Our Best Three Tips to Bring the Wow to Your Next Tradeshow or Expo

Kimberly Beer: 00:00:00

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Welcome to The Business Animal podcast. Saddle up for a

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gallop to the top of the animal industry, where you'll learn how

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to tame your wild business beast with tips, techniques, and tools

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that will take overwhelm to obedience school and have you

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wagging your tail with joy. And now your hosts Kim Beer and Cara

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Taylor Swift

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Hey there business animals It's Kim with

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Be More Business

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:00:44

and Cara with Fast Horse photography.

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Welcome to The Business Animal Podcast. Today

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we're going to be talking about one of my favorite subjects and

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that is trade shows and expos and how to bring the WOW to the

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next one that you do. You know what is coming up Cara? One of

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my favorite times of year. Do you know what that time of year is?

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:01:04

If it doesn't have anything to do with

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chocolate or being outside with my animals? Because it's

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:01:10

springtime. I honestly have no idea. You're going to have to

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:01:14

fill me in. But I'm guessing it's something to do with expos

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:01:16

because that

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It's Expo season.

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:01:17

Okay Expo Season I should have guessed

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It is Expo season. It's Expo and tradeshow

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that

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season. And weirdly enough, I know that this is gonna sound

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super twisted. And there's tons of people out there that are

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listening to this that are going man Kim is weird, but I think

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everyone would probably agree to that to a degree. But I love

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trade shows and expos I love going and chit chatting with

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people at them. I love doing the sales part. I don't like setting

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up or breaking down the booth. Anything else beyond that I

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absolutely adore I love planning for them. I love picking out the

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graphics for them. Cara and I have both spent way too much

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time this morning when we should have been recording the podcast

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talking about a trade show that we're going to be going to very

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soon called AIM.

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:02:04

Animal image makers. So that's why we decided

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to chat about this topic on the show. Because this is all we've

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been talking about. For the last I don't know hour we've been

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sitting here planning our animal image makers trade show booth,

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our expo booth. So we were like, You know what, there's other

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people that are dealing with this right now in the animal

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:02:21

world. So we're gonna hop on and we're gonna do a quick episode

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for you guys.

Kimberly Beer: 00:02:24

Absolutely. So we came up with a big three for

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expos and trade shows. The first one of that is to get your

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offers together, which is what Cara and I have been working on

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this morning, how what are we going to offer? How are we going

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to focus on that? How are we going to drive the traffic in

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our booth? And what is the result that we want to get from

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that. The second thing we're going to talk about today is

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designing a booth that has an open flow to it. This is a

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question that I get a lot from people, when I talk to them

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about trade shows and how to do them, they think they just need

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to bring a table and their first inclination is to set that table

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right in front of the booth. And we're going to talk about why

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that's not a good idea. And then also the part of the expo booth

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that I absolutely adore. And that is doing the sales

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conversation that you need to have with the people that are

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coming up. We've got some great tips for you around that. But

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first, before we even go there, I do want to just address for a

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moment. Why should you even be doing trade shows and expos Do

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you have any ideas around that Cara? What What are your

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thoughts on why people should do? Why are why are we doing a

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trade show?

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:03:31

Well, I think there's I mean, I think there's

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a lot of different reasons that a business owner would do a

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:03:36

trade show or an expo and have a booth set up. I think there's a

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lot of different reasons. I've certainly done them where I've

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been selling things I've done on where I've been trying to gain

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more exposure and meet more people and grow my mailing list.

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:03:50

I mean, we just were at art of the cowgirl. Gosh, how long ago

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was that? Several weeks ago now. We were just at art of the

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cowgirl in our main goal and focus there while we were

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selling art for the barn. We were also talking about Cowgirls

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with cameras and some of the offers that we have. And we were

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growing our mailing list and mostly just meeting people and

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making connections. So yeah, I think there's a lot of different

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reasons.

