News You Can Use

Save the Date: On Feb 20, 2009 Friday I will be giving a presentation to the ExecuLeaders along with Jeff Goldberg, Sales Pro & Author

Asian Trade Shows – There are many companies considering exhibiting in foreign trade shows in 2009. Many have the attitude that after the show is over they will rent a car and do some sight seeing. In some foreign countries driving, even being a passenger in bus or other mode of transportation can be dangerous or even life threatening. Countries in Asia have a dreadful death rate. Being killed in a road crash can be 20 to 80 times higher in some Asian countries than in the U.S. ASIRT: the Association for Safe International Road Travel www.asirt.org is a great resource for travelers. It offers a series of Road Travel Reports which can be downloaded from the organizations website for a suggested contribution of $30 per country. I suggest anyone who is considering going to Asia, or any other foreign country, for a trade show or even vacation take the time and visit the ASIRT web site before you make the trip.

Dean Mercado 
“The Motivational Marketer”

President of OnlineMarketingMuscle Has featured me in both his ezine and blog Link to the specific ezine edition featuring John Hill, Trade Show Coach: http://lyxus.net/kzo

I encourage all of my readers to comment on the article on Dean’s blog as the written article is featured there as well. The link to the article on Dean’s blog: http://lyxus.net/kzp

In the October Issue of FITA The Federation of International Trade Associations

HERE'S HOW TO CALCULATE YOUR GAS COST
How Much does it Cost to Drive to Work? www.costtodrive.com
With the cost of fuel breaking records in the last year, sites like Cost To Drive are becoming more essential for drivers. At this site you enter a starting point and a destination, plus the make, model, and year of the car you're driving, and you'll get a calculation of how much money the trip will cost you in gas. Another nifty feature is that you'll get a map of your trip from Mapquest, Yahoo Maps, and Google Maps. The site only works for trips in the U.S., but it's a valuable tool for anyone taking an auto trip in this era of high-priced gas.

FOR RELIABLE INFORMATION, BOOKMARK VIBES
Good Links
library.uncc.edu/vibes/
Anyone who has anything to do with international trade should have a collection of useful Web sites bookmarked for future reference. One site that should be part of that bookmark list is Virtual International Business & Economic Sources (VIBES). This site has been around for almost 15 years, which is a long time in Web years. Maintained by Jeanie M. Welch at the University of North Carolina Charlotte, VIBES has links that are useful, free, and on target. You won't find any broken or dead links here: everything has been checked for accuracy and usefulness. To get a look at all the links, click on "Comprehensive" in the left column, and you'll see a list of categories (Banking & Finance, Emerging Markets, International Statistics, Portals, etc.) that you can explore. There's also a list of sites devoted to specific regions of the world, and an alphabetical list of sites devoted to countries.

FITA Issue 200 - WHERE TO FIND COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE
Know Your Competitors
If you want to get established in a new market you'll need to do some competitive intelligence gathering, to see who your competitors are and what they're up to. Finding Competitive Information is a well-written article with lots of links to sites where you can find competitive intelligence. The article is a good how-to about the process of finding competitive intelligence, and the links connect to sites that are full of solid information. Some of the sites are subscription-based databases, but others are free. This is a good place to spend the initial stages of researching a market.

November 2008 Q&A

Dear Mr. Hill:

I am sure, considering the present economic conditions, that many of your clients have contacted you regarding their trade show program for 2009. Since you are “Mr. Trade Show” what do you tell them to do if they are concerned about the future of their company and in many cases the future of their jobs. As you can see I work in the financial community and with what is happening on Wall Street and how that effects my company, and many other like mine I am looking for some objective and realistic approaches to what the future will hold, especially in the trade show area since that is where I work.

Dan W. Marketing 
Group Leader
Hoboken, N.J.
 

