.

So beginning with today episode 572 we're going to start looking at Old School methods. Now when I say old school methods, I mean methods prior to the dominance of Internet so I'm not speaking about new school old school in any other context. Remember this classification is a personal one to expect to see different classifications. If you, if you go to the Internet or if you check your business books about if you if you're researching lead generation and stuff like that,

expect different kinds of classifications, but this is just a simple way that I think about it. So we can explain it to folks and maybe it also stems from my background in the wedding and the event industry. And so that's how we would kind of think about stuff like this. Yeah, internet or no internet. Now, online versus offline? I think that nature. Okay, so straight to trade shows. Now, what is the trade show a trade show is simply an exhibition to promote products.

And services. It's usually attended by lots of Industry partners and sometimes it's attended by customers depending on how the whole thing was set up to begin with. Now, the different kinds of trade shows since this is not my field, I can give you guys an objective classification of the different kinds of trade shows and stuff like that. So I'm just going to go for my personal experience in Abuja and in Lagos, just to give you examples of trade shows that I've either been a part of all that I have witnessed firsthand so there is the so.

Well, of course, for those of you been listening for a while, you know, if my Prior experience in the wedding and event space. So, of course, there's wedding expose or wedding bridal fairs, or whatever it is, that you choose to call them. There's the battle experience, which is organized by brides and babies their brother laughing. Abuja Legos and Houston and the through this battle experience, which is a one day Affair where they have pre-qualified Brides,

who have already bought wedding dresses and for me, that's one of the more choices wedding expose. Wedding first to attend because this brides are very serious and so small. It's a small crowd and it's very targeted. So, it's a battle for that. I've spoken about very highly. So, if you listen to this show for a while, you would be surprised to hear me. Repeat this recommendation, but I'd like to point out that I'm not under any form of retain ownership, or I'm not being paid in any way to endorse the organizers of this way.

But it's a good fat. So, what happens at Battle experience? Everybody shows up to the bride's own babies store in in Abuja, and who say to. So it's all Under One Roof and then there's an assortment of wedding photographers. Wedding planners food, people, cakes drinks, what else? Cake drinks DJ's. Okay, one, DJ MCS. The last time we were two MCS, masters of ceremony. Let's see what else. Okay. I think people in the travel space also come along for these sorts of things that's for couples who are planning weddings are broad or they want to go for that honeymoons abroad.

So those sorts of people also show up as well so you can see what I alluded to in the earlier. The definition is an exhibition where all that go on our products and services have taken part in several of these. So of course you have industry partners that are there. There's me there's a lot of photographers there's other wedding planners and then customers pass through, they get to see meet and greet. Eat do their research and then hopefully from there, we get to drum up some business.

So that's the idea of Wedding Expo or a bridal fair. Now, that's not the only one in Abuja or rather in Nigeria. There's The Wedding Expo. Sorry, The Wedding Expo. Yeah, that's I think, the call themselves, whether X will do bet. What, Expo? They're back again after covid. And there's going to be one in Legos for 2023. I don't know if they have any one planned for Abuja. I used to be in touch with the Organizer arcing the organizer of weather expert, but I haven't chatted with him in a while.

And then, since I'm not in the wedding space anymore, I didn't bother sending a message to find out if there's anything planned for Abuja. So, if you're listening to this recording right now and you are a wedding, a move, a person based in Abuja and you're curious just Google wed Expo and Atkins website, and the numbers of the people that need to reach you be there, you can call to find out if you have any plans for a boot.

Shh. So that's an example of trade shows in the wedding space and in the event space, then there's also the GTB GTB, that's a guarantee. Trust Bank and a jean bank is the GTB food and Fashion Fair, or something like that. I think it's food and fashion Expo or food, or Fashion Fair. Which also happens to be facilitated by this young man that I mentioned marking the person who does The Wedding Expo. So I think for the Guaranty Trust Bank food and fashion, is it food and fashion Fusion of food and fashion lifestyle something.

And if you search Google you'll find it. It's a yearly thing Legos. Yeah I think Legos, I haven't heard of it in Abuja. And of course, it's a bunch of vendors in the food space and in the fashion space and everybody gets their and the exhibiting their stuff. And then ordinary folks like me who are curious about food because I'm definitely curious about food. We get to walk through, get see different food, vendors, different restaurants, and stuff like that, and they're going to get an opportunity to I'll have an opportunity to do my research.

