On the Road Again

 

Supplier traveling shows are a valuable resource available to distributors who want to improve their product knowledge. They offer a great “up close and personal” opportunity to learn about suppliers and their products. In many instances, the actual owners of companies are the ones who attend, and this makes it possible for you to build a personal relationship with a supplier in a brief amount of time.

 

Three companies put on weekly traveling shows each year. The one of longest standing is the NSA Showcase, which has been on the road for more than twenty years. The SAGE Shows, and the ASI AAdvantages Roadshows (the former Discovery Shows) round out the field. Regardless of show’s name, each is presented in similar format with a group of around thirty suppliers traveling from town to town in an effort to meet as many distributors as possible. 

 

Since joining this industry, I’ve attended more than 50 traveling shows but had no real knowledge about how they are run.   To learn more about them, we recently purchased a space on the NSA Showcase in order to promote our sales training site. We set out to travel to five Texas cities in five days and we quickly found out that a tremendous amount of work goes into making theses shows work. Countless “behind the scenes” things must be done right to insure that attendees enjoy their experience. For example, each day booths must be moved, boxes shipped in a timely manner, and people must get to the same place at the same time in order to set up.   

 

 

Drive, drive, drive

 

On the Sunday before the show started, we drove 270 miles from our home to Houston; the next day we covered 210 miles between Houston and San Antonio.  On Tuesday, we drove another 80 miles to Austin. When we finished there, we drove 185 miles to Fort Worth. We finished our journey in Dallas, having driven a total of more than 900 miles. Texas is a big state! That might not seem like many miles to drive in a week; but don’t forget that we and every other supplier had worked our booths for four hours each day, taken down our displays, and then packed our materials into our vehicles before taking off.

 

 

Talk, talk, talk

 

During the week we talked personally with more than 190 distributors.  The smallest number we visited with was in Austin, and the largest number was in Houston, where we talked to forty-seven distributors.   After four hours of talking at each stop, we were exhausted from repeating our message over and over again. We made our best effort to remain pleasant and enthusiastic when speaking to each and every person who stopped by our booth.

 

 

 

 

A different room each night 

 

 Being part of the show, our hotel reservations were made for us by the show’s management in the hotels where the show would take place each day. In five nights, we stayed at one Sheraton, two Holiday Inns, an Embassy Suites, and a Doubletree. It was always the same routine. Drive like crazy to get to the next town, set up our booth, spend the night, and then get up at six o’clock to start again.  No leisure time allowed.     

 

      

It’s all for the Distributor

 

When you attend one of these traveling shows, here are a few things to do to have the best possible experience:

 

  1. Take fifty business cards

 

Each supplier is there to teach you about his or her company and its products. If you can’t provide suppliers with a business card, then they have no way of following-up with you.     

And make sure all your information is included on that business card. We have noticed that some distributors’ business cards don’t include either a physical or e-mail address. Your time spent visiting with a supplier will reap greater rewards if that supplier knows how to easily reach you with catalog or sample requests.  

 

  1. Set aside at least two hours

 

Since there are always more than thirty suppliers present at each show, you should set aside enough time to visit as many as possible. If you spend as little as five minutes at each booth, you will need at least two hours to visit with all those present. 

 

  1. Start at the back of the room

 

To optimize your time at shows, go to the back of every aisle and move forward.   Since most people work a show from the front to the back, do the opposite. That way you have the chance to talk with suppliers without having to wait.  Since there is an influx of people trying to enter shows all at the same time, by starting at the back you will not have to wait to talk to someone.

 

A new Appreciation

 

Until we experienced a traveling show road trip, we never realized how hard suppliers have to work to make it possible for you to see their products.   It was a week I will never forget, and one that has given me a new appreciation for the lengths some suppliers will go to teach you how to sell their products.  Bob Faux, who started the NSA Showcase more than twenty years ago, says it best, “Most distributors never realize how much work goes into making a traveling show a success.  Everything must be perfect, from boxes, which must arrive on time, to supplier personnel who must get to the same place at the same time.   Whenever a traveling show comes near you, please take advantage of it because many people went out of their way to bring it to your doorstep.”

 

A traveling show is a unique opportunity for you to learn about different suppliers in a cost- effective manner. The travel cost you incur to attend one is minimal and the personal time you get to spend with individual suppliers is priceless. So when the next traveling show comes to your town, please make every effort to be the first person in line to enter the room and head to the back!