“I didn’t see half the people I usually see at the show,” reported one exhibitor at the end of the January event, and I told him to send me a list of the companies and people he was expecting to see at the show and he thought were not there.
I didn’t hear from him, and then at the end of May he phones up to see if I can get him the “extra discount” for the 2016 show. So I asked him if he ever sent me the list of people he didn’t think were at the show, and he promptly sent it, which surprised me, but I’ll come on to that later.
On his list were 56 people from 31 companies that he felt were not at the show, so I spent a day on the phone and discovered:
- 21 of the people did not attend because they had left the company in question
- Using our database and LinkedIn, I found 19 of the people (you can’t hide): seven had retired, and they gave me the names of the people that took over their job
- Four had left the industry, and the eight who had moved on were in new jobs. Two went to the show, and the other six sent staff from their new company
- Six of the companies did attend the show, and either the person he wanted to see was at the show, or someone else from the company attended the show
So what does this tell you? Basically he didn’t do his homework before the show, and call his customers to see if they were going and make appointments; he relies 80 percent on networking at the show. He doesn’t tell anyone he is at the show. But the worst thing is he isn’t keeping in touch with customers because he doesn’t know who is leaving or retiring and moving on, and most importantly who the new person is. It says a lot about him that people he knows didn’t drop by his booth to just say hello.
So I called him back this morning to share my research with him, and found out he is on “gardening leave”. I know the name of the person who was promoted to take his place. She is the lady that sent me the list – she knows the value of staying connected.
The industry is very busy, and people are on the move. We average 37 people a week signing up for our newsletters, and around 2,200 visitors were new to Remanexpo@Paperworld this year. And it isn’t just that new people are coming into the industry – their profile is different. But then you are well connected, and you know all of this. So my apologies if this story is teaching you to suck eggs.