Kimberly Beer: 00:04:12

So for me, I think trade shows and expos are

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at the top of my list especially for new businesses or businesses

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that are just launching into a marketplace for you to really

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get kick started in in your business. A lot of us today

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depend on social media, we depend on the internet to bring

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us our business but there is nothing that beats that meeting

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people hands on looking at a product or really talking to the

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person that's providing the service and knows a lot about it

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and and from a consumers perspective of getting your

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questions answered and seeing all of your options in one

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central location. And I know it's been a few years since

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we've really been able to have a good Expo experience with COVID

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hanging around and sort of dogging us into not having as

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many live events. But those things are coming back now. And

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despite the fact that I'd brought home COVID from Art of

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the cow girl, I think we're all proceeding back to that that

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situation where we're going to be face to face with each other

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again, and this is a really important way to be able to

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promote your business. And there are trade shows, and expos too,

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that that happen online, I don't want to discount that. But what

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we're talking about today are going to be those live events

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where lots of consumers show up and you have a booth for your

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business. So let's dive into the first part of the big three,

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which is to get your offers figured out before you get to

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the trade show. So it's really important to understand what to

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focus on, if you have a lot of things that you're selling, what

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I see happens is that it gets really difficult to sell

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anything, it's sort of like all things in marketing, when you

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are talking to everyone or have lots of choices, no one listens,

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and no one actually makes a choice. So what I recommend when

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you book your booth at a trade show, first of all, there's some

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work that goes into thinking in advance, is this a good place

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for me to be? Does it have my target market there? And would

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they be interested in an offer that I have available? And if

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the answer to those questions is all yes, then you need to think

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about what do I want to get out of this tradeshow? What is my

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goal? is my goal to sell products? And if it's to sell

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products, is there a specific line of product that I want to

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promote at this event? If I'm selling a service? What do I

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want people to do? Do I need them to book an exploratory

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call? Do I need to just get them on my database so I can

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communicate and follow up with them afterward? So you need to

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have a clear focus for your booth about what it is that

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you're selling what you're offering. So that's your offer?

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And then how are you going to present that to people? And what

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is the next best step for that tradeshow audience to take with

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whatever it is that your offer is. So if it's an exploratory

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call, can you sign him up for it right then and there, so you're

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booking that? If it's a product, are you going to have that

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product in your booth? So you can hand it to them and send

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them on their way? What are your thoughts around offers? Cara?

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:07:19

Well, I agree after our art of the cowgirl

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experience, I think one of the challenges that you know, I

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:07:25

worked at our booth most of the most of the week we were there.

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:07:28

And I think one of the challenges was we had two things

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:07:31

we had as products. One was our art for the barn, which was

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hanging on the walls, tangible, something they could touch and

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:07:36

take or order online. The second piece was we had our cowgirls

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:07:40

with cameras information, where we were hoping to pull people

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:07:43

in, or at least give them information about our upcoming

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workshops. So one of the challenges with having both of

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those offers was we were talking to two completely different

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audiences for the most part. And so Marcy and I who was Marcy was

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helping at the booth, you know, that was one of our challenges

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:07:58

was trying to keep tabs on who was interested in what and

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:08:02

getting them into the right funnels at that actual event. So

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:08:06

I agree having a small number, something really small that

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:08:09

everyone on your team is focused on pushing and promoting and

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:08:13

talking about with a consistent message probably would have made

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:08:16

that week a little easier for us.

Kimberly Beer: 00:08:18

Absolutely. You know, this brings to mind to me

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an experience that I had when I was selling at National Western

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Stock Show in Denver quite a few years ago, but I was

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representing a co-op of Equine businesses that had kind of

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bought into doing a single booth around some really nice elite

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equine products, there was Rockin J horse stalls, CSI

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saddle pads, a product called the equiface saver and some

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other other really nice products that kind of decided to do a

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co-op. And then we just took turns in sales booth. And that

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meant that I had a lot of offers to present to people which

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presented a challenge. So if you're a business that has that,

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what you want to do is try to figure out right away or as

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quickly as possible, what they're interested in and then

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have an offer for that item. Right? I would ask the person

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when they came up to the booth, you know, what kind of riding do

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you do, I would get them started talking about their equine

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experience. And then it would be pretty evident pretty quickly

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what it is that they'd be interested in. And I could shift

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them to that offer, which I think is exactly what we did at

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the art of the cowgirl booth, we got to know kind of quickly what

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it is they were interested in and then being able to present

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that but the fewer number of those offers that you can get

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things down to the easier it is for you to navigate sales in

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your booth. So it's just simpler if you can reduce it to even one

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offer. And you know what, for a lot of you who have service

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oriented businesses or you're into just the launch phase of

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your business, it's okay if that offer is just simply to build

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your database at this event. You don't have to sell a lot of

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stuff, you don't have to have something that's super

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complicated. It could just be a an opportunity for people to

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start seeing you to understand your brand presence. And then

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for you to consider the conversion in this sale, getting

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them to sign up for your database, and we had a lot of

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success with that at art of the cowgirl I was very, very pleased

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with the number of people that signed up to want to continue to

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communicate with us after that event.