Dear Dan:
Let me assure you that you are not alone. There are many people in the marketplace concerned about how they are going to survive. I know of at least 10 people from Wall Street that are actively looking for jobs. Some of them are desperate to leave New York and locate somewhere else because they think it will be less stressful. Of course those people with families just can’t pick up and move somewhere else. I know one person that has relocated to Boston and only comes home on the weekend to see his family. Come the summer the family will relocate to a town outside of Boston. What do I tell my clients? Well, if they have committed to trade shows in January 2009, they will take a loss with the investment that they have already paid. Business is not going to stop. Companies still need to look for new business, and what better, and cost effective way of generating new opportunities is to exhibit at a trade show. If you feel that you cannot afford the major 3-4 day trade shows in New York City, Los Vegas, Washington D. C. or Chicago then look at some of the local 1-2 day trade shows in the tri-state area. For the cost of one major trade show, you can exhibit at 2 to 3 local trade shows. While the companies that exhibit will be looking at ways to be more cost effective, the companies looking for new products and services will certainly look to some of the local trade shows to reduce there costs of research as well. 

To continued trade show success,
John Hill, Trade Show Coach

Find Your 
Trade Show

Trade Shows in the U.S.

Trade Shows in Australia

Trade Shows in Canada

Trade Shows in China

Trade Shows in England

Trade Shows in France

Trade Shows in Germany

Trade Shows Hong Kong

Trade Shows in India

Trade Shows in Italy

Execuleaders - Event Calendar
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LISTnet – Long Island
Software & Technology
Network - Event Calendar
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Hauppauge Industrial
Association- Event Calendar
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LIFT –Long Island Forum For Technology – Event Calendar
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Long Island Association –
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Association of information
Technology Professionals –
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LIMBA- Long Island Mid-
Suffolk Business Action

Click Here!

 

 
November 2008

To My Clients, Friends, Associates, 
and future Clients:


I want to thank the number of people that have sent me e-mails telling me how much they like the new look of my Newsletter. If you think that the newsletter looks good, check out my web site. Jesse,” The Web Guy” of Generations Beyond has worked his magic and continues to make changes to make it the best it can be. 

November is a month that will go down in history with the election of a new president. Listening to many people, they were, like me glad that it was over. Regardless of what you think about President Bush America had not had another 911 while he has been in office. It is time to worry about the future of our country, not about what’s good for the democrat or republican parties. I want all of our politicians to be thinking about what needs to be done to help the American people. 

Everyone is concerned about the future, and is moving forward with their trade show plans with cautious optimism. In the latest statistics from www.exhibitorsdaily.com as of August 26, 2008 it was stated that trade shows cost 38% less than sales calls. I think that statistic alone should be enough to tell the non believers that trade shows are a cost effective way to increase your company business. I keep telling my clients and prospects that the leads that you get at a trade show are the best leads you can have. 

Thanksgiving is also in November, and I think we all have a lot to be thankful. I want to thank my family and friends for their continued support and encouragement, to my business associates who help me look good to my clients. To my clients who respect and appreciate what I do for them, and continue to challenge me to come up with new and innovative ways to make their trade shows better. 

To continued trade show success,
John Hill, Trade Show Coach

 


 

   
  Guest Columnist:

5 Tips to Empower Your Web Site to Sell for 
You By Dean Mercado

 

Hey small businesses can use all the sales and marketing help they can get… am I right or am I right?! 

The typical small business just doesn’t seem to have the means to hire the team they need to bring in the business. This is a big problem that typically forces the small business owner to try to go it alone… becoming the so-called “Chief Cook & Bottle-Washer”. Now where there’s a will, there’s a way and there are ways around this dilemma. One way which we’ll discuss here is to empower your web site to become a virtual sales person. 

How? Well here are 5 tips to help make that happen:

1. Provide Lead Generation
 

It’s simple… Everyone loves free stuff. So the idea here is to offer something for free on your web site that your ideal prospect would love to get their hands on. In exchange, all you ask for is their contact information and the right to market to them going forward. Essentially you are dangling a carrot in front of them… a carrot in the form of a free special report, a free newsletter, a free eBook, free tips and tricks, free discount coupon, or a free whatever. 
Chances are if they’re interested enough to sign up at your web site, they may be interested in what you offer at some point. Keep in mind, you should be trying to build or solidify a relationship here with your prospects, not sell them; so this free giveaway must be value driven not sales pitch driven.

2. Establish or Further Your Credibility and Brand
 

Since people most often buy from people they know, like, and trust, your web site can be a great tool in helping build the comfort level needed to influence your prospects to buy from you. Some great ways of doing this are by providing references, case studies, and testimonials of satisfied customers. These forms of unbiased third-party justifications are powerful at removing the fears out of doing business with you!

