Andrew Fox's Roundup of JCK Las Vegas 2010

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• On: 06/14/2010 10:41:21
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So many people have asked me, "How was Vegas?" Of course, they are asking about the JCK Las Vegas show 2010, which was held last week at the Sands Expo Center. I have to say that this was the most interesting jewelry trade show that I have ever attended. It wasn't really interesting due to the traffic or number of orders that we wrote, but more because of Hansa Diamonds different approach this year. If you are interested in a counterintuitive marketing lesson, read and think about the following. Its always been my approach to try and have as much traffic as possible. Back in the old days, I remember that the largest company in the Diamond and Jewelry Industry was famous for having a packed booth. This very dense concept was supposed to breed excitement and get more buyers to come and find out what was so hot. Following the approach of this company, who later famously failed and went bankrupt in the largest ever closure in the jewelry industry, I built Hansa Diamonds into a marketing machine that was the envy not only of the jewelry industry, but of marketers in other industries that heard about what I had done. Hansa Diamonds became so famous in the jewelry industry, that I commonly became referred to as "The Ice Cream Guy." Hansa Diamonds gave away over 75,000 ice cream cones over a 7 year period of time. Other wholesale companies wondered how we did it, having so much balls to give away so much for free. We had free ice cream, incredibly hot models, free toys, some years we gave free lunch. The clear reason was that we worked the ice cream line, pulling customers into the booth, and then hard selling them. There were many effects of this marketing approach: we built a middle sized jewelry wholesale business, but more importantly Hansa personnel built up a disenchantment with human nature due to the incredibly aggressive way that people took advantage of our promotions. Simply put, show attendees came to us only with the intent of taking from us, sucking us dry. And people, particularly other exhibitors, we very nasty when we told them no. At the 2010 show, Hansa Diamonds had no giveaway, nothing for free. Our pre-show marketing was to people who were qualified prospects. We made appointments to discuss our diamond jewelry programs with buyers that we knew were really interested in our offerings. Small retailers came to us for our custom jewelry design and modeling program. Larger retailers met with us to discuss increasing their ecommerce jewelry business with Hansa. We did not waste 1 single minute at the show this year. Every person we spoke to, ever second we spent, all had utility. And that is the big lesson. I have learned, after spending a decade in folly, and over $2,000,000 in expenditure, that the qualified prospect is the only person to spend time with. All the other effort, all the free crap, all the promotion, all the models, all the magicians, everything, in fact every single marketing action that I made, was a total waste of time. Imagine how much further along Hansa Diamonds would be had I learned this 10 years ago? I would have the money I wasted, and I would have a much larger business. Remember the Glengarry Glen Ross rule: Coffee Is For Closers. Everything you do must lead to sales in the most cost and time effective way.