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:10:31

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I think the thing that really helped us too is that we spent

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:11:38

so much time beforehand, thinking about that process and

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:11:42

how that would work. So that it would be really smooth. I mean,

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:11:45

because honestly Gone are the days where you have to you have

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:11:48

a clipboard with a piece of paper where you people are

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:11:50

writing their information. I mean, there's so many better

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:11:52

ways that you can pull people in and get them right into your

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:11:55

system. And so we had a really great system where we were able

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:11:58

to pull people's information right in and send it to our CRM,

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:12:01

so they were in the funnel and ready to roll. So that was super

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:12:05

helpful for us as well is that we took the time beforehand to

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:12:08

figure out how we were going to do that and have everybody that

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:12:11

was doing that trained in the system and how to put people's

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:12:14

information in and pull that. So that was huge. For us.

Kimberly Beer: 00:12:17

It was huge. And then it also eliminates that

Kimberly Beer: 00:12:20

horrible experience as a business owner when you get back

Kimberly Beer: 00:12:23

to your office. And you figure out how poor people's

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handwriting really is, or how how different that they write

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from you. And it's really hard to read the addresses and then

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you don't communicate and the person on the other end thinks

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you're just not doing your job because you're not communicating

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with them. So the goal here is to really get it down to narrow

Kimberly Beer: 00:12:44

down what you're wanting to do. The second piece of that is to

Kimberly Beer: 00:12:47

really think about how to invite those conversations to start and

Kimberly Beer: 00:12:53

that is centered a lot around your booth design. So I did a

Kimberly Beer: 00:12:58

lot of tradeshow selling CSI saddle pads across the equine

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experience and the booths that were set up for CSI were very

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open. In other words, the product was all against the back

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wall of the booth, the owner of that company went to extra

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trouble to always get a corner booth so that the booth was even

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more open. Now I realize we all can't have corner booths because

Kimberly Beer: 00:13:20

there's not that many corners in a trade show. But the goal here

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is to remember that people need to get out of the aisle and back

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when equine trade shows where all the balm across everything.

Kimberly Beer: 00:13:33

And I mean it just was you would go to equine affair and there

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was just like literally hardly any room to stand in the aisles

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of the booths, especially as you got towards the middle of the

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aisle or along the bigger traffic areas. And what would

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happen is if you were having a conversation with somebody, they

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kept getting bumped into by the people, and it was uncomfortable

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as the people were moving through. So we learned really

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quickly how to set up a booth where it had an open space so

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that people could walk in out of the traffic pattern and be able

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to stop and chit chat. And it's nice to make that experience as

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comfortable as possible. One Crazy little thing that we

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learned at the CSI Booth was if we put down a foam on the floor

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of the booth and people step on it, they've been walking on hard

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concrete and then they step into your booth and it's

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automatically more comfortable on their legs. It's a noticeable

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difference for them and they'll hang out with you just a little

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bit longer because they are enjoying the comfort of standing

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on a soft surface which was important for us with the saddle

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pads because that had to do with pressure and all of that. So it

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was also we turned that into a sales tool. But that's just a

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cool point of how you design your booth matters for the

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people that are coming into it. They need to feel welcome.

Kimberly Beer: 00:14:54

People won't walk through a really narrow space. They've got

Kimberly Beer: 00:14:57

to have a several feet like a minimum of four feet to feel

Kimberly Beer: 00:15:01

like they're not like intruding on you,

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:15:04

Especially during a pandemic.

Kimberly Beer: 00:15:05

Yeah, especially during a pandemic. And you don't

Kimberly Beer: 00:15:08

want to block that front entrance with a table or with

Kimberly Beer: 00:15:12

something else where it feels like they're not welcome to walk

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past a certain barrier. So just really think hard about how can

Kimberly Beer: 00:15:21

I make my booth feel warm and welcoming to people coming into

Kimberly Beer: 00:15:26

it? And I know, Cara, you are a warm and welcoming person. So do

Kimberly Beer: 00:15:29

you have any tips for folks around that?