They also get the opportunity to get some contact details for the careful of later, you know, maybe find some customers. Here, there are other people who are into fashion, like my wife, likes to dress up, so my wife might be there for the fashion and of stuff, and yeah, so that's another example, you have people are getting together, they're promoting their products and their services. In this case, the promoting food, the promoting fashion industry, people are there and then customers are also going to walk through and may the best man win May the best woman win when it comes to generating business.

And there's also the NSE. That's the nitron Society of Engineers. I think the host multiple conferences and trade shows and things like that. I think the last one was organized in Abuja and 2022 and the concept is the same. Although I kind of suspect that for the NSE, maybe might be mostly industry partners that might come through and maybe, maybe not customers. I'm not sure I haven't attended for last year. I was asked to put in a Bid for photography and video coverage for the event.

And that's how I got to know about it. Because one of the organisers was my was a past client from a portrait session. Oh, and by the way, for those of you who are listening to this, who I in the wedding and event space, I hope you're getting an example about when I talk about how we shouldn't think about events being one and done. There's this idea that if you take somebody's portrait, then that's the end. End of the story or if you cover somebody's wedding, that end of the story rather we should look for ways to maximize the lifetime customer value of the people that we do business with because it opens up business opportunities in other ways that we cannot find them.

So like the NSE thing that I spoke about najin Society of Engineers, I end up doing a covering a wedding for one person. I do a good job of staying in touch. They recommend me for a portrait session to another person. And then I end up doing a good job there and I stay in touch. And then as my career started boarding out and I start doing corporate events and stuff like that, they invited me to put out the bid for the NSE conference for photography and video, I

didn't get the job. Well, that's beside the point. Whether I got the job is besides the point or not is to show that from building relationships, you can leverage the wedding and go through all the way through portraits and then end up in corporate functions. So, let's stop thinking of these things, as one and done for those people in the wedding and event space, as I keep ranting about all these sorts of things. So if you want to be exclusively weddings, then you're of course it's going to be one and done because the person gets married once and God willing, we don't expect them to get divorced.

First and then get married again. So it's going to be one and done or at best, maybe another waiting for a member of the bridal party or something like that, but your prospects for repeat business and referrals are limited. If you want to remain in. That's big smoke. I think we should be open-minded and leverage other opportunities as they come across so nicely with the NSE. Then there's also the the real old ones when I say old, put it in context.

I'm an 80s baby. So there might be older fairs because I think they should be some International motor Affair or something like that. My father used to attend and I've met a client right now. Who is about 70 years old? Who remember some of those fears, they used to be motor Affairs, across West Africa. I think even involving some racing starting in the northern part of Nigeria and Crossing through the desert and stuff like that.

So I guess I just really, really old really back in the day. More International motor Affairs, but that was beyond that was earlier than my time. So, the ones that I have caught are the ones that some of you should be familiar with. That's for those of us who are, you know, 40s and I'm pushing 50s or Beyond. There's the Abuja International Trade Fair Legos international trade for those sorts of things. I mean those those ones have been going on annually.

Well, almost annually, what's that? What is it behind you lie? You happen every two. Two years or every three years. And I can't remember when we, those one seems to be a stable object, a national Trade Fair, they got International Trade Fair, those ones are really generous scoop then was also okay, those a new one that I saw last year, Abuja International real estate fair or something like that. That was 2022. Then there's also an Abu Dhabi International Food show that was a new one as well in 2022 and I

think that was put together by the ministry of Tourism. I think as a tourism, the government parastatal, put that together first. Make a rough guess I'll say it Ministry of Tourism and I didn't get to participate in that. But my video Partners ended up providing the some of the coverage for for that and I think Lighting and Sound as well. Yep. So, anyway, that's just an example of what trade shows look like and you see that this fund the government, whether it's weddings, whether it's fashion,

whether it's agriculture, whether it's engineering or real estate or food or fashion trade shows out there and they are a good way of getting leads and chasing customers. Now, is it worth the time? Heater question? Because it's something I get asked a lot especially when I was really active in the wedding space we would say Wedding Expo. Is it worth the hassle? And the answer is, it depends who is going to be in attendance is going to be mostly industry Partners or is it going to be customers.