3. Provide Pre-sales and Post-sales Support
 

The possibilities here are endless. Tactics can go from as simple as a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page on your web site to more interactive methods such as blogs, forums, online chatting, and more. These tactics are great to help convert those prospects who are either “sitting on the fence” or just can’t seem to get enough information to make a decision.

4. Allow Prospects to Buy Your Products and Services Directly From Your Web Site
 

Hey if your prospect is ready to buy, they’re ready to buy. Why stand in their way? Give them the ability to buy whichever products or services that you see fit right from your web site using either their credit card or some other immediate means such as PayPal. 
The bottom line here is that people buy first with emotion and then justify their purchase afterwards with logic. So capitalize on that emotion… Get them while they’re hot so to speak and help them justify their purchase afterwards with your stellar post-sales support.

5. Provide Full Contact Information
 

This final tip is one that may seem like common sense but I guess it’s not because I come across web sites all the time that either do not provide full contact information or hide it so well that it’s almost impossible to find.

The idea here is to make it real easy for prospects to find you both online and offline. Provide full contact information that at a minimum includes a phone number, a fax number, an email address, and a physical mailing address because the lack of providing one can make a prospect question whether or not you are a real business.

Best case scenario is to provide this information on every page of your web site this way you prospect has it at their fingertips if they want it. So in closing, the key lesson here is leverage. If you got a web site, make it work overtime for you. Give it a chance to earn its keep. Why not? It cost you money to create it and even more to maintain it. Milk it for all its worth!

© 2008 Online Marketing Muscle -- All Rights Reserved.

Liked this article? -- Then check out Long Island-based marketing consultant, coach, and entrepreneur Dean Mercado’s highly acclaimed marketing blog 'The Motivational Marketer’s Journal' at www.MotivationalMarketer.com. Additionally, for even more small business marketing and success tips, sample the latest edition of his FREE marketing tips newsletter the 'Marketing Minute' at www.onlinemarketingmuscle.com/marketingminute , -- a weekly multimedia e-zine designed to give you a jolt of marketing wisdom in less than 5 minutes.

Hope this works for you!
Dean Mercado, The "Motivational Marketer" 
OnlineMarketingMuscle Phone: 1-631-730-8285
Email: Dean@OnlineMarketingMuscle.com
Website: http://www.OnlineMarketingMuscle.com

Connect with me online...
Blog: www.MotivationalMarketer.com
LinkedIN: www.linkedin.com/in/deanmercado
FaceBook: profile.to/deanmercado/
MySpace: www.myspace.com/motivationalmarketer
Twitter: twitter.com/deanmercado
Ryze: www.ryze.com/go/Bytor9

Things you do for your clients: 
I was contacted by one of my clients on Long Island who was leaving for on a business trip for 5 days. She has a dog that she had put in a local kennel and was not to happy. She asked me if I new anyone that I could recommend. Well, since I do not own any pets, this has never been a problem for me. I made a few phone calls and did my investigation and uncovered a company located in Huntington, Long Island that was just what my client was looking for:

Huntington Pet Sitters, Ms. Laura Baldi, B.A. 
Home # 631-549-3010 Cell: 516-220-2177 
e-mail: laurabaldi23@gmail.com

She comes highly recommended and I would not put this information in my Newsletter if I did not feel that my readers would be please with the results.

About John Hill & Associates
 

John A. Hill, Founder and CEO. Trade Show Coach, Business Advisor and Marketing and Sales Specialist. With over 30 years of experience developing and managing businesses, John’s roles have included National Sales Manager, VP of Sales, Director of Marketing, EVP and COO. 
 
He was also elected and served as President & CEO of three public companies. John provides his expertise in addressing and solving management and marketing issues to organizations worldwide. He is a recognized expert in the area of strategic
management, specializing in the maximization of trade show use as a vital element of marketing strategy.

johnahillandassociates.com

 

Important note: The Tips from the Booth is not a commercial publication but primarily for my Clients, Subscribers, Prospects, Suspects and anyone interested in trade shows. I am not compensated in any way by the providers of the products or services mentioned in this Newsletter (except for John A. Hill & Associates, Inc. (H & A) They are recommended because I know them, or have used them personally, believe them to be the best or think they will be helpful to my readers. If you haven’t done so, please add jhill@johnahillandassocaites.com to your address book.