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:15:31

Well, I know that that was a constant

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:15:33

challenge for us at art of the cowgirl and also at other events

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:15:38

that I've done, because we had so many large pieces and

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:15:40

everything hanging in set up. And then we had so many people

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:15:43

hanging around our booth, which is a great problem to have, the

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:15:46

way that our booth was set up is that it was easy for people to

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:15:49

get in and get trapped inside. And so I do remember spending a

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:15:53

lot of time trying to move people through and keeping the

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:15:56

open area open for folks. And I think that's probably that was

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:16:00

probably one of the challenges in it. And I've had that issue

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:16:03

at other events as well, you do want it to be open. I mean,

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:16:06

we've all been in that situation where we've been walking down

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:16:09

the expo aisle, and the booths are on both sides of you. And

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:16:14

there's certain booths that are more inviting for one reason or

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:16:17

another. And for me, I am drawn to the ones that have more space

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:16:20

that I feel like I can be in the booth but not necessarily have

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:16:24

to have a conversation right away, if that makes sense. Like

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:16:26

I can just kind of pick around and look at stuff and touch a

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:16:29

couple things. And that's moving us into I know our number three.

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:16:32

But you know, that's a big thing I think is you've got to get

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:16:35

people close enough to your booth to even start number

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:16:38

three, your sales pitch, right?

Kimberly Beer: 00:16:39

Yeah, you do. You've got to get them in and

Kimberly Beer: 00:16:42

they have to feel comfortable. And it's also important to

Kimberly Beer: 00:16:45

understand there are introverts and extroverts in the world. So

Kimberly Beer: 00:16:49

for me, I immediately make contact with the person in the

Kimberly Beer: 00:16:53

booth and acknowledge that I'm there. And that's just part of

Kimberly Beer: 00:16:56

my extrovert where you rely on your introvert and want a little

Kimberly Beer: 00:17:00

bit more privacy. And as a savvy salesperson, you will start to

Kimberly Beer: 00:17:05

recognize with body language and with other hints, when is the

Kimberly Beer: 00:17:09

appropriate time to walk over and start that sales

Kimberly Beer: 00:17:12

conversation with people and I do think that moves us into our

Kimberly Beer: 00:17:15

number three, which here the big takeaway for this one is, is I

Kimberly Beer: 00:17:19

want you to move from having a sales pitch into having a sales

Kimberly Beer: 00:17:23

conversation with people. So many times at tradeshow booths,

Kimberly Beer: 00:17:27

it feels like the people who set up booths especially when

Kimberly Beer: 00:17:31

they're new, they like got too attracted. I don't know if

Kimberly Beer: 00:17:35

you've been to like a state fair. And they have like the

Kimberly Beer: 00:17:37

cooking booth that selling the pots and pans or knives or

Kimberly Beer: 00:17:40

whatever they sell. And the person sits up there in the

Kimberly Beer: 00:17:43

thing and they they have a whole sales spiel about this knife

Kimberly Beer: 00:17:46

cuts Ginsu knives cut this, you know, I mean, it's the

Kimberly Beer: 00:17:49

infomercial kind of deal, it feels like a lot of businesses

Kimberly Beer: 00:17:53

when they are new to trade shows. That's the way they set

Kimberly Beer: 00:17:55

their booth up, right and you walk in and they just

Kimberly Beer: 00:17:58

immediately kind of start into their pitch about their product

Kimberly Beer: 00:18:01

and they don't take the time to get to know you. As a person

Kimberly Beer: 00:18:05

who's done a lot of sales, I can tell you that the secret to

Kimberly Beer: 00:18:10

making sales is not doing all of the talking it's actually doing

Kimberly Beer: 00:18:15

all of the listening and then helping guide the person through

Kimberly Beer: 00:18:20

the sales experience and that is having a conversation and when

Kimberly Beer: 00:18:24

all you do is pitch then it becomes much more difficult to

Kimberly Beer: 00:18:28

sell.

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:18:29

Yeah 100% 100% I am not one that is

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:18:32

ever been a sales pitchy person I do I like to sell so for me

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:18:36

even though I'm an introvert I do like to sell. So you know,

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:18:38

when people are coming to our booth and walking into our

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:18:41

booth, and we've got art hanging up, we're hoping to sell to

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:18:43

someone I love to use open ended sentences. So I might say like a

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:18:49

question I might say something like, tell me which piece you're

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:18:52

drawn to that made you come in I would love to tell you the story

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:18:55

about how that was created. Just something to talk to people

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:18:59

about what brought them in and how they're enjoying their day.

