Set Yourself Up With Business For the Season

Home and Garden shows are one of the biggest sales generators for most CTi Dealers. The return on investment for these shows normally out performs most any other advertising a Dealer can do throughout the year.

The Spring home shows are just around the corner, so with that in mind, let’s look at some ways you can make the most out of your time manning a home show booth.

1) Wear comfortable shoes, you’ll be on your feet a lot

2) Have enough people working the booth so people can take a break periodically. This will help prevent anyone from getting stale when approaching customers.

3) Have enough brochures, call the show’s management company and ask what the attendance was last year. Have approximately 2% to 5% of that attendance available in brochures. (i.e. last year’s show had 50,000 people attend, you want approximately 2500 pieces of literature.)

4) Don’t sit down, this gives a bad first impression and people will be less likely to come in the booth. This is why #2 is so important.

5) No eating or drinking in the booth, the last thing a customer wants when they ask you a question is to wait while you stop chewing or worse…get sprayed.

6) Always have someone working the booth. If a person comes up to a show booth with no one present, it gives a bad first impression of your company.

7) The customer always comes first. You’ll have a tendency to talk to the people working the booth with you, once a customer enters the booth, all attention needs to be focused on them and the chitchat needs to stop.

8) Always have the TV and DVD player running. The “Home and Garden Show” DVD provided by CTI is a great video to play. This is one of the best ways to stop people while they’re walking by.

9) Pre-qualify. Many home shows will give you an overwhelming response, so make sure to pre-qualify people by asking such questions as

1) Is the area you’re considering made of concrete?
2) What kind of time frame did you have in mind for starting?
3) What alternatives or budget did you have in mind (listen for hints from the customer as to how much money they have in mind to spend)

Some other things to consider is a theme for your booth. A funny or interesting theme will help your company stand out in the crowd as well as get people talking about you that may lead to further traffic that normally wouldn’t visit your booth. Some interesting ideas for themes are:

1) Dress up in white lab coats and stethoscopes in the booth. The theme would be “We’re your concrete doctor”
2) Dress up in outfits that look like police. Theme would be “We protect your concrete”

The more memorable the theme, the more people will talk about your booth. You can also tie in giveaways to enhance the word of mouth. You can hand out water guns with the police outfits as an example.