Justice Simango, Opinion

TRADE shows are a lot of fun! Where else can you visit 100 or more companies in a single day? A palpable energy will electrify a large, well attended Trade Fair this year as people from all over the world negotiate the buying and selling of products and services.

When singer and guitarist Dave Carroll took an airplane with United Airlines in 2008, he found that his expensive Taylor guitar had been damaged.

He pestered United’s customer service for months demanding that they cover the expenses of fixing his guitar, but they refused.

A year later, Carroll published a video on YouTube called United Breaks Guitars. The video went viral, with over 19 million views to this date. Not only that, United’s stock went down by 10 percent and lost its value by $180 million.

The moral of the story is; there’s never a good reason to ignore or to be rude to a customer. In order to make sure your trade fair experience is successful this year, you need to be helpful.

Acknowledge both current and prospective customers’ concerns, questions, and complaints. These are some trade show etiquette tips that the experts recommend for businesses of all sizes and will make this year’s edition of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair special.

It is a known fact that people are more willing to review their experiences with a company on the internet when they have had a bad experience. So don’t give them the chance! Satisfied customers will be happy to share their experiences and recommend your services or products to others, which is obviously great for business.

Of course, this applies to trade shows as well. Be as helpful as you can, both with your booth visitors as well as with people on social media.

Volunteer to give a presentation or to be on a panel, and don’t simply pitch your product: give helpful tips, be the one who people with questions will turn to.

People will be more willing to talk to you if you are helpful, but also if you look approachable. Not everyone will know at the beginning that you are willing to patiently answer questions, but if you are standing at your booth with a smile, people will talk to you.

Sometime in March, the South African government suspended an immigration official and her three supervisors at the Beitbridge Border Post after a video of her scrolling her smart phone as Zimbabwean travellers waited to be served went viral.

Now, the phone is not the problem but the user is the problem. It is rude to talk to someone while you are on the phone. Avoid using your phone or your computer in between visitors; it will make you seem oblivious and uninterested.

Don’t have a messy booth: make sure your surface areas look neat. Get rid of garbage quickly. Be the special company that others will turn to when they are in need.

As preparations gather momentum, ZITF 2018 is going to be special and will be running under the theme; “Sustainable Industrial Development — Inclusive, Competitive, Collaborative”.

The organisers say the theme aligns itself to the national agenda of pursuing industrialisation as the key to economic growth and development.

The Trade Fair will be running from April 24 to 28 and as a participant, this is an opportunity to network with global partners.

Let other vendors know what you do and how you can be of help to them. “Synergy” has become one of those fluffy corporate-speak words that we tend to glaze over when we come across it, but the truth is that synergy can be incredibly effective if used correctly.

As far as I know, the first iPod dock speaker wasn’t even made by Apple, and yet, most iPod and iPhone owners I know have one. You can never go wrong being the most helpful person at the Trade Fair this year and beyond.

The Trade Fair environment is conducive and friendly to all age groups and with the much filled excitement it holds, a trade fair can also be intimidating to a first time attendee.Even some long-time participants regularly break the rules of etiquette and courtesy at trade fairs by doing things that aren’t “dealer friendly”.

The Exhibition Master Class was held in Harare and Bulawayo last month as a refresher course on how to increase market visibility and derive maximum value from exhibition investment. We surely do not want our company products and services to be reviewed negatively on YouTube like what happened to the United Airlines.

In the words of Stephen Kinzer, “Alliances and partnerships produce stability when they reflect realities and interests”.

-Justice Simango is a Business Etiquette and Grooming Consultant who writes in his own capacity. He is a member of Toastmasters International. Feedback: [email protected]

 

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