Market your Savannah Business at the Chamber’s Expo

It’s not too late. You can still sign up for the Savannah Chamber’s Business Expo September 24-25! You can register (and see a picture of us having fun at last year’s Expo) by going to the Savannah Chamber’s website:

http://www.savannahchamber.com/ms/businessexpo08

Pictures from Diana’s Birthday

We celebrated Diana’s birthday with lunch at Ad Specialty. The tiaras are in honor of Diana’s late friend Janice Gantt who was known as “The Tiara Queen”.  If you knew Janice and would like to contribute to a scholarship at Armstrong Atlantic University in her honor please email diana@adspecialtyservices.com.

Diana Morrison, Cori Sessions

 

Emily, Cristy, Diana, Betsy, Cori, Ellisia

Successful Trade Show Exhibiting

TO DO:

• DO start planning in time!  A good minimum time frame is 90 days, 6 months is preferable
• Do have a budget.
• Do gather the troops and plan. Make sure you are using your staff to it’s best potential - don’t ask accounting to be the idea folks and don’t ask the idea folks to set your budget. Schedule several planning meetings.
• DO Choose a theme and make sure it relates to your business and what you do.
• DO help your staff buy into the event and get them involved.
• Do get there early on set up day. It always takes longer than you expect.
• Do remember that referrals are priceless, so even if the people you meet are not your perfect target…their referrals might be.  - NEVER FORGET IT!!
• Do schedule adequate floor coverage with a wide range of knowledge of what your business does and give them breaks so they project a good, not tired image.  Good coverage is 1 person per 50 square feet.
• Do make sure your display tells everyone what you do and what you stand for, good signage is priceless.
• Do tell your staff what you expect them to wear. You may want to consider providing embroidered corporate wear with your logo.  If you have a theme that could be supported by attire figure that into your budget as well as your plan. 
• Do tell your staff what you want them to accomplish. Have goals for each person or department.
• Do meet, greet and have fun! 
• Do let customers or prospective customers know what you will be exhibiting.  Send them an invitation, verbal, paper or email.  Give them a reason to want to come.
• Do… Be wise, advertise!  Take advantage of the publicity that the trade show sponsor will be utilizing.  It is normally very affordable.
• Do make your booth at least a little different from year to year.  Keep it up to date.
• Do have some energy bars for obvious reasons.
• Do have a list of things you need to take with you.  Ask us for our tool box list.
• DO make your booth visitor friendly! Don’t separate yourself from your visitors with your table, set it further back or come out into the isle and greet those approaching.
• Do have plenty of printed material about your company to give to those interested as well as plenty of promotional products if you choose to have some.  Promotional products lend themselves to your theme and allow your message to be served for an extended period of time long after the show is over.  Not having enough business cards is the worst mistake you can make.
• Do consider this a time to build relationships!
• Do visit the other Vendors, they can be some of your best prospects.
• Do prepare for after the show;  who follows up and how it is done.
• Do have every person that is manning your booth write notes on the backs of all the business cards given to them so they do not have ‘Next Morning Memory Hang Over.’
• An important DO that most of us forget… Casually stage conversations while at the booth about what you do well, new products and new ideas.  You will be chatting while you are there with your co-workers so why not chat about what your business does well and new products that you may be promoting.

 

 DON’T DO:

• Some DON’TS
• Do NOT eat or drink behind your booth.
• Do NOT hold your drink in your shaking hand.
• Do NOT commit the cardinal sin and break down early.  Boy what a horrible impression you will make if you do!  If you think it’s not noticed, think again!
• Do NOT carry on personal conversations with people you know passing by and ignore or bore a real prospect.
• Do NOT even think about complaining about your job or your company when others can hear.  There are lots of us that have very keen hearing, and it’s not a good way to find your next employer.
• Do NOT show up late or leave your booth unattended.
• Do NOT be a bore!
• Do NOT down grade your competition who maybe displaying their wares also.  Be positive; be better.
• Do NOT take your shoes off.

A quote on making the most of each day

“Life is a succession of moments. To live each one is to succeed.” This
terrific quote is attributed to Corita Kent, an American artist and teacher,
but it applies to salespeople as well.
     Every day you have numerous opportunities — approximately 960 (16 waking hours
x 60 minutes) — to flourish as a salesperson. The plan is to have more
successful moments than wasteful moments. While some unproductive moments in
your day may be necessary, they may not be increasing your worth.

AWWIN Names Top 10 Women

Diana Morrison, owner of Ad Specialty Services, is honored to be on AWWIN’s list of Top Ten Working Women 2008.

The 9th Annual Awards Gala and Silent Auction to honor “AWWIN, Inc Top Ten Working Women of the Year 2008″ will be Friday, September 19, 2008 at the Hyatt Regency Savannah, 2 West Bay Street, Savannah, GA. To buy tickets for the event you can go to their website http://awwininc2.org/?page_id=73.