Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/255289
20 | www.cedmag.com | Construction Equipment Distribution | February 2014 Dealer's Guide to CONEXPO The size of 44 football fields, CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2014 will wear out both your budget and your feet if you are not prepared. Planning is the key to maximizing your invest- ment. For dealers, this means having a game plan for getting in front of customers, taking advantage of every opportunity manufacturer partners provide, and checking out the competi- tion. With 2,400 exhibits and 130,000 attendees, your work is indeed cut out for you. "The key is getting time with customers in an environ- ment away from a purchasing or competitive situation," said Jim Maxwell, sales manager of Woburn, Ma.-based dealer C.N. Wood. "It is informational, relaxed – a fun and different environment. You try and lock them in as much as possible." That's no easy task given that most of your competitors have the same objective. Maxwell will reach out to customers well in advance of the show to make plans, and will spend at least some of his time in manufacturer booths with customers. Other time will be spent entertaining customers and attend- ing manufacturer-sponsored events. Eric Glitman, founder and managing director of Fletcher CSI, a firm specializing in competitive sales intelligence (CSI), believes very few individuals take full advantage of tradeshows. "If you are serious about using tradeshows to collect competitive intelligence you need to have a separate team to focus on that," said Glitman. "Identify the business informa- tion they are supposed to obtain. You should have specific, defined questions you are going after." Having worked on the manufacturing side of the busi- ness, one dealer sales manager we interviewed for this article understands the right and wrong way to capture competitive information. "What I am not going to do is walk in a competitor's booth and let someone invest an hour with me while I pretend to be an end-user." Respectfully walking through a competitive booth, grabbing literature and taking note A dealer's guide to getting the most out of the largest tradeshow in the Northern Hemisphere, including tips for gaining competitive intelligence. BY JOANNE COSTIN (continued on page 22) Mastering the Mammoth CONEXPO-CON/AGG Show CONEXPO FACTS Dates: March 4-8, 2014 Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily Website: www.conexpoconagg.com