Other Exhibitions: Surveying & Soliciting Leads

For the last two days, I had made my way to a beauty expo held at KLCC to survey the market. Actually, it's my second day in a row to the Expo. Both times, it was a rushed job, as my staff & I barely had much hours to roam around the place.

On Monday, I headed with my staff to check out the place. The traffic wasn't that bad in Kuala Lumpur during that time (about 3.30pm ish), and I had dragged a friend, Asta along too as well. We managed to procure ourselves some Ayuverdic body skincare products, managed by a Chinese.

One Tuesday, I went with my cousin, Jane to the show. It was not initially in our books to head to the show, but as there were some products on showcase essential to a woman's youthfulness and upkeep, my cousin was all for it. She is about five years my senior, and has about 10 years of salesmanship experience under her belt. So of course, this was pretty much her forte. >.<

Since I was the person managing a new area of interest for our exhibition, and had to solicit new leads, you can imagine the difficulty of the situation for the freshman that I was. Thankfully, Jane was generous in heaping advice and tips in this area of Marketing & Selling.

Some Understanding & Learning to take away from the survey:
1) Companies that are new in the market, and are looking for dealers make good leads as they need to increase public awareness of their range of products. Their managers are and would be more open to the different avenues where they can create awareness for their merchandise, and hence their decision making process to close would be shorter.

2) Companies with established range of products no longer need an expo to create and raise awareness for their products. A range of products like SKII, Kanebo, etc have established their reputation in the skincare market. It would not be to their best interest to participate in an end-user expo, as this would not complement their reputation, and "devalue the image" of their products.

3) Always bring an ample supply of name cards to Expos. You never know when you may find a prospect lead. However, this can be done discreetly, as not to invoke the attention of the Organiser's staff who may not tolerate a competition's misdeameanor at their expense.

4) When giving the name card to the lead, also too telling them the location of a popular place which has good crowd traffic will surely perk up their interest. As the sales person to, say to the prospect that you will "contact them", and DO get in touch with them!!

5) Foreign companies may not bring much resources with them (meaning, a few products here & there, and some pamphlets, and brochures). However, do not think low of their potential, as should they be able to find a dealer, that will mean up to about half a million Dollars/Ringgit worth of merchandise being imported, as I was informed by my Manager during a discussion.