Tammy Martin Spreads Seriesse in TN

Setting up at large shows

I’ve been a part of Seriesse for three months and I’ve been trying to think of ideas to grow my business. I placed an ad in a special edition of our newspaper that had some basic information about Seriesse and to contact me if you were interested in hearing more about our products (if you do this, don’t forget to have compliance review, they are quick about these things). This ad yielded only one result, a local radio station advertising rep called me to see if I’d be interested in setting up at a cooking show. I had to think about it, the cost was more than I’d planned to spend this month, but I decided to do it anyway.

The show was about an hour from where I live, so it took some planning. I’d never done anything like this before, so I had to figure it out. There were supposed to be 2100 attendees, so I was determined to find some new customers. I ended up learning so much…mostly doing things the hard and expensive way, but it was a great learning experience.

Shows are fun, you meet so many people, and even though the first show didn’t yield results for me, I wasn’t ready to give in yet.

I saw an ad for a State Fiddler’s championships at a local high school. The show was projected to have 10,000 attendees. I thought that because the competition was open to all ages groups, from pee-wees all the way up through seniors, I might find customers for Continuously Clear. I put a little more thought into it, assessed the costs (much less than setting up at a convention center) and had the things from the cooking show that were left over. I decided to do it.

At both shows, I spoke with many people. But there was a big difference in the conversations. At the cooking show, the attendees had only two hours to shop with the vendors. They also had to get seats for the main event, as the seats were first-come, first-serve, many left the vendor area early. I spoke to a lot of people, but I barely let them know who Seriesse was before they filled out their raffle entries and rushed off to the next table.

At the fiddler’s show, it was a two-day event. The conversations I had Friday night were individual, one-on-one conversations about very specific skin care concerns. I even heard a few “life stories”! I was able to give them samples on the first night and some came back on the second day to let me know they liked it and wanted to order. I gave them my website information, but later in the show, I remembered that I’d brought paper order forms and could use them!! Beginner’s mistake, but it was a good learning experience for me.

Now that both shows are behind me, I will definitely consider more large shows, but in a much more streamlined way and more cost-effectively. The first consideration for any show will be whether I will have the time to speak with attendees in the way I want to. Our business is all about building relationships with people and it’s hard to do unless you have the time to focus on the conversation and listen to their concerns.

If you’re thinking about doing a show and have a specific question or would like to hear more, please let me know, I’d be happy to talk about my experiences.

Tammy Martin
Independent Consultant
www.MySeriesse.com/TammyMartin