Trade show Idiots

I had a very unique experience last weekend at a local trade show. My Company had paid to have a table and they asked me to participate in meeting  the other exhibitors. I had a small stack of envelopes with some collateral about my company and my business card. We made enough of these to hand out to every exhibitor. Granted, many of these people did not fit our demographic, but their customers might, so we wanted to meet everyone. The overwhelming majority of people were very kind and we exchanged information and ideas. There were a couple idiots I found worthy of describing as how NOT to do business.

The first man felt it is his duty to inform me I was not only being a pest but what I was doing violated the rules of the trade show (which, big surprise, was not true). He was the owner of a kitchen remodeling company and he was standing their talking to his two employees that were also running the booth with him. I walked up and said "Hi my name's Mike" and I reached out to shake his hand. He shook mine but stared at me and did not offer his name. Not to be deterred I pressed on, "What is your name?" and reluctantly he said "Brad." You can see this wasn't going well. So I tried to break the ice "tell me about your company Brad." To which he replied "why?" Why? why should you tell me about your company? How on earth am I going to recommend your company to others if I don't know what you do. He quickly followed up this one word question with "get to the point, what are you selling." Now, I'm a big boy and I have been in sales for over a decade. I  have done a great deal of cold calling and I expect people to be a jerk to me in that environment. But when you are at a trade show, you HAVE to expect other business people to talk to you. In fairness, he and I would probably never be able to share leads. But you don't know that until you talk to someone. What I can tell you is he missed a golden opportunity to win a potential customer. Who's to say I'm not a home owner that is in market for remodeling his kitchen? Who's to say I wont have that need in the next 2-5 years. That man's narrow focus guaranteed that I will NEVER do business with him and if others ask me about him they wont either.
On to my next idiot. Same show, same day I come across a man selling gutter systems. I shook his hand and he immediately verbally attacked me, telling me how great his product is. He didn't give me a second to speak, but launched right into his pitch. I asked him his name, he ignored me, didn't give it to me. I asked him for his card, he told me to fill out a slip for a rep to come out to my house for a "no obligation" consult. One of my first sales jobs (unfortunately) was working for a fool like this and there is no way I am going to let him or one of his people into my home.

So, what can we learn from these two stellar examples of bad salesmanship? First, when someone asks your name, answer them. Second, don't be afraid to engage the other person in an open conversation. There is nothing wrong with saying " I can't use your product but I may know others who can." Third, and this might be the most important one, DON'T BE A JERK. You never know who that person is your talking, more importantly, you don't know who they know or who they might influence.

Thanks for reading today

Mike S.

BTW follow me on twitter @mistertelecom & @selflessnetwork