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:19:02

You know, what do you think about this weather but trying to

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:19:05

use conversation as a way to get them talking? So not asking

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:19:09

those yes or no questions? Like are you having a good time

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:19:11

today? Can I tell you about that piece? Yeah, so these are all

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:19:14

yes or no answers you're going to get from them. So getting

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:19:16

them talking and then having the conversation is the best part

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:19:19

and then you warm up to each other. And the next thing you

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:19:22

know I had you know I was standing there telling them the

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:19:24

stories behind all the pieces and adding that emotional

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:19:27

connection to things make such a difference than for the next

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:19:30

step when you're selling equine art.

Kimberly Beer: 00:19:35

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Kimberly Beer: 00:19:36

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Kimberly Beer: 00:19:39

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Kimberly Beer: 00:19:42

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Kimberly Beer: 00:20:07

I don't care what you're selling, starting out with

Kimberly Beer: 00:20:10

having a conversation with people and asking them a

Kimberly Beer: 00:20:12

question that they can't answer with yes or no is just a really

Kimberly Beer: 00:20:16

important piece. And you don't have to start out if you don't

Kimberly Beer: 00:20:19

like idle chit chat. You don't need to start out with how are

Kimberly Beer: 00:20:22

you enjoying the weather? How are you enjoying the trade show?

Kimberly Beer: 00:20:24

You can go ahead and start in like you did. I think that was a

Kimberly Beer: 00:20:28

brilliant question to ask people, you know, what image

Kimberly Beer: 00:20:30

were you drawn to in here, because I'd like to share the

Kimberly Beer: 00:20:32

story behind it. Or maybe you'd like to learn the story behind

Kimberly Beer: 00:20:35

it. And it's fun, because our images do have some great

Kimberly Beer: 00:20:38

stories behind them. And we all have a special memories of those

Kimberly Beer: 00:20:41

stories that we love to share with people. But the same is

Kimberly Beer: 00:20:43

true across anything that you're selling. Even if you're selling

Kimberly Beer: 00:20:46

a widget, you know, I mean, just asking people what their

Kimberly Beer: 00:20:49

experience is and getting an idea I mean of what what either

Kimberly Beer: 00:20:53

draws them in or what their pain point is, on why they walked

Kimberly Beer: 00:20:58

into that booth because they're they have a curiosity about

Kimberly Beer: 00:21:01

something and having them explain that to you, it means

Kimberly Beer: 00:21:04

that you can move the conversation into a conversion a

Kimberly Beer: 00:21:09

whole lot easier, because it feels very special for them. And

Kimberly Beer: 00:21:13

in all of those hundreds or 1000s of saddle pads that I

Kimberly Beer: 00:21:17

sold, or horse stalls or any of the variety thing. I sold carpet

Kimberly Beer: 00:21:21

Cleaning for a while, I mean, it's just crazy, the number of

Kimberly Beer: 00:21:25

things that I've sold in my lifetime, learning that one

Kimberly Beer: 00:21:28

secret to stop pitching and start asking and really take the

Kimberly Beer: 00:21:34

time to listen to the person that is speaking to me and what

Kimberly Beer: 00:21:38

their needs are and where they're approaching, it really

Kimberly Beer: 00:21:41

helps me guide where I want to take my sales conversation, that

Kimberly Beer: 00:21:45

would be the best thing to help them. The other thing this

Kimberly Beer: 00:21:48

allows you to do is it allows you to build a rapport with

Kimberly Beer: 00:21:52

people that makes them want to sign up to hear more from you

Kimberly Beer: 00:21:56

because you've taken an interest in them. So even if they don't

Kimberly Beer: 00:21:59

purchase the conversion to them signing up for your VIP list is

Kimberly Beer: 00:22:03

a whole lot easier, because you've listened to them. And

Kimberly Beer: 00:22:07

they do want to be in contact with you again, because you've

Kimberly Beer: 00:22:10

taken the time to get to know them. So I do think it makes a

Kimberly Beer: 00:22:13

huge difference with being able to get people to return loose of

Kimberly Beer: 00:22:17

their email address and sign up for other activities.

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:22:21

Well yeah because even if they don't end

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:22:22

up, you know, buying something from you that day, if there's

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:22:24

not a conversion, that conversion could literally be

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:22:27

that the last ditch is you've at least got them on your mailing

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:22:30

list, and you can continue to educate them on your product and

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:22:33

services and how you can alleviate pain points. I mean, I

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:22:36

think that's a win too. And it's okay for that to be the win.

Kimberly Beer: 00:22:39

Yeah, exactly. It is okay for that to be a win.

