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Vendor Relations: A Round Table ReportCruz Moncivais, CUGGDecember 1998 |
How to Hold Good
Meetings
Presented by Gene Barlow
1998 APCUG convention
SYNOPSIS
How to you get members to
attend? How do you increase your membership and increase your meeting
attendance? Provide professional presentations covering areas of
interest and
offer something of value for free. So how do you attract vendors to
your
meetings?
THE VENDOR’S PERSPECTIVE
The vendor is facing several expenses to send a
representative to meetings. These are Staff, Travel, Materials, and
housing.
The paid staff will on average take 15-20 hours of time to prepare,
travel and
present the information in question. The average cost of pure salary is
approximately $380-$475. The cost of airfare is $200-$400, Hotel
$80-$120, Car
Rental $40-$60, Meals $30-$40, and other miscellaneous costs of
$30-$40.
Material Cost per presentation includes laptop ($40-$60), projector
($40-$60),
door prizes ($10-$20), and Handouts ($5-$20). These are not the total
items
that a vender has to consider other issues include shipping and
handling,
rentals and damages. All in all it is not unusual for a vendor to spend
$1000-$1200 per presentation.
The purpose of the vendor’s presentation is to sell their product in an educational environment. That is to educate the consumer about their particular product and convince the consumer to purchase their product. So each vendor must justify the expense as a means to generate income.
THE VENDOR’S JUSTIFICATIONS
Users group good will and not
bad will is worth at least $100. Opportunity
to gain customers:
a minimum one-hour pitch to a real live audience estimated value $3 per
person
per hour. Opportunity to sell
products directly to
audience estimated value $30.00 per sale.
So a presentation to 100 individuals at $3.00 per head value and an estimated 25% sales per presentation is worth $300.00 for the audience and $750 in sales. Total income opportunity is around $1250.00.
If a vendor is not able to do direct sales then the size of the audience must increase to make up the difference.
WHAT CAN USER GROUPS DO TO ATTRACT VENDORS
First and foremost provide a sizable audience for the
vendor to present to. From
some user
groups it is easier than others. The magic number is 350 plus. To
combine with
other users groups or perhaps coordinate with other user groups to
schedule
presentations in sequence so that the total number of possible audience
can be
as close to the magic number. Encourage your members to turn out. Promote, promote, promote!
Encourage members
interested in the product to have check or cash on hand to purchase the
product. More sales—happier vendor. Arrange to reach a larger audience
via
radio promo or local cable company promo. Make it more attractive to
the vendor
so that it would be difficult to say no.
Finally be honest to the vendor as to the expected turn out. Vendors hate to pay shipping twice for the materials shipped out to the event and back home again. It costs money to produce the paper, floppy discs, and CD-ROMs. Don't throw away the materials handed out by the vendor in front of the presenter or where the presenter can see it. It gives the wrong message to the vendor. Be willing to do self presentation kits many vendors put together quality self presentation kits with scripts, PowerPoint presentations, and hand outs that an average individual can present successfully and professionally.
Vendors do share their experiences and one bad experience will be shared even among competitors.