Gift Rep Sandy

Archive for the ‘Wholesale Gift & Trade Shows’ Category

After the show is over and you are back in your office, it is time to review your contact lists.  There are many different lists and reports that you can receive or create yourself to us in following up on the potential buyers at the show.

Depending on the show where you exhibited, you should have access to the attendees list accumulated by the show sponsors.  Each show is different, but you have options to buy or receive lists with email addresses, mailing addresses and other pertaining information to use to follow up with any or all the buyers who attended the show.

If you collected business cards or took notes of the buyers in your booth, this is the best place to start your follow up campaign.  Since some buyers do not making a buying decision at the show, phone or email follow up was critical to closing a sale.  After a buyer visits numerous booths at a show, they can be confused about the information they collected or where they found that information.  Follow up calls or emails give you the opportunity to clear up any questions or concerns the buyers may have to making their decisions.  Making a follow-up call to the buyers within a week or two of the show gave them enough time to review or share the information they collected.  If not, the call was a great reminder to take a second look at your materials.  And, of course, there are buyers who will be ready to order when you make your first contact.

Gift shows should be viewed as a long-term investment.  Not every buyer is going to place an order with you at the show or even during the year of the show.  And, just like visiting your customers in their stores, the more buyers you see in the venue of where they wish to buy, the greater your chance is to sell to them.  I discovered the stores that remained long term buyers were ones who I visited later during my on-site sales visits.

On the other hand, there are producers that ONLY exhibit at gift shows which can be a different sale rep model than the one I have outlines here.  When talking with producers or reps who sell only through gift shows, they tell me their buyers visit their booths with regularity to see the new products and place their orders.

Exhibiting at a gift show is a huge undertaking and there are many items planning before you exhibit at a large show of this type.  Following is a short, but not exhaustive planning list:

1.  Wear comfortable shoes as you will be on your feet for long hours
2. Make plans to arrive early to have plenty of time to set up your booth
3. Bring plenty of business cards, line lists and/or flyers to give to the interested buyers at your booth
4. Have a notepad handy to make notes
5. Find a product – food samples works well – to leer buyers into your booth.  Most buyers can’t resist stopping to try your newest tasty samples you offer inside your booth.
6. Collect as many business cards from potential buyers as possible (NOTE:  Many gift shows have a scanning system where, for a fee, you can rent a “reader” that will automatically read buyers badges and later give you a contact list of those potential buyers.)
7. Pick up all the free retail literature or magazines available at these shows.  They have valuable information on potential lines and potential customers you can do business with later.

Because gift shows require a huge investment of time and money, there are many ways to cut and share costs.  The potential for sales and future leads at a show can be huge and most vendors will consider a cost sharing arrangement with you.  Since you are doing all (or most) the work and shouldering the total costs for the show, vendors consider the cost sharing as part of their on-going marketing program.

There are different methods to figure a fair cost share for each of your vendors, outlined below:

Method 1, Straight cost share:  Cost per vendor is the same amount.  For example, you exhibit 20 different lines of products at a show that will cost you $2000.  Simple math will work out to $100 cost share per vendor.

Method 2, Proportional cost share:  In this scenario, cost is based on how many products you exhibit per vendor.  For example, vendor A and B features a line with 10 products, vendor C and D, 100 products, and vendors E and F, 40 products.  Vendors A and B pay about 3% each of the cost; vendors C and D pay 33% and vendors E and F pay 13%.

Method 3, Space proportional cost share:  For this method, you need to determine a cost for each vendor’s product lines based on space requirement.  In this case, you figure the percentage of booth space required for each line and divide the cost based on those figures.  For example, if one vendor’s products take up half of your booth space, you charge this vendor half of the cost of the booth and divide up the rest of the cost proportionally with the rest of the lines you are exhibiting.

Of course, you have the option of determining the amount of cost share independent of all three methods.  In the case where you have a vendor donating time to set up or run your booth, you may want to exempt the cost share fee.  Or if you are doing sampling for a certain company, you may want to collect a larger cost share fee for the time and maintenance of the sampling.  These are just some of the ways you can determine cost share amounts depending on your business and the lines you are representing.

Your vendor can do to other tasks to help defer costs for exhibiting their products in a gift show.   The advantages of having your vendors on-site can be profitable for both parties.  In all honesty, because your vendors are more familiar with their products, terms and logistics of shipping, they can give your potential customers more information than you may be able to do.  Also, having another person available to run the booth gives you time to take time out to check out the rest of the show or just take a much needed break.

And, of course, any vendor sales materials you hand out at the show can generate sales for weeks after the exhibit is done.  Many buyers do not make a buying decision until after they have reviewed the materials and price sheet they accumulated while visiting the various booths.  Don’t hesitate to ask your vendors for extra flyers and samples to give out during the show.

