Throughout the world, on virtually every day of the year, you can find trade shows held in hotels, town halls and purpose-built exhibition centres. If you are in business of just about any kind, there will be a trade show just for you. Whatever the trade: retail, wholesale, Information Technology, pleasure boats, cars, gifts, food and drink... the list really is endless.

First Things First

Whether attending the show as a buyer or a seller, you must overcome certain common hazards.

Feet

As a buyer, you will have to walk for miles. Sometimes literally. As a seller, you're going to be on your feet for nine hours a day, over three or four days. Therefore, you will find comfortable footwear essential, regardless of your reason for being there. Ladies should take two pairs of shoes - heels and flats. Keep one pair in a bag ready to change into. Changing from heels to flats half way through the day can feel like putting on a completely new pair of legs. Men don't often have the luxury of changing into heels, a sexist attitude that makes Trade Shows a particularly hazardous environment, so just make sure your shoes are well broken-in and comfortable. With really big shows exhibiting in multiple halls you can slip into more comfortable, if less stylish, shoes between halls.

To round off your foot-based preparations — consider a bottle of peppermint foot lotion back at your hotel. After a hard day at the trade show, a spot of luxuriant, soothing foot lotion will provide an experience that really does rival anything else you might ever do with your clothes on or off.

Parking

The larger shows attract tens of thousands of visitors and hundreds of exhibitors. For you, this means congested parking lots. However, you can resolve the extremely tedious chore of parking through simple planning.

Plan not to take a vehicle, if at all possible.

For buyers, book a hotel either close to the venue or on a main public transport route. If a car is essential, arrive as early as possible. In a huge car park, it is easy to forget where you have left your car so tie a piece of bright material to the radio aerial so you can spot it from a distance.

For sellers, if you are setting up a stand do so early on the day preceding the show opening. Make sure your vehicles are loaded in such a way that they can be quickly unloaded. Many venues will only permit vehicles into the loading bays for an hour and charge a substantial deposit. If you overrun by even a few minutes, the deposit is not returned.

Basic Tips for Buyers

If the show is reasonably large, over 100 exhibitors say, don't try to do it all in a day. Book a hotel for two nights. Try to get to the show for the last two days. Get a good night's rest before attending and spend the first day just looking. Buy a show guide and take notes as you walk up and down the aisles. Take a trolley bag with you and collect the catalogues from the stands that interest you. You should keep your trolley closed though, as some salespeople will slip catalogues in when you're not looking¹. You may want to forget catalogues altogether and just collect business cards. Companies tend to have websites and they'll post out catalogues directly if you ask them. You should avoid chatting with sales representatives; you have too much to see for idle chitchat. You should remember to take sandwiches and drinks along, as you'll find concession stands uniformly overprice their victuals. Once you have seen the entire show, make your way back to the hotel and start planning the next day's schedule.

Cheeky Tips

Get a free lunch on day one by making sure you arrive at the biggest, flashiest stand at lunchtime. Give the impression (lie convincingly) that you could be about to give the company their biggest order of the year. Insist on speaking only to the most senior person from the company and drop hints about your rumbling tummy. Chances are, you will be treated to lunch at the company's expense. If you can keep the facade up, find out what hotel the company is using. If it is the same as yours, you may even get a free dinner.

At all times, play the 'big shot'. Never let the sales representative know that your shop is tiny and your budget barely reaches three figures. If possible, give the impression that you have multiple outlets. At the very least, this will get you the rep's full attention and possibly a free coffee and a sit down.

Collect every free sample you can, especially food. Do not be afraid to grab handfuls and stick them in your pockets. The food can replace an evening meal if you're on a tight budget and you can sell the other things on an online auction site!

Day Two

You've spent time researching through catalogues and know exactly which stands you need to visit. When you arrive at the show be prepared to do some buying; but remember, you have the upper hand. As it is now the last day of the show, the reps are under pressure to get some orders in. For some weird reason, the last few days have been spent dealing with hordes of customers from massive multinational companies who have only been interested in cadging free food and samples. Try to arrange to see everyone you need to see and leave a couple of hours free at the end of the show.

