Back to work…after a month without any tradeshows, it’s starting to warm up again. I have a Senior Expo tomorrow, then I’m doing the GLAMER (Group Leaders of America) shows in Baltimore and Philadelphia Thursday and Friday.

I don’t think I’ve found many things in the Group Sales World that seem to “polarize” people as much as GLAMER shows do. Either you love ‘em like crazy, or you absolutely despise them. I used to be on the other side of the fence…many years ago, I did the GLAMER show in Philadelphia (had a booth next to the Dutch Apple, actually…amazing how often things come around full circle). I thought the show was hideous, and swore I’d never do them again. Worse than a trick-or-treat show, it was just a mess. The group leaders who attended did not care about anything except what freebies we had, and actually walked away while I was trying to tell them about the Choo Choo Barn. Rude? Oh, yeah.

But Joan Payne, the Dutch Apple’s Group Sales Director at the time (and one of my mentors in the biz) loved GLAMER shows, and did upwards of 6-8 of them every year. She booked business, she made friends, and she did very well with the shows. She and I talked after the show in Philly, and she tried to explain how to work with people like that.

It was the first time I had ever encountered what’s now referred to in Marketingspeech as an “elevator pitch”. Can you sell your property in 30 seconds or less? The name, if you’ve never heard it before, refers to being able to pitch your property in the time it takes for the elevator to get to the ground floor of the hotel where you and your “target” are staying. A booth at GLAMER really required being fluent in your elevator pitch!

Fast forward several years…GLAMER has changed, and so have I. I’ve got a ton more experience, I have my elevator pitch down cold, and GLAMER isn’t a freebies show any longer. No booths, no pop-ups, no displays at all. You sit, and the group leaders have signature cards. In fact, they can’t win any goodies at lunch unless they speak with everyone there. I love signature cards…they guarantee you a “captive audience”. They walk up to your table, hand you their card, and they aren’t going anywhere until you give that card back! They have to listen to you, ’cause you’re holding them up with that card.

Now, don’t be abusive, and don’t hold them an excessive amount of time, but that card guarantees you have time to tell them about your property, and give them your information (not necessarily your swag…you can actually give them brochures, schedules, and other promotional information).

But GLAMER is home to another important Group Sales skill that many of us don’t like to talk about. That’s FOLLOWUP! GLAMER leaders are the type of people who must be “touched” at least 3 times before you can expect anything from them. It doesn’t necessarily have to be phone calls, but I always make that call my last “touch”, and it does work. I will send them out a followup letter about a month after the show (once the CD with all the leads arrives), then give them a call about a month after that. No pressure…”just wanted to see if you received the information I sent you about 2009, and see if I could answer any questions for you”.

So I do four GLAMER shows every year, and I really like them! Actually, I was just doing three, but last year, I missed the Baltimore date due to a personal conflict, so I did Washington, DC instead, and it was amazing! Lots of people who knew nothing about us, but wanted a new place to take their groups. So I’m going back there this August, along with Baltimore, Philadelphia and Harrisburg. And I’m going to think about adding a couple more next year, if these continue to work well.

If you’re not doing GLAMER, and you understand about how to work followup the right way, you might give GLAMER a try again. I know that the suppliers I talk to at the shows do speak very highly of it! Might be worth a shot to boost your traffic! Of course, as with everything in this business, YMMV! If you don’t know what that means, please hire me for the Group Sales Seminar, and I’ll teach you…

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