Trade Shows: Go to Meet People, Not to Hand Out Decks

Walk the aisles at PRI or SEMA and you will see the same scene a hundred times. A racer spots "marketing" on someone's badge, pulls a glossy deck out of a backpack and launches into a pitch. The person on the other end nods, takes the deck and turns back to the customer they were talking to. I have been on the receiving end of that pitch more times than I can count, and I don't even issue sponsorships anymore.

Trade shows are the best place in racing to meet the people who run sponsorship programs. They are also the worst place to ask those people for money. The brand executives who spoke at my Sponsorship Summits and at my PRI seminar on networking were blunt about the difference.

The people in the booth are working

For many companies, the big winter shows are where the year's sales get made. JR Twedt, president of K1 RaceGear, told the summit audience that roughly 35 to 40 percent of K1's revenue in the first half of the year comes out of PRI. So when I asked whether PRI is a good time to approach him, he didn't hedge.

"So no, I'll be very blunt in that: don't approach me," Twedt said. "You want to come and introduce yourself? Great, excellent. Come say hi to the team, take that time to maybe learn about the product and learn about what it is that we're doing." ▶ Watch JR Twedt explain this

Kyle Kietzmann, CEO of Racing Force, the company behind BELL Helmets and OMP, described the same reality from one of the busiest booths in the building. "We're there to work with our distributors and our clients," he said. "As was said, it's not always the best time to approach us with sponsor decks and things like that, because we're there doing business. But it's always a good opportunity to connect with our staff and build a relationship." ▶ Watch Kyle Kietzmann on this

Kietzmann also noted that BELL's sponsorship budgets are set in September and October, so a deck handed over at a December show is usually arriving after the decisions are made. The show is for the relationship. The proposal comes later.

Go to learn what brands are pushing

Travis Clarke, executive vice president of action sports and Olympics at Wasserman, has sold more sponsorship than almost anyone in the business. He goes to SEMA every year, and he leaves the proposals at home.

"I don't go there hawking out proposals and trying to close deals," Clarke said. "I'm mostly going there to see what brands are doing. What are they activating, what products are they pushing, what new marketing initiatives they have?" ▶ Watch Travis Clarke on working SEMA

That is the most useful thing a racer can do on a show floor. Every booth is a free briefing on what that company cares about this year: the new product on the turntable, the display everyone is crowding around, the message on the banner. Write it down. When you do send a deck in January, you can build it around the product the brand is spending money to launch instead of a generic list of logo placements.

Clarke uses the evenings for relationships, not pitches. Dinners, drinks and shop visits are, in his words, "not a hard pitch, it's more just building the relationships." ▶ See the full answer

Introduce yourself, then let them get back to work

None of this means you should stay away from the booths. The marketing people want to meet you. They just want a short, human introduction, not a sales call.

Jackie Donahue, marketing manager at NGK Spark Plugs, pointed out that PRI falls late in the sponsorship calendar. "So really, this show, you should be building the relationships," she told the seminar audience. And the racers who do it stand out. "I do love when you just come up and say, 'Hey, I just want to introduce myself,' we have a quick conversation. Those are the relationships and those are the people that stick in my head. And then when I go back to review the 600 resumes that I've gotten, I remember those, the 10 people that came by and said something to me." ▶ Watch Jackie Donahue explain this

Read that again: 600 applications, and the ten she remembers are the ones who said hello in person.

Timing matters even within the show. Julian Gill, CEO of Eibach Springs, asked racers not to hand him a deck "when I'm three beers into a six beer night," because "I've forgotten all about you two days later." ▶ See Julian Gill's advice

Use the edges of the show

Some of the best networking at a trade show happens when the show isn't open. A day or two before SEMA, exhibitors are building their booths. A day or two after, they are tearing them down. The pressure is off, the customers are gone, and the person you want to meet may be standing in an aisle holding a drill. The same goes for races: show up while the trucks are still loading in, and hang around afterward. Over the years I have had more dinners with colleagues who became friends because we met at a pre-party or a celebration in the pits than because we met during the event itself.

When I meet someone new at SEMA, I try to book a short meeting there, and the only purpose of that meeting is to schedule the next one after the show: a call, a lunch, a face-to-face visit. The show breaks the ice. The real conversation happens when they can remember who you are.

Work the booths of the sponsors you already have

Formula Drift driver Alex Licklider, who met me by walking up at PRI, uses the shows to grow the partnerships he already has. If one of his sponsors has a booth, he works it.

"It's also a great way for you to continue relationship with brands that you currently do have if they have a booth there," Licklider said. "As a sponsored driver or a partnership driver with that brand, you can work with them at that booth. So you can teamwork with your sponsors, and that also grows your relationship with that company." ▶ Watch Alex Licklider on this

Standing in a sponsor's booth also puts you in front of every other brand that stops by to visit them. That is a far better introduction than a cold walk-up.

The takeaway

• Don't hand out decks on the show floor. Introduce yourself, ask about the product, and keep it short.
• Treat every booth as research. Note what each target brand is launching and promoting, and build your January deck around it.
• Go early for setup and stay late for teardown, when exhibitors have time to talk.
• Use the show to schedule the real meeting for after the show, then follow up within days.
• If a current sponsor exhibits, offer to work their booth.