40 Characters that attend Trade Shows
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Did you read our previous article about the crazy trade fair participants? This is the other half of our famed article. |
| Trade shows are amazing places to make business, the energy, the flow of people are just amazing, and like everywhere there are too many people, such as The Curious Customer; So curious that decides it is a brilliant idea to brake open your product, to make an endoscopy or to take out its guts all together, all happening meanwhile some non-buyer locks you in a political or philosophical speech from which you hardly escape; but it is already too late and whatever bad thing that could happen already happened; damage is done, you figure out that the do not touch sticker is lying next to your dead product, stepped as if someone is giving you a message. |
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| The Incognito Competitor; You already know this person, comes every year to the event, checks products and goes, never buys anything (and actually most refuse to sell to this person) but whenever this person visits your booth, the products of their company got a new feature, an updated design exactly as your latest innovation. These are the leechers of innovation, they suck design, they copy features, they are most likely the biggest enemy you can ever face, they show no respects, they have no regrets. |
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The Friendly Competitor; It has been too much time you have been competing that your rivalry turns into a some sort of sick yet reliable jealous relationship trying to cheat on others clients as kindly as possible. They only last if both companies are operated by gentleman; women are too smart to make friends out of past enemies.
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| The Foreigner; Lost the translator somewhere or even did not got one to begin with, this one cannot form a sentence except for several phrases such as; how much, yes, no, this, thank you, and of course the name of the native country of origin which is pronounced in that native language. But do not lose this one, can be a true buyer actually. |
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| The Entrepreneur Translator; This guy was hired to translate for your foreign clients but all this one can think is to how to cut a deal, how to get a commission or how to get something more from the very simple job given, when the translator asks a commission you better say we will think about it because otherwise you cannot understand when the translator talks to the other party about a company that offer better price, reliable delivery or better product but you know something is off, you feel the pain. |
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| The Passive Aggressive Seller; You talk to this one and everything is green until you do not want to buy anything from them, at this point, things get sour and these people get very angry, they barely control their anger, and can even make rude remarks, when all this happens, just take a step back, and try to escape from there before you got trashed. |
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| The Crocodile Distributor; There to make a fraud, strategy is simple; small orders first and orders grow and grow, trust is built over time, and then a final big hefty order; a bit bigger then the previous but hundred times bigger than the first, enough to buy most of your production, if you send the order without getting paid, that is when you get bankrupt; indeed as this people build trust first, they could hurt you the most. |
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| The Job Seeker; You attended the fair to sell products, this one to sell self; approaches at the wrong time when you are busiest talking with clients, gets offended easily, the fastest way to let go is to accept the CV and say you would contact in future after checking all candidates, no one contacts them because of the lack of respect this person has; instead of applying to your company via proposer channels, this one steals your most expensive time; the time when you would meet new clients and buyers at your trade booth. |
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| The Escaping Buyer, you will only feel his or her presence when the edge of your eye catches that some important looking visitor just left your booth without getting due attention. It is now too late, while you were getting mind overwrite by useless people an important business opportunity just flies away. Luckily your system works; the staff, following your strict guidelines and canned pre-prepared speech was able to grab that precious business card. You grab onto that card, put a star on it, stamp it to some special sheet of paper and rinse and repeat. |
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| The Big Fat Capitalist; Do not let the name deceive you, these people might be big and fat or thin and slim, but they all have one thing common; appetite for information; they want to discuss over lunch or dinner, so that they can get as much from you as possible; you better avoid this one as this gluttonous being also eats your time for an order that will never come. |
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| The Bargainer; This is a really really really small client that wants to bargain really really really big. Bargaining is a pleasure and the way of life for this person, it never stops; first of all bargains about having a longer meeting, then bargains about where to meet, then bargains about the products, then bargains with anyone that interacts with this person; you give him free water, he will ask more; because that is the way of life of a hardcore bargainer, never happy from a deal but always happy bargaining for one. |
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| The Non Buyer; This is not a customer or a client but just acts like one, reasons vary; maybe trying to learn more about the product to build one, maybe waiting for time to pass or maybe testing your lowest price so that could tell others about it to bargain better with you, a terrible terrible person that drains your energy early on in the trade show, this person will not buy your product even if you give it for free. Reluctant to share his contact details and opts out from marketing. |
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| The Binge Eater; This gluttonous person is blind to everything except for food, comes to your booth, devouring everything you could offer, the worst is when asks a few questions just to justify his or her miserable behaviour and sorry existence, and the question leads to further stealing your time. You just need to say you got to go, and let a minion take over the question, as sometimes, could be important. |
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| The Problem; Someone that wishes to steal the precious business deal time of your manager, brings his or issues to fair, asking a resolution for some problem at the worst time possible, looking for the opportunity to create a commotion, rude, waits press members or authority to be present in your booth before trying to burn you alive. |
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| The Time Thief; Wears nicely, talks gently, it never stops, questions came and go, talks about his or her story, seeking friends and a person to talk to, using you as a free therapist for telling endless uninteresting stuff while you miss important visitors. This people can make you lose so much business within the not so short time of conversation, but they are handy to pass time when there are no visitors around. |
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| The Business Partner Seeker; You can find this person in the food court or a shady corner of the fair, got ideas, got connections, got a viable product, got a solid business plan, figured out everything but all needed is your hard earned money. All it takes a handshake and a simple signature before you loose everything, wealth, partner included. |
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| The Idea Hunter; What do you think about that, what do you think about this, asks thousand questions about everything that relates to your business from start to finish, there to drain intellectual capacity of your best minds, researchers and managers, a non-buyer, perhaps a businessman that considers to enter your line of work or an entrepreneur who wishes to open a new factory or an investor that is just sniffing the market. |
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| The F*cker; Away from partner for business trip, looking for an opportunity to scr*w anyone; hits booth girls, secretaries, translators, booth staff, your workers, other visitors, and anything else, some play the rich, and some ask sellers to arrange them intercourse partners, they bloat about prior scores, and simply put are truly the worst of mankind. The only trade this person is interested is that of the oldest one. |
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| The So Sorry; Sweet looking dangerous person, breaks stuff, talks out loud, takes / steals products by mistake (I thought it was free), apologizes gladly. - The Mr. No Business Card; Refuses to give you a business card as if his card is made out of gold, acts important but actually a stupid person that does not understand what trade shows are about as well as the etiquette. Can be ignored without a problem, will not bring any business anyways. |
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| The Mr. Nobody; Refuses to talk, avoids contact, has three canned responses: just checking, no thank you, I am fine. - The Frozen Robot; Non responsive, does not reply or ignore you totally, makes you question your very own existence. They exists and they stop among us. - I hope you enjoyed these inaccurate, stereotypes that do not reflect the reality any bit. Remember to check our other article for more. |
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This article was added on Friday, 17th of June, 2016 at 12.58 pm by author 