Wholesale Gift Shows are not for amateur producers or hobbyists.  The cost alone can scare away anyone who is not serious about the process or potential opportunity.  Depending on what area of the country the show is held, booth fees alone can cost between a few hundred dollars to thousands of dollars.  Fees typically are based on past attendance for these shows. In other words, the more buyers who attend the show at a particular location, the more this particular show costs an exhibitor.  For example, at this writing, the Western Exhibitors’ Seattle or San Francisco’s Gift Show booth fees are $875 to $2,320 for a 10’ x 10’ booth.  The larger gift shows, such as the AmericaMart in Atlanta, starts their booth fees at $3,067.00.  In contrast, the smaller regional Billings, Montana Gift Show fees are $200 to $300 for a similar sized booth.

The booth fee in any gift show typically includes the following:

Booth partition

Overhead lighting

One table (or display unit) draped or undraped

Chair

Booth signage

In some cases, you may be required to pay extra for the following items:

Corner booth (where you will have exposure from two aisleways)

Electric outlet access

Special floor or wall coverings

Extra lighting, tables or chairs

 Extra Hidden Gift Show Expenses.  If you have never exhibited at a gift show, you need to plan for added extra costs involved with having a booth.  Many items are not included in the booth fees but are required by the show sponsors, city officials, or other agencies.

These costs may or may not include the following items:

•  Parking fees while exhibiting at the show
• Required contracted labor fees for workers who assist  moving your displays or supplies in or out of your booth
• Extra booth decorations, displays and supplies
• Automobile, U-Haul rental or shipping expense needed to get your products and materials to the show
• Gas or plane fare to the show
• Membership fees required to exhibit at certain shows
• Fire retardant materials required by the show sponsors
• Mailers and marketing costs incurred before and/or after the show

Other addition costs not directly included in your booth fees are lodging and meal costs while exhibiting at the shows.  Since most gift shows are held in larger cities across the country, lodging and meals costs is the next biggest expense.  Most shows are four days with extra time needed to step up and tear down, so you need to budget for about five nights in a hotel which can cost roughly $100 to $200 or more per night.  And of course, meals costs are not included. And all these costs add up — and that was before making one sale!

Before deciding to exhibit at a wholesale gift show, you need to first attend a gift show.  Actually walking through your first gift show can be a good experience to learn the overview of the wholesale gift industry, observing other reps and manufacturer’s exhibits, and noting buyers attendance.

 Although wholesale gifts shows are time consuming and costly, there are several good reasons for exhibiting your products in a regional gift show:

1.  Your company will have a presence at a large gathering of pre-qualified buyers where you can develop additional sales leads.
2. You will have your own booth where you can display products and invite your current buyers to examine more closely the items you sell.
3. You may be able to meet and visit with the buyers and decision makers from stores that would never talk with you otherwise.
4. You can test the market and receive feedback on new products or lines you are selling.
5. You can conduct market research (check out your competitors!) to compare product options and pricing and identify market directions.
6. You have the opportunity to answer customer concerns or complaints about certain products.
7. You have the opportunity to meet new vendors that may want representation in your territory.

Attending or exhibiting at a wholesale gift trade show is exciting and profitable to your growing sales rep business.  As you will discover, certain buyers prefer to buy only at trade shows.  Being able to schedule time away from their stores to touch, feel and experience products, may be the only way they purchase gift items from you.

Wholesale Gift Shows (or frequently referred to as ‘market’) are held in numerous cities, including foreign countries across the globe.  Several major US cities host a 4-5 day, 8-10 hours/day gift show, one to four times per year, exhibiting hundreds of producer’s lines and attended by numerous retail store buyers from all over the country.  Major cities that host two shows a year usually hold one show during the winter months and the second show in the summer.  Depending on the location and popularity of the gift show, attendees can range from 20,000 to 50,000 or more potential buyers.

According to Jill Poulsen Ford in her book, Gift Trade Marketing, there are “five major market cities where there are permanent wholesale gift mart showroom buildings together with regular semi-annual temporary gift shows falling in January/February and July/August.”  These cities are:

1.  New York

2.  Chicago

3.  Atlanta

4.  Dallas

5.  Los Angeles and/or San Francisco

Secondary markets, according to Ford, include Seattle, Denver, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Columbus (Ohio), Boston which also has permanent gift marts and semi-annual gift shows.  The larger shows often draw international audience of buyers and sellers.  In additions to the major and secondary markets, smaller or regional wholesale gift shows and ‘cash and carry’ shows are also featured in several states around the country. (www.giftbusiness.com)