Negotiations

You now have the full attention of a sales rep. Let us say you are buying a range of widgets. Do not get talked into buying the full, pre-packaged range of widgets. You can guarantee that the range on offer contains around 20% filler. Sort out the rubbish in the range and insist the rep replace it with widgets you actually want. The range will be on a special 'Show Rate', which usually equates to 10% off. The sales rep invariably has at least another 10% he can offer, so immediately ask for 30% off. You should play this out as merely an initial order and dangle the carrot of future sales.

Keep the pressure on the rep throughout. Remember, he is under pressure to get your order. His Sales Manager is watching from the corner of the stand, so at some point drop in the line 'Perhaps I should just speak to your boss?'. This can have two results. Either the rep will cave in and give you the deal you want or the Sales Manager will get involved. The Sales Manager likes to be 'Mr Big' and will often be authorised to give even greater discounts than the sales rep. It is also even less likely that he will know the details and size of your business, so keep the act up.

Once you are sure you have achieved the lowest price you are going to get, it's time to push the boat out. Insist upon free stands, display materials and extra stock for demonstrations or display. Ask for as much as possible. Through gritted teeth, the rep will give you at least some of it, especially if you indicate that a lack of such extras could lose him the sale.

You should repeat this at every stand that interests you until your budget runs out.

Minesweeping

In the last two hours of the show, the sales reps are tired, hungry, longing to go home and utterly dreading the thought of packing up the stock at the end of the day. This provides you with a great opportunity to grab some freebies. In your favour (and theirs), anything the reps can give away doesn't have to be packed up.

Avoid the stands where the reps have a desperate gleam in their eye. Without doubt, these poor individuals will have had a bad show and will pounce on anyone who looks like a buyer and beat a sale out of them. Find the stands where the reps are laughing and joking, and prepare to be bold. If you see something that takes your fancy, just ask for it. The worst that can happen is they will say no. Some of the smaller companies may even be open to selling stock off the stand. Quite often with bulky items, the company will actually spend more on shipping than the item's worth. They may well be open to an offer to take it off their hands. This is frowned upon by show organisers as it affects the 'Trade' nature of the show, so limit your bidding to high value items and be discrete.

Also, make a point of grabbing every spare sample and freebie you can in the manner of 'That's mine' and sweeping it into your bag before anyone can object (minesweeping).

Basic Tips for Sellers

Working a Trade Show as a Sales Rep can be fun if you prepare properly. The object of the exercise is to sell more than your colleagues while doing as little as possible and still look good in front of your boss. Your work actually begins some time before the show.

Preparing the Ground

In the six weeks before the show, visit all your key accounts and promise them a special 'something' if they visit you at the show. It is worth investing in a case of whisky or a crate of perfume in order to hand out goodies on the day. This ensures that your best customers will make a point of coming to see you.

Setting Up the Stand

Setting up the stand the day before the show is possibly the most important task for the company. Someone needs to build the complicated structures, lay the carpet or flooring, arrange the furniture, and organise the stock for maximum impact. A good stand can cost £20,000 just for the space, and the bill for electrics and fittings can easily run into five figures. The pressure to produce the perfect stand is intense and someone will expend much blood, sweat and tears on set-up day to get it done.

This is why it is crucial that you shouldn't be there.

All that manual labour is tiresome and no one will ever thank you for it, so use any excuse to make sure that you do not arrive before 9pm on the eve of the show. Hotels stop serving dinner around 10pm so you will be sent straight there. Before hitting the bar, find out what rooms your colleagues are in and take a note of the room numbers. When you get to the bar, make sure you give a colleague's room number for the bill. This is especially useful if you have arranged to meet customers for a drink. Far better that someone else has to explain a large bar bill. Don't worry about overdoing the drinks. Although the Sales Manager will clearly state the need to have everyone on the stand for 9am sharp, serious customers never arrive before 10am.