Kimberly Beer: 00:22:42

Cara, you have some really interesting little tips on here,

Kimberly Beer: 00:22:45

kind of underneath all of this that we probably should have

Kimberly Beer: 00:22:48

gotten to at the beginning. But let's talk about this I see on

Kimberly Beer: 00:22:53

here. So Cara, and I have a note sheet that we work off of so

Kimberly Beer: 00:22:56

that we stay on the same topic, because otherwise I probably

Kimberly Beer: 00:22:59

have a tendency to go chase butterflies somewhere. And on it

Kimberly Beer: 00:23:02

she's talking about social media channels and promoting, tell us

Kimberly Beer: 00:23:07

tell us what your thoughts are around that. Because that's such

Kimberly Beer: 00:23:09

a good idea. And I think people just don't always do it.

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:23:12

Yeah, I think a lot of the events, especially

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:23:15

the bigger events, they have tools in place already to help

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:23:19

you. So one of the things that I like to think about is if they

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:23:22

have tools to help you like if they have a social media channel

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:23:26

that they're talking about, you know, how do you get involved

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:23:29

with being a part of their social media channel and their

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:23:32

information they're putting out to the world. Also, a lot of

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:23:35

times they are using event hashtags now. And if you can

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:23:38

plan to build hype before, during and after the event by

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:23:43

posting things that you're doing to prep for the event using the

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:23:46

hashtag asking people you know, who's going to be at the event?

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:23:49

And can you need do you want to stop by and see us, and then at

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:23:52

the event, look what we're doing, if you're here, stop by

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:23:55

and see us, you know, or here's, you know, even if you're not

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:23:58

here, here's a special promo we have going on that you could

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:24:00

access during the event, or Oh, leaving the event, it was a

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:24:04

great week, you know, here's some of the wins that we had,

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:24:06

like just using those hashtags. And being a part of that Expo

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:24:10

community and ride that wave, while it's happening can be

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:24:13

really good for your business before and after, as well. And

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:24:16

not just during that time that you're there. And I also like to

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:24:19

point out because Kim and I, I mean, we're talking about it,

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:24:22

you know, in terms of I feel like because I'm thinking of

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:24:24

animal image makers, or other big expos that I've been to,

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:24:27

like I'm thinking about it in terms of bigger events. But for

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:24:30

a lot of animal based business owners, this might look like a

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:24:34

small festival in your community. You know, if you're

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:24:37

an artist like I am, we have a lot of art festivals here in St.

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:24:41

Augustine. And I do have the opportunity sometimes to

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:24:44

participate in those that might not be an event that draws a lot

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:24:49

of people but if I've identified it as an event, we're all seeing

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:24:52

my audience, these tactics and this setup and this kind of prep

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:24:56

work for the small level events as well. So if you don't find

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:24:59

your yourself in a place where you're going to a big Expo, but

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:25:02

maybe you've got a big I don't know, if you have a big horse

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:25:05

show coming to your area and you have the opportunity to set up a

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:25:08

booth there even using some of these tactics to get people in

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:25:12

to talk to you, you know, having beautiful eye catching signage

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:25:15

available so that people are drawn to your booth and they see

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:25:18

you and they see your brand. And they you're getting that

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:25:21

exposure, we're doing some kind of contest or giveaway at the

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:25:24

event like these are all things that work or the really small

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:25:28

animal based business as well and can transfer to smaller

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:25:31

events, if they're appropriate for your audience. If your

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:25:33

people are going to be there, then you can be there too, and

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:25:36

get some value from that.

Kimberly Beer: 00:25:37

I think those are all great ideas. And I do think

Kimberly Beer: 00:25:40

that, you know, we do tend to think about the bigger events

Kimberly Beer: 00:25:43

being where we want to focus. But I've made some great

Kimberly Beer: 00:25:46

contacts at small events. And one of my best events that I

Kimberly Beer: 00:25:50

ever did was a Purina horse owners workshop in Kansas City.

Kimberly Beer: 00:25:55

And I kind of got randomly invited at the last minute to

Kimberly Beer: 00:25:59

set a table up for my photography. And honestly, I met

Kimberly Beer: 00:26:03

a client at that event that changed my life, because they

Kimberly Beer: 00:26:07

were very well known. And then after that, they introduced me

Kimberly Beer: 00:26:10

to a lot of other well known people. So it was a huge break

Kimberly Beer: 00:26:14

for me. And it was a crazy little table that I had set up.

Kimberly Beer: 00:26:17

It wasn't even a four foot long table with a few photos on it.

