Lessons

Lesson Info

Trade Show Traffic Flow

Thinking about traffic flow in our booth because that's a really, really critical, so we have to think about how it flows through the show and how it flows through our booth. And this is the reason that I advocate thinking about having these pictures, that then you can adapt to the circumstances because sometimes you don't know until you get to a show exactly how traffic is going to move and how things are going to play out now. That said, we could make some educated guesses. So this's the floor plan of one floor of new york gift is the floor that I'm on this color coding actually means nothing. It's not sections it's actually, when you're freight gets delivered to your booth, it was it was the first floor plan I could find, but so this is our floor plan. So any time I'm looking in a new show, I am going to look at the floor plan, and I'm going to try to guess the traffic flow on. I'm going to do that by making a couple of exceptions, the majority of time when people enter a space, the...

y turn to their right it's going to be different if you're not in a place where people, you know. This works in like pretty much no the western world so they go and they're going to turn to the right so when I'm looking at this floor plan I'm gonna make that assumption they're gonna come in here my escalators they're going to come in they're gonna go to the right in new york this is definitely true because all the way over here is the accent on design section that's that kind of big flagship section if there's a lot of new products there's a lot of changes so people frequently start there now you do want to think about certain shows because some shows people might start the opposite direction so at the national stationery show national stationery show actually takes place in this same space right here that we're looking at, but it runs from about here to here, then there's a wall and then there's a different show happening so a lot of times in that show and then in the stationery show most of the kind of the new people and then kind of the independent people are clustered down at this end so that's a show where people will break that turn right rule because it makes sense for them to start over here so this is something that you certainly want to pay attention to when you're walking a trade show when you're visiting that show is how is most of the traffic flowing because while you'll get anomalies, you'll see it mostly works. So in this case, I'm gonna figure out that, okay, people are gonna come this way. They're going to walk up, they're going to come down, they're gonna walk up, they're going to come. Oh, crap. Which way do I go? Right. Gala problem here. Hi, booth. You stay back here. It was not ideal because not everyone turned that way. They don't know where they wanted to go. Now, my booth is actually right here, so that's a little nicer come out, but they go there's my booth so you can sit down and kind of trace the flow and figure out which direction people are coming from. So when you're planning your booth that's going to help you because we know that we want people to kind of come and we want to catch their eye. So if I'm applying that to foot rule, what I know is that I want stuff in the front, but that it also sometimes takes people a little bit of time to catch up to my booth. So what I typically tend to do is if I know that traffic is flowing this way, I would actually rotate this, so what I'm gonna do is rotate it so that they're going to come at it from this direction I kind of walked by part of my booth they're gonna hit here and then they're actually gonna flow back in so what I'm trying to do in my flow is I'm actually trying to catch people, right? But I want to kind of make corners and make spaces so when I'm certainly not going to do is kind of really divide things up so I wouldn't put this let's move things around just for fun, so I'm not going to go like this is here, so if I move this back here and it gets so far that it's disconnected, buyers are going to flow back to this right? So they're not going to come across here, they might stop here, but if then this is a lot of space to our wall, they're not coming all the way back here, so they're going to ms product, right? So if we want them to flow and we'll look at this actually this image that I have, so this is disconnected from this, we can see that, but if I'm making a corner it's just so weird to, like, move things around in real time, I kind of feel like awkward van away, so if I move this here and I've got another piece of furniture here, then they are going to flow, they're going to follow this, they're going to hit the corner they're in a curl around and then I moved that wall forward, so now they're going to see this, right? So buyers are interacting and then what I'm able to dio is I've got a space where I can stand out of the way, right? I'm standing here, buyers incoming interact, but is there flowing in this way? It's really easy for me to move out, and suddenly we're having a face to face conversation instead of an over here conversation. But you can't always predict this before you get to a show, right? So that's, why it's really great to have fixtures like these that you could just move around in your space because we all do a lot of times I'll get to a show and before I place my furniture, I know where I think the traffic is going to flow, but I will actually walk up and down the aisle, and I'm kind of looking at my neighbour's booths and I'm seeing what catches my eye and I'm walking up and down because I know that that's what the buyer is going to dio and I want to feel like the flow and I want to know what's going to work and