Days One To Three

Arriving on the stand mid-morning, find somewhere secure to hide your crate of whisky and/or perfume, your newspaper, your coat and any other personal possessions, then have a look at the stand. Find yourself a loiter spot near the back of the stand with a chair, from where you can see every customer. Next, check out the 'Show Deals'. There will be around a dozen, but probably half will be for stock that has lain in the warehouse gathering dust all year. Find the deals that will actually offer good value for the customer and concentrate on these alone. Remember, the object of the exercise is to get orders as quickly and painlessly as possible. By pointing out the less attractive deals to the customer before they figure it out for themselves, they will feel you are doing them a favour and will be far more receptive to the deals you actually want to sell.

Remember to switch your company phone off, but keep your personal phone on. Give a colleague that you trust your number with instructions to call you when you signal. You will find this useful if you find yourself stuck with a timewaster you can't shake off. When the phone rings and you answer, make it as dramatic as possible in order to give you an excuse to get away for a few minutes.

Smoking

Most shows are 'No Smoking' these days. However, if you happen upon an event that allows smoking², never smoke on your own stand. Go to a competitor's stand instead. Customers hate the smell of stale smoke. Remember to take strong mints.

Reading the Customers

By positioning yourself at the back of the stand, you are giving yourself a number of advantages:

• You avoid the timewasters and dreamers. These people are not actually going to place orders. Give your colleagues every opportunity to deal with them before they get anywhere near you.

• You give yourself ample time to read name badges. If the customer is not from your territory, you do not want to waste time with them. It could be you miss a real customer while you're being nice to someone else's customer.

• By the time any customer makes it to the back of the stand, they are firmly on your turf. All year round, you have dealt with the customer in their premises and they have had a psychological advantage over you, the visitor. Now, they are on your stand, surrounded by your goodies and they want to buy.

If, by extreme bad luck, you find yourself stuck with a customer who obviously isn't going to be ordering, but who wants to talk endlessly about the merits of the Model XYZ Widget compared with the Model ABC Widget, you have to offload them quickly. Introduce them to the Sales Manager and point out to him how this customer has a keen interest in the Model XYZ Widget. Sales Managers like to show off their superior product knowledge, so you can make a swift exit. If you are feeling especially wicked, introduce them to the colleague who has the best chance of rivalling your sales and watch from afar for the next hour or so as he/she pulls faces at you over the customer's shoulder.

If a new customer approaches you from your territory, be as nice as pie but don't waste any time. Get their details and get them off the stand once you have done enough to titillate them. Your time is all-important and you should spend it actively selling as much as possible. Show them the best deals and tell them that you will call on their premises in the next week with the same special deals. These customers will not place orders at the show in any case. Let's face it, if they were any good and on your territory, you would know about them anyway. If they are just setting up, they are only looking at all the options and will save the ordering for when they are back on their turf where they don't feel overwhelmed.

Obviously, when your good customers come on the stand, you go to work. First giving them their gift while oh-so-confidentially pointing out the less advantageous show deals, you move them onto the good deals. You may even have written out their order for them beforehand. Tell them why this product is good for them, how much profit it will make for them and then slip in an extra discount. Done properly, the customer will readily sign the order.

If the customer has arrived within two hours of the show ending, offer to take them for a drink while empathising over their sore feet. This gets you off the stand and gets the customer away from your competitors.

More Bang For Your Buck

With foresight and preparation, a good Rep will only spend six hours on the stand compared with his colleagues' nine, but it will be time spent productively. By not wasting time with the 'dreamer' customers, you can concentrate on only those customers who have previously been primed, and sell them only what you know the customer will want. Such careful selection of customer will almost guarantee you come out of the event with the best sales results.

Making A Clean Getaway

Almost as onerous a task as setting up the stand is breaking it down at the end of the show. You obviously need to avoid this. Arrange for a good customer to call onto the stand 15 minutes before the end of the show. Introduce them to the Sales Manager (who also wants to get out of the hard work), and suggest that you all go for a drink to discuss the customer's future expansion plans. By doing this, you'll be in the bar knocking back pints while your colleagues clear up.