Kimberly Beer: 00:26:21

And it was covered in a paper tablecloth

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:26:26

yeah.

Kimberly Beer: 00:26:27

So yeah, it was it was not my finest booth

Kimberly Beer: 00:26:31

moment. But these things allow you to do networking, which you

Kimberly Beer: 00:26:36

never know where the next big break for your business is going

Kimberly Beer: 00:26:39

to actually come from. I mean, we can take some educated

Kimberly Beer: 00:26:42

guesses. But this allows you to set yourself up for really

Kimberly Beer: 00:26:47

opening doors for your business. So I've watched numerous

Kimberly Beer: 00:26:50

businesses, especially in the animal based and equine

Kimberly Beer: 00:26:54

industries, launch their entire success that was able to carry

Kimberly Beer: 00:26:59

them through everything in the future by focusing on attending

Kimberly Beer: 00:27:04

trade shows, and expos and really learning how to work this

Kimberly Beer: 00:27:08

system so that they could become successful at it

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:27:11

Well Kim I hear a lot of people talk about

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:27:13

like they went to an event and they had a booth. But it really

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:27:16

wasn't successful for them. Like they didn't get anything out of

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:27:19

it. And what I think happens there and this is from personal

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:27:23

experience is that they weren't doing our big three, right, they

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:27:26

weren't, first of all, they didn't have a focus, they were

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:27:29

just there for exposure. And I'm using air quotes here. But they

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:27:33

didn't have a focus with an offer. And they didn't put the

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:27:36

time in to really think about how they were going to present

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:27:40

that offer. And instead, they spent their time sitting behind

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:27:44

the booth not talking to people. And I think that's the biggest

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:27:46

thing, you know, spend the time in advance, making sure that

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:27:50

this event that your people are there that you have potential

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:27:53

clients there, and then streamline that offer so that

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:27:57

you're ready to talk about it. And you've got the tools in

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:27:59

place to either sell to convert to get them on your list

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:28:04

somehow, so that you can convert them later, and that you're

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:28:07

making those connections at that event. And then you know, once

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:28:10

again, you see the booths, they're set up, they've got the

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:28:13

table in the front, they're sitting behind the desk, and

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:28:16

it's it just doesn't look inviting at all are your people

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:28:19

like me that are introverts and they want to sneak up to the

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:28:21

booth and look at things first before talking to anyone you

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:28:24

know that it's set up in a way that people want to, you know

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:28:27

that there's something about that booth that just draws them

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:28:29

in. And then the third have conversations, you know, having

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:28:33

conversation sales conversations versus a pitch. And I mean, we

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:28:36

all know our products and services hopefully inside and

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:28:40

out. And when that person is ready to chat about that, we'll

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:28:42

be ready to chat about that. But you've got to get them to that

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:28:45

point. And you've got to build I'm calling it a relationship,

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:28:47

but you've got to build a connection, you know, before you

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:28:50

can get to that side of things. So that's why I think there are

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:28:53

people out there that have those experiences, like this was just

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:28:56

not a good event for me. And I think a lot of times we need to

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:28:59

pull some of that ownership back on us and really identify, you

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:29:03

know what we did to get ourselves there and were we as

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:29:06

prepared as we could have been?

