Trade Show Survival Guide : A Tongue-In-Cheek Sales Handbook : Training Made Fun [Paperback]

Matt Hill (Author), Lynn Grandi (Editor), Steve Curl (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 1996

This fun-to-read, Tongue-In-Cheek handbook of trade show selling skills, written by Matthew Hill, President of The Hill Group, covers the following topics (and many more):

*Besides Free Food, Why Go to Pre-Show Meetings?
*SMART Objectives, DUMB Ideas
*Personal Stretch Time: Being Pleasant
*Non-Violent Ways of Getting Attention
*Offending International Visitors
*Qualified or Time-Waster? - You're the Judge and Jury
*Disposing of Human Debris
*Your Demos Probably Suck
*Get Good at Visitor Manipulation
*Establish Your Own Escort Service
*A New Concept: Be Productive
*How to be a Trade Show Idiot

This book should be required reading for: Salespeople, Marketing People, Sales & Marketing Managers, Product Managers, MarCom People, and anyone else foolish enough to work a trade show.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

This is Matt Hill s 20th year of providing exhibit staff training. He has trained over 40,000 from around the world. Some of his clients include Microsoft, eBay, Toshiba Medical Systems, Intel, Mastercard, Lexmark, Hewlett-Packard, Medtronic, Apple, and the U.S. Department of Commerce. Matt has traveled to England, France, Trinidad, Bulgaria, Holland, Switzerland, Dubai and Canada to deliver this program. Matt has published three books: his new eBook: The Top 99 Tips to Trade Show Success , "Trade Show Survival Guide and Do It Right in Front of an Audience. Prior to offering his own services, Matt was a marketing executive at Xerox Corporation. His career in sales spans over 25 years and includes managing a $4 million dollar, 250 person retail merchandise operation. He holds a BA degree in psychology from California State University, Northridge.

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: Hill Group; 3rd edition (September 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964363305
• ISBN-13: 978-0964363304
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #265,596 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Matt Hill has been speaking and training since 1983. He specializes in making his audiences more effective with their face-to-face interpersonal skills. He has trained over 40,000 people in the U.S. and around the world; including England, France, Holland, Switzerland, Dubai, Bulgaria, Germany, Trinidad, Canada and Boston.

His clients include Crane NSWC, Microsoft, eBay, Toshiba Medical Systems, Intel, Medtronic, Mastercard, Lexmark, Hewlett-Packard, CDW, UPS, Genentech, U.S. Department of Commerce, and a bunch of others.

Prior to offering his own services, Matt was a marketing executive at Xerox Corporation. His career in sales spans more than 25 years and includes managing a $4 million dollar, 250 person retail merchandise operation. He holds a BA degree in psychology from California State University, Northridge.

Matt lives in San Jose, CA with his wife, Lynn. They have three children; a daughter fresh out of graduate school, a son about to go to grad school, and another daughter about to begin her second year of college. If you're ever in San Jose and want to take a mountain bike ride or play some tennis, call him.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get More Leads at Trade Shows, December 18, 2001

By 

Stephen Farbizio (Leaping Antelope Productions, Redwood City, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trade Show Survival Guide : A Tongue-In-Cheek Sales Handbook : Training Made Fun (Paperback)

This book is full of very useful information on how to get viable leads at Trade Shows. But what is really unique about this book is how funny it is. This book is wacky and a hoot to read! I had many occurrences of "lol" (laughing out loud). It's easy to read, has lots of cartoons and some fun exercises.

As funny as it is, it's done deliberately to keep your attention so you can learn the process of working trade shows as effectively as possible. The author teaches an 8-step plan for getting leads and closing sales at shows. For example, I thought my main responsibility at a show was to give each visitor my undivided attention for as long as he or she had questions. Not so according to Matt Hill. I was ignoring other people, and possibly better leads, by not qualifying visitors in a more systematic way.

With budgets so tight for conventions these days, this book teaches you how to get the most out of trade shows. I find myself picking it up before I travel to each convention to make sure I'm in the right frame of mind to get the most out of each show. I bought copies for my employees as well. A gentle, fun reminder that their boss does expect them to bring back some viable sales leads.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Productive trade shows, November 15, 2000

By 

Scott McDonald (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trade Show Survival Guide : A Tongue-In-Cheek Sales Handbook : Training Made Fun (Paperback)

This book presents ideas that help make a trade show more productive for any company. We ended up with many more qualified leads and our people spent time with customers who were ready to buy. I should mention that we also contracted The Hill Group (Matt Hill's company) to do some on-site training with our staff. The training was educational and fun.

If you are going to spend money exhibiting at a show, take a look at this book and make sure you are getting the most out of your investment. You should also consider his on-site training.