If you think that when we lose our customers there I think it's worth taking a shot especially if you have the cash to spare, for instance, brides and babies. It's not, it's not expensive. Affordable one day event. The last time was I think was about 50 k. Also one day event. So if business has been good last year, you have some spare cash might as well try it out and then see for yourself. So who's going to be in attendance?

That's why you should consider. So if it's like an NSC events where suspect is mostly industry partners that attend these things in you're going there you know that it's mostly a networking thing and you're not expecting to get any Business immediately from the whole thing. So, who's in attendance industry Partners? Or is it going to be customers? Another example that we can use to flush this out, is the, I think it's called the Consumer Electronics Expo.

I think in America, I can't remember. I think is the consumer electronic Expo because those buckets back and back in the day, I used to enjoy watching. BBC, Click, BBC, Click and CNN. some CNN program and, you know, around digital and Tech stuff and so they would cover the Consumer Electronics Expo and for consuming large electronic export, that one was mostly attended by industry Partners so you have people there, Ford General Motors Sunni, you know,

big names, everybody, showcasing, what it is that they have the showcasing, the latest high-tech car, the latest high-tech TV or your Kettle that can boil water bodies Victor to the internet. I don't know why you would do that. Let's see what else or you show your latest sustainable, batteries, solar panels or, I mean, it's really big and you didn't have some people showing off robots that they are about to hit the market with.

So it's really huge and I hear that it's a spectacle spanning several days and some people even They say it's a good form of cardio because you go there, you're walking the whole there's a lot to see. So you come today, you come tomorrow you come the day after and it's a really huge now, even though that one is has mostly industry Partners in attendance. The thing is the event organizers have been able to Ghana a lot of Buzz around the program and so because of that,

there is plenty of media coverage and that gets Ordinary People Like You and Me interested. So it's possible that even though Retail players might not be in that space, but you can use that as a soft launch for your product or your service. If you're coming out into the market, with some product and is the latest and the greatest, then it might be a good idea to show up our consumer, electronics Expo because you may have some random people like me or my brother, cause my brothers who likes text of.

So me my brother or maybe my brother-in-law, you know, passing through. But apart from that, if you did a good job, be able to culture media attention coach on PR is going to be a good way to get a soft launch for your product or your service. So even though it's going to be, it might be something that has industry partners and attendance. It doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to be a waste of your time, there's networking opportunities and you can get some PR and media coverage after that.

Okay, we've done 15 minutes. So let me just bleach with the rest. Let's see. Okay, the kind of skills that you need to pull this off, you're going to need merchants. Exercising skills on display skills. And that was the thing that I hated, most about trade fairs, I must confess, as I remember one day, I set up the booth, my friend, Laura, from portion pristine events, she passed through and shows like artificial, my dish looks horrible.

You said this place up like you're a carpenter and yeah, she was right because I have no merchandising skills. I have no display skills. So I just put out the white bed sheet and I just put everything on the table and that Was it and, you know, I couldn't be bothered. So she came through she put like a flower vase and she did that hemming thing. Where you use needles on the toilet, is it needles? Pins use pins on the cloth, you Bunch them together, the splash of color here and there, and then she propped up one of the books and then propped up the wedding frames in front and she just, she did her.

She did her magic basically hand. The the table, I'll Stand, you know, ended up looking much more presentable. So that's a skill that you need because if you're going to go there and just throw things down, like a carpenter, don't expect to attract certain kinds of people because you want the whole thing to be visually appealing to draw people in. So whether it's a real estate firm, whether it's a Wedding Expo or whether is NSE, whatever it is, depending on the context,

you have Find a way to make your stand or your display look real nice. So merchandising. That's a skill that you need. You're going to display things at your stand. But with the example, that I gave remember, is not something that you have to handle personally yourself. You can get your friend to come help you out. If he, or she is more skilled at the sorts of things. You also going to need Rapport building skills conversational skills because a lot of times going to be spent talking to people who are coming through your stand, make sure you have water because the throat is going to get dry from all that talking.

You also need skills in contact management or using a CRM. That's a customer relationship management tool, because you're going to be meeting. Lots of people going to be collecting phone numbers. Email addresses, Instagram, handles Twitter, handles, Patriots, handles or whatever. That's for people in the wedding, and event space, will be collecting those kinds of details. I'm assuming that if you are in other industries, that you might be collecting LinkedIn, handles.