Kimberly Beer: 00:29:07

Absolutely and it is it's not good when you walk

Kimberly Beer: 00:29:10

into a trade show and you're going down the aisle as a

Kimberly Beer: 00:29:13

consumer and there's somebody sitting in a chair in the back

Kimberly Beer: 00:29:16

of the booth with just a table with some literature and the

Kimberly Beer: 00:29:19

front of the of the booth is just not an inviting situation

Kimberly Beer: 00:29:23

for people. I do have one like really random tip before we wrap

Kimberly Beer: 00:29:27

up that is specific to that. One of the things that I learned

Kimberly Beer: 00:29:30

pretty quickly was if you raise the table up to chest height,

Kimberly Beer: 00:29:35

and then you use director's chairs, if you want to sit and

Kimberly Beer: 00:29:39

talk to people raise your table up to chest height and then use

Kimberly Beer: 00:29:43

director's chairs so you're on eye level with the people that

Kimberly Beer: 00:29:46

are walking down the aisle. It makes that contact for

Kimberly Beer: 00:29:49

conversation a little bit easier. It just facilitates it

Kimberly Beer: 00:29:53

because you're at eye level with them. They aren't looking down

Kimberly Beer: 00:29:56

on you. You're looking at them straight on. So There's a little

Kimberly Beer: 00:30:00

tactic that you can use to be able to really help with your

Kimberly Beer: 00:30:05

booth is set up so that it makes it more comfortable for you. And

Kimberly Beer: 00:30:09

it makes it easier for you to make that contact with people

Kimberly Beer: 00:30:12

eye to eye and start the conversation with them when

Kimberly Beer: 00:30:15

they're walking down the aisle way. So if you're struggling

Kimberly Beer: 00:30:18

with that, and you find yourself in the back of the booth a lot,

Kimberly Beer: 00:30:21

try that particular tactic, raise your table, raise your

Kimberly Beer: 00:30:24

chair and see if you can get more success that way. I think

Kimberly Beer: 00:30:27

that these are all great tips. And I like I said it's one of my

Kimberly Beer: 00:30:31

favorite seasons out of the entire year trade shows and expo

Kimberly Beer: 00:30:34

season. I am excited because I haven't been to trade shows and

Kimberly Beer: 00:30:38

expos just here and there dotted especially for the last couple

Kimberly Beer: 00:30:42

of years. And I have I'm going to Equifest of Kansas. I have a

Kimberly Beer: 00:30:47

booth now at a networking event in Kansas City that I'm excited

Kimberly Beer: 00:30:51

about we're doing AIM there's just a lot of really good

Kimberly Beer: 00:30:55

opportunities that are coming up that where I get to spend in my

Kimberly Beer: 00:30:58

wheelhouse of standing in a booth and chit chatting with

Kimberly Beer: 00:31:01

people and doing sales conversations. And they're going

Kimberly Beer: 00:31:04

to get hit with a double whammy with Cara and I in the same

Kimberly Beer: 00:31:07

booth at AIM. So be prepared if you're coming to AIM

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:31:11

And a triple whammy with Phyllis there so

Kimberly Beer: 00:31:14

and a triple Phyllis is not like she's so

Kimberly Beer: 00:31:16

sweet and southern. She has a whole different style than we

Kimberly Beer: 00:31:20

do. She's she's got this very kind demeanor and people just

Kimberly Beer: 00:31:25

really are drawn to her and that's

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:31:27

So you're saying she's less obnoxious than

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:31:29

we are. I don't understand?

Kimberly Beer: 00:31:33

I don't know I don't know where I was going

Kimberly Beer: 00:31:35

with that. I probably better get my foot out of my mouth before I

Kimberly Beer: 00:31:39

insert it.

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:31:41

Exactly. You want to keep doing the show

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:31:43

together. You better you better watch what you say in the next

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:31:47

two seconds of this episode.

Kimberly Beer: 00:31:51

I love it. And speaking of speaking of our

Kimberly Beer: 00:31:55

lovely famous Phyllis friend we do have another podcast now

Kimberly Beer: 00:31:59

called Cowgirls with cameras and Phyllis is in that one. So just

Kimberly Beer: 00:32:02

a quick reminder that that has launched into find it if you

Kimberly Beer: 00:32:08

have not had enough of Kim and Cara then definitely go find us

Kimberly Beer: 00:32:13

on the Cowgirls with cameras podcast and enjoy listening to

Kimberly Beer: 00:32:16

us there and you get to meet our sweet famous Southern friend

Kimberly Beer: 00:32:19

Phyllis.

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:32:20

That's right by the time this episode comes

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:32:22

out the Cowgirls with cameras podcast will have launched so we

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:32:26

highly recommend and we would love the support of anyone in

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:32:29

our listening audience. Now that needs a second podcast to listen

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:32:32

to. This podcast is really geared towards photographers,

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:32:36

people who love photography, and specifically equine

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:32:39

photographers. So we would love for you guys to join us over

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:32:41

there on the show. In the meantime, please reach out to us

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:32:45

on social let us know that you're listening. What do you

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:32:47

think about this episode, and we would love to hear your ideas

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:32:51

for upcoming shows for the next season. You can find us at The

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:32:55

Business Animal on Instagram and Facebook and at

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:32:58

thebusinessanimal.com. We'd love to hear from you guys. Thank you

Cara Taylor Swift: 00:33:01

so much for joining us today.

Jaz: 00:33:02

Thanks for listening to this episode of The Business

Jaz: 00:33:05

Animal. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And

Jaz: 00:33:09

if you learned something today, leave us a review. To learn

Jaz: 00:33:13

more. Find us at thebusinessanimal.com We'd love

Jaz: 00:33:17

to hear from you. Until next time, keep your business well