1.      Don’t Teach:

Some companies forgot how bored they were in public school and give a ‘Chalk Talk’ about their product. There is no conversation, just straight up information about products.  People forget that personal connection and experience will motivate people more than lectures.

2.      Don’t tell someone your product is not what they want:

I am not one to trash talk a company, so I won’t name names here, but I will say that it was a bike company present at this year’s WOR that taught me this lesson.  When my daughter (3 ½) saw this amazing cruiser bike she rushed to it and tried to get on to ride.  I could not see if the seat was all the way down because my six month old was in a front pack so I approached the rep to ask if the seat was low enough.  He looked at me like I was crazy and said that it would not lower more ( I realized later that if it would have lowered one more inch, she could have tried it since she can ride standing up and she would be big enough for it by summer or next fall). I asked if that bike came in a smaller size and he said no only our Hello Kitty bike comes with training wheels.  When in the conversation I asked for training wheels I am not sure, but he seemed to think that I was in the market for something else.  I explained that my small but powerful daughter had been riding a bike for more than six months now and wanted a real looking bike not a bubble gum, baby bike.  He shrugged, and showed me the picture of the bike he had in mind. Look even if my daughter was paralyzed from the waist down,  maybe I was shopping for my other kids or I was looking to write about bikes or products for other children.

3.      Don’t pretend your specific employee is not there when they clearly are:

Yeh, you go to the front desk.  You ask for the person you want to talk to, you spot that person and the front desk person says that person is not here.  Come on guys; be a bit more tactful here.

4.      Don’t ignore us:

Talking on the phone, pretending to write something down, turning your back, not giving a business card or informational material and having no one at your booth, yep, I’ve seen it all.

5.      Don’t string us along:

Don’t talk for hours, communicate by email many times, say that you will buy ad space, sell products, send things for review, ask for more information, email information, request work to be done for you, then ask for more, and more and then not follow through on anything that you said you would do.  It makes your company look bad.

6.      Don’t give a speech:

People come to your booth to learn something, to make a personal connection and to be blown away with a conversation; not to be given speech numbers 2, 10 and 15 without a chance to give input or to walk away.

7.      Don’t be mean to children:

If you sell let’s say strap on dildo’s maybe you don’t have to love my children if they are in your booth, but if you sell something that might appeal to parents or to CHILDREN then you have to set up your booth in a way that you either can pretend you like children, that you don’t care if something is touched or that it is child friendly.  My daughter stopped at a booth that only had children things and the rep hemmed and hawed when she touched the different articles and he got frustrated when she played with a display meant to impress children.

8.      Don’t omit information and lie:

This is horrible, horrible.  You sell a product that is either ingested or rubbed on your skin (the biggest organ in your body is your skin) and you lie:  made from plants, herbs and natural sources and other undisclosed secret ingredients, Wink, wink or you could read the bottle but you need a heavy magnifying glass.  Well guess what I can read fine print and hint, hint your product had bad stuff in it -- not Secret ingredients.

9.      Don’t be the wise one:

Because you are the representative does not mean you know everything about socks, children, parenting, the outdoors or what would work for other people’s lives.  Let the people that you interact with share the information they have on the specific product you are talking about or about the products uses.

10.   Don’t hoard the goodies:

I know, I know, getting swag is great and expecting to get more is not cool but think of these two scenarios:

1)      Your booth is covered in stuffed animals or kid appeal gadgets that are not your product but there to attract people, then you need to let go of your inner bully and hand over the pink whatever it is when a child comes running in.  Hey, right after the kid comes the adult who is there to do business.  Keep child happy, parent will stick around ( This happened in two different booths where my daughter was very excited to be a part of Maman’s work, but the reps totally let her down and therefore myself.

2)      Your advertisement for getting to your booth includes an exchange where your customer needs to stop by your booth and talk to you.  By all means don’t be surly and mean when  that person actually shows up and follows through.

I will post a Yes, Do, Do list in the next few days.

If you are reading this you should thank Winter Outdoor Retailers (WOR) for these amazing lessons, so that you will not make the same mistakes.

Heidi

P.S If you are reading this and want to know which company did what, please email me and depending on who you are I may give you that information. Better yet, share your story on OutdoorBaby.net and then I may give away even more details.