Show and Sell

Black Enterprise, July, 1998 by Karen Gutloff

Here are the tricks of the trade show circuit and how to expo your way to profits

GREGORY PERKINS KNOWS HOW TO STAND out in it crowd. When 20,000 publishing industry bigwigs jam the aisles of Chicago's McCormick Center for Book Expo America, Perkins is on hand exhibiting his line of African American greeting cards, calendars and pocket planners. "I'm there to hook a big fish," he says, And he has the perfect bait. Perkins highlights his product line using a 10-ft.-tall display, complete with bright lights and bold, colorful graphics. "People can see us from three rows over. It really pulls them into our booth" says the 33-year-old owner of Sacramento, California-based Magic Image. "I do about a dozen trade shows a year, They account for the majority of our sales." The seven-year-old company cams a half-million dollars annually.

At last year's expo, Perkins reeled in his big fish Target Stores agreed to distribute his African American art calendars in stores nationwide, a deal worth $30,000 in sales.

According to The Power of Exhibitions II, a study conducted by Deloitte & Touche and published by the Center for Exhibition Industry Research, trade shows are more effective in achieving sales and marketing objectives than direct mail, telemarketing and other sales strategies, which may explain why companies spend $16.5 billion each year on exhibits. But to ensure that your money is well spent. you first have to become trade show savvy, like Perkins.

While trade shows can generate new sales and bring you face-to-face with valuable business contacts, you can generate just the opposite effect with a single mistake--for instance, selecting the wrong show to display your product. The more research you do before venturing into this venue, the better your chances for success.

YOUR CHOICE OF SHOWS

Trade shows are normally grouped by industry, market or product. They range in size, draw and cost, and can be either highly specialized or general in nature. Some shows can bring you together with large corporate buyers, while others enable you to sell directly to consumers or other small businesses. Your task is to find the show that offers the right mix of audience or market, location, industry and price.

For example, expositions are mounted each year by the NAACP, National Urban League and other major organizations. These can be good places to get your feet wet if you want to reach an African American audience and showcase your product or service to conference guests and speakers from major corporations.

There's even a venue for small, black-owned companies that seek to sell African American-themed products to other black-owned businesses in the U.S. and abroad. Twice a year, the International Black Buyers and Manufacturers Expo and Conference brings 1,000 small businesses together for show and sell in Washington, D.C.

You can also reach black-owned businesses and major mainstream corporations at the Business-to-Business Expo, held during the annual Black Enterprise/Nations Bank Entrepreneurs Conference. Ron Riley, marketing manager of Kemi Laboratories, based in Columbia, Maryland, took a booth at the Expo last year in hope of finding people to distribute the company's professional line of hair and skin care products to hair salons. "We signed up seven or eight new distributors on the spot," says Riley.

THE ART OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE

Exhibiting at trade shows has also helped corporations make transatlantic connections. Just ask Curtis Symonds, executive vice president of affiliates, marketing and sales for BET Holdings Inc.

"At last year's National Cable TV Association trade show, we began talks with Direct TV of Japan to distribute BET on Jazz in that country," Symonds says. One year later the two companies struck a distribution deal that will show BET's cable program to thousands of people in Japan.

Symonds has this advice on working with international distributors at trade shows: "The language barrier is strong, and you may need to prepare by acquiring the services of an interpreter. Also, in the U.S. you can charge one fee to cover the whole marketplace. But you may have to alter your prices when dealing with an overseas company, depending on the value of the U.S. dollar in that country."

The U.S. Department of Commerce offers the Certified Events Trade Program, which gives U.S. embassy assistance to companies participating in trade shows overseas. (See sidebar, "Useful Info on Expos," for contact information.)

TAKING YOUR SHOW ON THE ROAD

When you add up the cost of hotel, airfare, freight, booth space, signs and premiums, these shows can run you well into the thousands of dollars. Here are some lessons Perkins and others have learned to make your trade show experience a money maker--not a budget breaker:

Choose the right show. Lusetha Rolle has become savvy about picking the right shows for Cadtech Group Inc., her computer-aided drafting and design firm. The Silver Spring, Maryland-based company creates drawings of mechanical parts for government aircraft and architectural floor plans.