But bottom line is, you're going to be collecting a whole lot of data, different kind of contacts. I need to have, you be skilled and have the right mindset at managing all this information that you're going to get because it's going to be absolutely pivotal for the follow-up that you have to perform later. You also need skills in EQ emotional quotient relationship-building follow-up Geneva, love that something that people don't talk about you.

To have a high level of physical stamina. Now, for those of us in the wedding and event space, where who used to be the wedding and event space. Physical stamina is not a problem because as wedding photographer you used to working 12-hour days, you're up you're the bride's house or whatever. Okay. Let's say for those of you basically goes because of how traffic and how terrible traffic can be your by 45 so you can get this price house for six or seven and then you're shooting up on to maybe five six and then after Maybe after party or something.

So wedding, photographers wedding planners. No problem. We have the stamina. We can stand for a very long time. For the rest of your average. Use the first time you're thrown into one of these things and you find that you have been standing for six hours, straight talking to people. You you leave the day, feeling extremely knackered. So comfortable chairs, you can sit down, watch the world take walks, you guys come up with an understanding about when you can take a lunch break, so somebody can come and go and eat or drink water, or use glue, or whatever,

but levels of physical stamina. What. So now what not to expect if you're involved in complex, sales scenarios don't expect to sell out all the things that you have brought. What is the complexity of scenario? I'm not going to get into that. When you're done listening to this episode, scroll back, you should search function. Your podcast player, I have made episodes on complex ill, scenarios and simple. Scenarios listen to that and you find out what the key distinction is basically.

Let's see. Okay, we are 20 minutes over. Need to wrap this up quickly. Hmm. Okay so don't expect to sell out if you know, complex sales and Aereo. So wedding photographers for instance at The Wedding Expo, don't expect to get a bunch of brides. Booked you on that day, because wedding photography is more complex than other aspects of the wedding and event process. Because buyers want to see you. They want to see your work.

We want to compare to a couple of people shouldn't expect too close. The deal today for complex cell scenarios people are coming to do research before they pick one personal before they buy. For simple cell scenarios. On the other hand, you can expect to sell out provider that you have the right incentives. Now, an example that I've given in all the episodes is people who come to sell hair or the cell and Cara at wedding expose people who sell hair.

And when I say here, I mean was I think called, you know, wigs what else wigs weaves and all sorts of stuff? And then people who sell and Kara, Kara is he local fabric for the fact that they can use to make lots of styles. Lots of affordable Styles. So people who sell and Karen who sell here, they do sell out at wedding Expose and that's because it's impossible scenario and that case what they're selling is here. You get there you look at what they have other.

They have Downing yucky or whatever. I know, my wife teases. Me, that darling Yaki is no longer a thing, like, no respectable woman would use darling Yaki in today's day and age for natural boobs. Anyway, I don't know what they do in Ghana. I don't know if you people in America use. Also things. So anyway, darling, Yaki is all I know. So that's what I'm using for the example. So you get there and you see that they have done in Yaki in color 0 or in color 3 or in or in color this or that you or whatever and you either like it or you don't.

And how much does it go for is 10,000 error, you have to have the money or you don't, there's going to be a discount maybe twenty percent or whatever. But the thing is this Simple scenario, you get there. You see it you like it or you don't you have the money or you don't you buy it or you don't? It's that simple. It's that straightforward. Also, people who sell here. This allowed those events because it's straightforward,

you go there, you put up a sign 5% discount, they put all their hair there and this is all it takes the first day of might be a little slow for them. You know, one or two people might come by a few things but with battle with wet Expo for instance, last three days, three or four days. So, let's people might go home and then talk to other people that you can't believe. I saw darling. Lucky there. Darling, your key is normally 15,000 era.

But They have a 2% discount, our body that 13 5 or whatever, and then the second day, that's where all the magic happens. People just seem to descend out of nowhere. And before, you know it they sell out all the Ankara or the hair on the to and then on day three and then on day four so those people they sell out. It's a simple scenario. You have a like this and car Fabric or you don't you have the money or you don't you're buying or you're not.