I want to know so that I can position things that are really going to attract a buyer's attention, so you got questions about flow and movement yeah, quick question and I won't let people online time into that, so make sure if you guys have questions about any of this booth stuff or anything that we've been talking about the design share those and we'll tackle some of your eyes questions first so I've done two live events and something that I struggle with is knowing where to put myself like I feel awkward kind of like being out there and I don't want to like propel people I want to invite him in, right? So this is a case where I really like having furniture that you khun stand behind but that you could easily get out of. So from here to here, I'm not like shimmying against the wall, right? Like here guys know it's like I'm letting them if they're flowing across kind of talking to them hopefully, you know, in this scenario now if these were like this this and this big eye catcher here it's hanging right out on the corner now, I'm going to do I like to kind of if I'm working with this to table scenario, I tend to split like my steel and bronze stuff goes on one and my steel in silver goes near there so I would flip this, but I've got this groups as I run into things without this big eye catcher on the corner because I know if they're moving along, going to see something great here, I'm also putting those big eye catchers on the walls of my two foot so that they're getting that here and there, but so then if they're fooling around here, I'm kind of walking with them jump up here for a minute, so actually, you beat me, I'm gonna be the buyer, okay? So you're hanging out back here, fire? No. So you guys have you guys had to practice, right? Right? So I'm walking by maybe I'm kind of pausing alright? And you might say something here to engage me, right? Like I had. How are you? Yeah, and then maybe I come here and I pause and if I pause, you're going to say, oh, I'm wearing that necklace because I'm probably wearing this necklace, all right? I'm gonna look up and I'm gonna look at you and then you're going to start to move this way because you're right, because you're moving this way. I'm moving this way and suddenly, like were in the booth conversation, we're side by side and it becomes so much less awkward, right? Yeah, yeah, we're doing it together right when they get here so I'm are you can sit down, thanks, yeah, right, so you want to kind of be ableto mimic what they do but then eventually end up standing next to each other. So I'm not a fan of the booth for people like go full frontal the whole way with their product. I know where everyone's mind went there. We're not talking about dirty soap anymore, so they're going straight across, right? Part of me? Part of you wants to have that straight across to get that to foot, but you also unable to flow and interact with your wires, right? When we get online, we're getting lots of questions that you're answering. We are fantastic. Healthy is asking what to do about labeling and pricing, and is it the same as for retail craft? Fantastic question, yes, oh, people use a couple of different systems for me. Part of the reason that I use these canvases and of course, as I'm looking at this, almost everyone has a retail price, others there's a wholesale price. So what I'll do is I'll actually put a label on my display with my item number and my price and in a wholesale show, it's always your wholesale price, we're never putting retail price is out there. Typically I have enough stuff that I'm not putting an msrp out on all of these different products, but it's going to go into my line sheet? But for someone like monica or for shayla where you guys don't have a ton of product, you can actually display a wholesale price and msrp right on the label and you guys might actually have bigger price labels that I d'oh so I've got these tiny little stickers because I've got a lot of product tiny little seekers do have their disadvantages especially if your buyers are a little older and they can't see really well, so I spent a lot of time explaining my prices to the other thing is that your item numbers are really there for your use because your buyer is not writing down the order you are so it's really there just in case I forget the item number on something like this, I'll go ahead and actually just put stickers right on my display with those prices so you want to help buyer so that if you're busy talking to someone else, they can look into reed now depending on the type of jewelry you have, you know, if you're a jeweler not assuming arun's jeweler but if your jeweler you might also just actually put a tag on something with that whole sale price of the item number as well for me doesn't work so well, but if you've got a lot of jewelry and there's a potential that it's gonna get really mixed up and be hard to go back on your display I would tag the actual products I don't have a lot of jewelry so if if we're moving things around with the buyer when the buyer leaves I'm gonna put the boot back together pretty quickly yes, yes probably doing questions so I'm very surprised that you do so many shows by yourself because I do a lot of retail shows about myself and that's stressful like the bathroom thing and then the light oh my god I'm slammed there's like four people waiting and so when you do you have those moments when there's like two or three or more buyers in there and you're either already engaged in a conversation what's your strategy for not ignoring someone do you will be right with you hey, let me know if you need it like what do you do and that's pretty much exactly like that so jump up here real quick so anna, your