Exhibition advice

[unstoppable]

Hi all,

I have a question about exhibiting at a trade fair. I have never exhibited before but am doing soon for my business. The question I have is should I give wholesale prices for my products to the potential buyers at the stand? Or is this something that I should email afterwards? I am just worried about competitors pretending to be buyers to find out my prices and then try to beat them. Emailing prices afterwards give me the chance to check the authenticity of the buyer before sending prices. But obviously I don't want to miss out on potential sales either by not being able to close the sale there and then either. What is the norm?

Please advise.

Thanks.

 

[Mr D]

If I cannot find out the price at the fair I don't order.
Your competitors can always find out your prices by acting as potential customers or getting friends to do so anyway so cannot see a reason to keep them secret.

 

[unstoppable]

Hi thanks for replying. It's good to hear it from a buyer's point of view. Do you expect the products to be priced up on display or expect to be given after a bit of introductory chit chat with the exhibitor?

 

[Mr D]

I like to see the price. When person on the stand is busy talking to someone I can browse, research, estimate retail price etc.

 

[The Byre]

Most trade fairs also have punters running around, so only hand out price lists to those who can convince you that they are genuine retail outlets.

Usually, mark-ups are standardised, so you only need to give out RRP lists. It is the additional rebates that are only available to known and trusted customers that are able to reach set TO targets.

For example, most brown and white goods have a 30-40% markup. By the time the retailer has matched AO and Curry's, that markup has all but totally evaporated. But the retailer gets an end-of-year credit note for ordering over £100,000 in goods from one supplier and THAT is his/her profit! They can get further credit notes for things like carrying a wider range of your goods, taking end-of line turkeys at knock-down prices, combining star products with turkeys ("Buy our new revolutionary 4K video camera that has a six month waiting list and if you take the matching monitor-recorder, you can get one tomorrow!")

Some retailers moan about the big sheds and on-line giants who seem to sell at or even below wholesale. They do so by selling at or below wholesale! They make a profit by negotiating thumping great credit notes for reaching set targets.

 

[Nochexman]

Why not have an exhibition only price that is only available to visitors to the stand during the show and for a limited period afterwards. Buy now and save 25% - or whatever.