Yesterday I attended the Annual New York Business Expo at Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan attended by thousands where I had an opportunity to meet local organizations, vendors and business owners.  It was a fun outing for me as I love meeting new people and getting to know more about them and their business.

Attending this event reinforced my optimism and enthusiasm for the spirit of entrepreneurship and economic empowerment, despite all the bad news we are hearing, opportunities abound.  It’s unfortunate that it is a one day event as there are so many workshops and booths to get through…definitely not enough time.

In any case, I made the rounds as best I could to meet some really interesting folks.  I also made a couple of observations on mistakes made by booth owners that I will share below in the context of how fortunate we are to have in-depth education and insights about marketing basics that we should all know and do as GKIC members…Those mistakes are…

1.    No clarity on USP (Unique Selling Proposition):  I was pitched on features and price at almost every single booth I visited!  For fun, I grilled some of the booth owners on “Why I should choose to do business with them above all others.”  The wrong answers included price, service, and because they were nice people!  I encouraged them to get and read Dan Kennedy’s Ultimate Marketing Plan where he explains in detail the importance of crafting one’s USP and in some instances I shared with them what stood out to me as what’s unique about them.

2.    Focus on logo, brand name recognition and tons of glossy brochures with lots of pictures and white space:  I actually heard one presenter from a highly visible organization bragging about how many million impressions his logo gets online.  He had a picture of his logo in the room, on his slides and on his T-shirt…Gee, I still have no clue what his business is and how he may be able to help me or someone I know.  Plus, there was no lead capture to be found anywhere with this guy.

3.    Shoving tons of paper & knick-knacks in my face and taking no time to engage with me and other booth visitors to learn more about us and our needs:  In one booth I actually spotted the perfect gift that I can give and wanted to know more about customizing and ordering it from a printing supplier…he didn’t care to take the time to answer my questions on the spot…he shoved his card and brochure in my hand and told me to call him.  He was rude and he didn’t think to take down my contact info!  Of course I won’t be calling him…Too bad for him, those items would have made great gifts!  Consider how costly his lack of interest in me (and other visitors) is to his sales and overall business.

4.    No testimonials or reviews to be found anywhere:  None whatsoever!  Only a staff person from the New York Enterprise Report Magazine was smart enough to whip out his Flip Camera and take my on the spot enthusiastic testimonial about how awesome I think their magazine is and why every business owner and entrepreneur in the New York & New Jersey area needs to get their hands on it.  (At many chapter meetings I have plugged this really excellent free magazine to everyone.  Simple go to www.nyreport.com for a free subscription.)  They have an AWESOME magazine and website and this is how I learned about the event aside from reading Crain‘s New York Business)

5.    Focus on getting new customers…no focus on taking care of current customers and increasing lifetime value:  I had a chat with the folks from several local chambers and associations where I asked them what their members’ biggest frustrations and concerns were.  It was unanimous that everybody wants new customers and is not concerned with nurturing their current customers or looking at where there have “found money” in their business.  I will be speaking for some of these groups in the coming months.

6.    Blah, Blah, Blah about how old their company is, how many offices they have nationwide and how many corporate clients they have:  …I still have no clue what they can do for me!  Never forget that everyone only cares about what’s in it for them and everything we do has to be presented in that context!

7.    The Follow-up…let’s see what their follow-up process is in the coming days and weeks.  I am willing to bet there won’t be much out of the many booths I visited.  Let’s see and I will keep you posted.

Now, let me be clear that none of us is perfect and it is an ongoing process for us to fine-tune and work on our business processes and how we interact with prospects.  I work on this everyday myself and I know that even Bill Glazer and his team are constantly working on improving how they cater to prospective and current GKIC members!  The bottom line is that these are all basics that we can’t forget or ignore!

I met some really fantastic people at the Expo who I will invite to our meetings and put on my list so that I can share all the great ideas and resources in GKIC and our Local Chapter.  However, this outing for the day reinforced for me how much work needs to be done to get business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals to learn and never forget marketing basics.  We must keep self-checking if we are doing the basic things that help us stand apart from the competition, get more sales, and keep more customers and clients!

I do hope that you will go back and re-read the Marketing 101 and Sales Prevention Department sections in prior issues of the No B.S Marketing Newsletter and take an honest look at how you are doing the marketing basics and also preventing sales in your business.  Also, please, if you are doing a tradeshow, don’t make the same mistakes I noted above!

By the way, if you are reading this and you are not a subscriber of Dan Kennedy’s No B.S Marketing Letter, you may learn more and get The Most Incredible FREE Gift Ever at http://www.nobsfreegift.com/gkicny.
If you are intrigued by my comments and opinions, check out our Local Manhattan and Northern New Jersey Chapters of Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle at www.GKICNewYork.com.  And Remember, Get Back to the Basics!