buyer you're standing over here and you and I are working on an order, right? So you're you're talking, we're writing tiffany comes up, I see she's kind of interested I'm just gonna pause my conversation with you I'm gonna say I'll be with you in a minute let me know if you have any questions okay? And then I'm gonna come back to you and so that is typically fine for most buyers if it seems like tiffany's in a hurry and she kind of wants to dash out of there. I'm going to say let me give you a hurry. She wants t o play here, which is good, that means it's compelling product well, but sometimes, you know, they're on their way to a meeting I got some things going on so I might you know, posy for another second and say, did you know, line sheet? That would be great. Awesome. Can I get your business card? Absolutely perfect. We're gonna do that shift she's gonna move on her merry way that way even if she doesn't make it back I've got that business card and a soon as you leave and I have kind of polished up your order I'm gonna take tiffany's business card and I'm gonna write a note talking to another buyer gave line sheet follow up if doesn't come back and put that note right on that business card. Okay, so I've got that, but most buyers tend to be super patient about stuff like that, so they'll wait. You're going to thank you guys enough anymore, so they'll wait. The other thing is that you know, every so often if I'm like working with a new buyer and one of my regulars comes up and they are in a little bit of a hurry. All hands on the second clipboard and they'll start writing their own order so you can get away with a lot of those things and it is a much more relaxed atmosphere. Typically the other thing that happens is that traffic is high in the first couple of days of a show and it drops from there so like when I have my sister come and help me in new york I have come for the first two days of the show that's amore a little busier things are happening on dh then you know she goes home, she goes back to work and I can manage the last too slow days by myself but I will also say that the pace of a wholesale show is slower it's always going to be slower than the pace of a retail show and some shows are going to be much slower than others. But one of the things that you have to remember is even if the show is slow, stay put, right? So I've done shows where there's not a lot of buyers and the pace kind of makes me wanna like stick a pencil in my I am so bored I was gonna be like, is it over yet? But I know that the buyers that come by our super quality there's not a lot of them but the ones that are there really committed to buying you stand there, you put on a happy face and so I've done shows like that where my neighbor's air on the aisle complaining about how slow the show is now I'm standing there happy face saying hi to everyone and my show was just fun, so don't feel like you know stay there you gotta you gotta tough it out obviously, though bathroom breaks are truly okay, let your neighbor know and if someone comes in, they're usually really good about being like, hey, you know, she ran to the bathroom. I typically tend to find the neighbour that's not alone in their booth when I say that so I like this neighbors alone this neighborhood's to people, I'm gonna ask you one with two people, I'm just a ham running the bathroom because if one of them is writing in order, the other one can still keep an eye out. Yeah, what music do you ever do like music? Teo mean, help break up the time for yourself a little like create a mood in your room, so not so typically know some shows actually have rules against it. Some shows they're good and they actually play music there's a little bit going on on some shows there's enough of a din that it doesn't matter, I tend not to do music because it disturbs your neighbors it's just not really the polite thing to dio now that said that same show I showed you with the horrible carpet we were kind of in this small room and we didn't know this until the show ended apparently like our speakers and all gotten turned off so there was no music at our room and so finally and there may be only fifteen of us in there so finally we just pulled out my phone open a pandora, stuck it in a plastic cup champ slide the sound on turn on a little music so if it's like desperately crickets than totally but for the most part it's probably not necessary. Okay, other questions she kind of looked like new shoes going for something online. Audrey azadeh rain is asking how you get the info of what the different sections of the show will be that kind of layout that you showed fantastic. Yes oh that's going to be when you go to a show and you click on exhibit there's going to be descriptions of all the different sections so it's going to show you but it might give you kind of a floor plan or a breakdown. All right, so we talked a little bit we're good online all right, so you know, we started to talk about this idea of like tiffany comes up she asked for the line sheet. I give her the business, you for the line. She she gave me this card there. We got, uh, so, that's, what we want to kind of talk about now is removing into it. So we've got our booth designed down, right, and obviously, you guys haven't had a chance. So, like, really design your booths will do that in that three day workshop, the tiffany's gonna push for, uh, but you really started to think about that. And this is a great example to of, like, if you bought the course and you're in that private facebook group, and you have questions later about something booth designed because it's pretty far down the road, for a lot of you that's, a great place that you can come back to you later.