It's that simple. What if it's more complex, your photographer or your wedding planner people want to look at you the 12. So she out going to compare you to other people, things like that before making a decision. So the main reasons for attending these trade fairs is so you can get contacts of people to talk to people have come by our booth could be possible customers. You also want to build relationships with other vendors, who are there, because those are people that you can partner with later on my video,

a lot of the video Crews that I work with. For, that's when I still entertain corporate beads for photography and video are people that I have met through these sorts of things networking. Not just with customers but with other vendors like I mentioned. And so that's the main reason for attending these things if you have the right expectations and also if you have the right skills to be able to see these things through.

Because if you don't have your merchandising, right, if you set this thing up, Carpenter, you know, good with conversation, you stink, you haven't had a shower, you don't know how to manage all the contacts that you get, and you have a repulsive personality, you have no emotional quotient then attending trade fairs is going to be a bad idea because you're going to go there and Chase your body weight and you know quite frankly business going to flop.

So my general recommendation, if you are attending these things don't push for the sale at the booth. Don't approach every single person saying by now, by now, by now, by now sign up. Sign up, subscribe, subscribe. No that's not what you should do because trade fairs are really noisy and you can't have complex conversations. You can't consider complex things because there's music blasting. This is a thousand people walking all over the place.

People bumping into you. The noise is loud. You have to be shopping into each other's ears. All kinds of things. So that's not the Dozen. Not the best conditions under which to do business, what you should be focusing on, is by ask this on having qualification conversations qualification questions. I'm not going to go into detail what those are. Once you don't listen to this episode, if this is your first time just look for episodes here, use the search function within this podcast player, and you find my old episodes where I

talk about seals Frameworks qualification Frameworks and how things ought to be conversation LED And you'll get more information about those sorts of things. So basically when people get your booth should be asking them questions about them should be find out some more about the person. Find out some more about the business. You also should try and find out more about the problem or more about the opportunity that is being explored.

So, back to my favorite example. Well, at least for the last couple of days so far, if you're an architect and you attack, one of these trade shows, it's not about people coming to your booth and then you say, sign up, pay me a 50,000, neither are we Retainer, so I can design your buildings so it's not about your 100K Rita, okay? 100K small for Architects. Okay, let's make you 1.2 million so it's not about your 1.2 million retainer from the get-go.

It's about talking to the person who came to the booty, trying to figure out who they are, where they came from, what their interested in, what projects are they currently working on? What kind of style Aesthetics? Do they have? What are the budgets of the things that they've worked on in the past and from having all those conversations that you're going to be able to? The sense of whether there's any possibilities for doing business with them in the future.

So, if you attend, these things is not about by now, by now, by now, by now except if you have a simple sale scenario. So if you are in a simple scenario. So if you are, let's say you sell carry at and you attend the International Food, first of all, then you know, it's straight up. You know, you can buy a sack of my Gary at normally at. Okay let me just guess, I don't A the sack of Gary cost. So you can buy the sack of Gary at 15,000 are, but if you attend at this booth today, we're going to sell it to you for 13:5.

So how many sacks are you getting you getting 10 or you getting 20? So in our case, it's commodity straight up. You can go in for the kill, you know, by my Gary, Now by my sacks of rice, by my sacks of beans, but if you are the architect you cannot keep doing by now, by now by now sign me up, retainer retainer, retainer client agreement. You can't make that push. Now it's about Having simple conversations to explore stuff so you can do business together,

okay? So sorry that episode 527 has gone for such a long time. I haven't done a 30-minute episode in a very very, very long time. I just wanted to make sure that we treat as much as possible here so I wouldn't have to split this up into two episodes. Let's see. Okay. I can't remember what next was supposed to do. Okay, I think is next is great to be networking. I think after have a look at the list of Questions. So I think there's something on networking and then we'll be able to bring this narrative act to a close.

That's the sources of lead generation or methods of lead generation. So thank you very much for listening to episode. 572, thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys in the next episode. And keep in mind out, I'm rolling out some products. Soon, some coaching some coaching products coaching and mentoring products that will be announced soon on the podcast. And for those of you who follow, Me on other social media Outlets so.

Okay. Well Tick-Tock is dead. Do not take top Twitter. Twitter is that for me, so follow me on Tick, Tock Facebook, Instagram. You'll be hearing some more about that in the future. So thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.