Well it is the season for goodwill to all men and peace etc etc etc.

Bah Humbug!!

This is the time of year when I am able to take stock of what has happened in 2008 and what I intend to do in 2009!

Sure I have all the usual family affairs, parties and performing father impressions to do but I also like to take some time out for me and think very carefully on what the New Year is going to bring.

I’m already in advanced stages of finalizing our 2009 trade show itinerary (our year actually runs April to March for budgeting and planning purposes) and knee high in the glad handing that the Christmas season brings to businesses each year.

Just as I grew tired of all the moaning and whining about gas prices hitting $4 and over which tended to dominate the start of 2008, now I’m also getting annoyed with all the doom and gloom merchants bemoaning the state of the economy.

It’s hard and it’s slow – that is a fact and for some it is going to hurt like heck.

I know this; head down and work hard, stick to what I know works and put in the extra effort with contacts and clients; now is the time to be increasing the effectiveness of my marketing because my competitors are all pulling themselves in and leaving potential customers and actual clients hanging out to dry – this is market share for me and I aim to take it.

While your competition are still getting over the Christmas pudding and stuffing, reaching for the Peptobysmol to cure that sluggish feeling, I’m going to be hitting the ground running and I aim not to stop until this time next year.

Recession is a brilliant opportunity for those who are prepared to seize it and I expect to be taking on more business and bigger clients than I normally get simply because I’m doing what my bigger competitors are not – working hard and the only thing out of my mouth will be, “We’re doing great – new business hasn’t stopped coming in – what’s all the fuss about!?!”.

I was told once, “Profit for sanity, turnover for vanity!” and over the years I have stuck to it, but without turnover which means revenues/sales/orders/new business and so on, there is never going to be any profit – sales is my lifeblood and before I cut a dollar’s worth of sales effort I’ll cut off my arm!

Happy New Year to you – don’t drink and drive and enjoy the holidays – we’ll see you in 2009!

I’ve used prize draws in the past and use them today and I have no doubts that I’ll be using them in the future.

The question isn’t whether prize draws work or not but how to make sure they work for you – the question is really like “How long is a piece of string?”

A good prize draw will attract visitors to your trade show display and you will be able to very simply and easily capture a lot of information about the attendee; after all if they expect to be notified of winning a prize they have to tell me how to be contacted now don’t they!

I make sure that the prize or prizes are something worthwhile; a bottle of champagne or fancy wine; a voucher for a weekend break or dinner at a swanky restaurant are all things I have used, and even on one occasion, we had a car up for grabs but that was for something very special and we shared the cost and the draw offering amongst several exhibitors.

The key thing is – the prizes have got to be worth it!

I also make sure that attendees who wish to enter have got to do something more than pop a business card in a box; sure they have to do that but I make them complete a prize draw questionnaire which requires they get correct answers to questions related to my company or especially, the product range I am promoting.

Then they have to attach their business card to the question card and in it goes to the draw.

the results have been pretty good in my experience and I almost always end up selling something to whoever wins in the draw; it is hard to say no to someone who has just given you a really decent gift.

Just as with any other contacts you collect at a trade show, you must follow up on teh contacts you have collected; it is worthwhile notifying the losers by telephone just as much as the winners and again, I have made numerous good referral contacts and better, new customers from such a tactic.

Yes, prize draws work!

We frequently get wrapped up in what we can use as a promotional giveaway and sometimes we loose sight of the woods for all of those trees.

It really pays to dump all of the methodology and best practices in the trash from time to time and look at the whole issue with fresh eyes from scratch.

I just got back from a trade show in Toronto and a there had been a glitch in the ordering I was low on my usual freebies to hand out but as luck would have it, a day before I’m due to drive up to the show my kid’s are yakking on about their cookie sales for the Girl Guides.

Now I am a cookie fan but usually the house is stuffed to the gills with unsold cookies this time of year and especially as my wife and her sisters seem to go into cookie making overdrive.  On this occasion I thought what the hey – I’ll have all of them so I loaded up with several dozen boxes of cookies and a stash of large liter sized ziploc bags crammed full of cookie goodness.

I’ve used food before; we all have without thinking about it whenever we set some finger food or canapes out next to the coffee and refreshments.  I did all of this without really thinking and I was surprised at the result; I was just getting inundated with people munching cookies and guzzling my coffee!

It seems there was a mass cookie addiction going on in Toronto and the craving was getting satisfied at my trade show display

Next time, I’m going to go armed with cookies that are branded and have already arranged for cookies to be boxed with my company logo and contact information on them and if they keep getting moved at the rate I saw last week, my wife and her sisters are going to find themselves gainfully employed as cookie makers on a full-time and permanent basis!