Homeshows

don_9

Good morning,I need some help.I want to setup a display at
a home show to push more radiant infloor in my area.

Do any of you gentleman do homeshow and/or have any advice or pictures that would help me to setup a display?Maybe have any paper work that would help to explain to the homeowner the advantage of wetheat over other system out there that or being sold in todays market place?

I need help fellows in the marketing aspect of the business.
All advice positive or negative would be greatly appreciated.

I posted my email address if you prefer to email me personally.

Thanks in advance.Don

Mark Eatherton1

Everyone should do at lest 1 home show...

It used to be an annual thing for me. THen we started tracking our leads to see if it was worth while, adn determiend it not to be worthwhile. 7 long hard days, and 2 meager jobs. I tell my partner that the exposure is a good thing, and he tells me that exposure will get you arrested, or sun burned...

We did have a small demonstrator that was connected to a 6 gallon water heater. It sat on the flor, and we'd invite prospective buyers to kick off their shoes and stand on the radiator. They LOVED it. Who knows, maybe that exposure will come back to haunt us in the future. It was 3' square, had 3/8" tubing stapled down, and covered with concrete 1-1/2" thich and covered with ceramic tile.

Sorry, don't have any pictures.

You'll never know until you try. It is fun talking to all the people, but most of them are looky loos.

Good luck and report back and let us know how you did. Your tubing/boiler supplier should be able to fix you up with consumer oriented literature. You can usualy get the supplier or manufacturer to co-op the cost if any.

ME

BillW@honeywell

John Wanamaker...

of Wanamaker's Department Store fame was quoted that "I know half of my advertising money goes to waste, my problem is that I don't know which half it is!" Home shows are a necessary evil for the heating contractor. They're expensive, time consuming and have few measurable results, but you are conspicuous by your absence. I just attended the largest home show that's held in my area, and out of 400 exhibitors, exactly two were heating contractors, only one of which showed radiant in-floor heat, with an exhibit like ME described. You have to compete with the "eye-candy" like hardwood floors, patios, hot tubs and designer kitchens, so your booth should be attractive. A good quality, "tabletop" display can be had for about $1500, and you can velcro pix of your work on there, or burn a cd, and show it on your laptop. Consider a website, check out some of the fine examples in "Find a Contractor", above. Trifold color brochures, and buisness cards are a must. Check with the manufacturers that you work with; some may offer co-op $. Use some form of lead-capturing, either paper or electronic. Sure, you get lots of "tire-kickers", but on average 3 out of ten are serious canditates, and one out of ten becomes a job.

Good luck! Marketing is an important part of the contracting business. Expensive, time consuming, hard to measure, but vital.

JimmyJam

Homeshow

I have been doing homeshows for about 9 years now and have seen a big change in consumer awareness. The first 7 years displaying radiant heating systems I would have people lined up asking just what in the world this stuff is all about. The last 2 years things have changed in that most people will say " I know my neighbor has this system and just LOVES it" if I ever build a new home I will definately install a radiant system.
We started out with table top displays we made up showing different installation techniques and had a 3 gallon electric water heater and pump running to show how warm the floors would be, this year I worked a homeshow with our Wirsbo rep and they had a 4 X 8 sheet of plywood with QuikTrak and tubing installed and just had it sitting on the floor. I could not believe how many people would just stop and look at this. It worked very well and sparked alot of great conversation.
Check with your local sales rep about availability of a professional backdrop to spruce things up.

Mi39ke

Thoughts

Our display is getting crowded. Too "busy." It works, though. Some thoughts:

Don’t consider doing a home show if you can’t stand out from your competitors. In our market, we are on a different wavelength than our peers. It works for us. You may live in a spectacular hydronic market and look much the same as everyone else. Skip the shows in this case or find a way to be different.

Don’t post any Manufacturer signage unless you are reimbursed for the advertising. You are the “brand” and the person who specifies the correct product for the appropriate application.

Do have a working, warmed-up display. We display a cold and warm floor with various floor coverings: tile, cork, linoleum and bamboo. IR temp device required to show off the floor temperature.

Don’t warm up your radiators too hot. We run the floor and radiators at a little below 120-degrees. Floor then tops out at 87 degrees, typically.

Do come prepared to solve problems and educate. The more you talk problem solving, the more your credibility increases. Can’t emphasize this enough.

Do be prepared to do this for 3-years without proper prospects. Most people at home shows are in the planning stages. This is the first year where we thought of not doing the shows, because we have so many people returning to us. Needless to say, we are thinking of doing more shows to invest in the next few years. We’ve seen the worth, in our particular market.

Do have samples of various floor applications, the good, the bad, the ugly and whatever. You wouldn’t believe how many times you will be playing with these samples as you describe various heat transfer techniques.

Do encourage people to touch items and take off their shoes.

Do have a vertical radiator for the people to lean their backs up against. Watch the smile spread as the light from above your display shines on their radiant faces.

Do have a powerpoint slide show (photos of your jobs at least) running to keep people in the booth while you take care of others.

Do be prepared to be swamped, and bring food and fruit to snack upon so that you don’t have to leave the booth.

Do attempt to get people to your office, rather than spending an hour talking at the home show. Schedule the appointments!

Do advertise in the home show program book.

Do try and get your devoted clients to work your booth with you—this is the ultimate, but usually the hardest thing to accomplish.

Do network with other folks at the home show. Flooring people are some of the most important, IMO.

Michael Ward

George_10

Lack of proper followup and waiting for the prospect

to act first is the real reason for shows not being more successful.

Another factor is the failure of the booth people to invite people in the isle to step in and participate. I suggest adopting a carney attitude and smiling a lot. Friendlyness and smiles will get the desired effect. There are many aspects to running a show and getting the bang for the buck.

The above two are on the top of my list.

hr

A real nice booth, Mike

I agree working, hands on, displays are crowd getters

In our rual area I found the FarmFest was a good investment of time for me. It got me into the light commercial shop market. So far 6 nice jobs from last falls show!

It also brings out the alternate energy crowd. I sold one waste oil and wood fired systems through this show.

By the way keep your eye peeled for a nice, high efficiency, stainless, wood fired boiler due out real soon. UL and ASME, probably!

Watch out for the time wasters! They want a complete "how to" lesson while taking up booth space. My wife had to rescue me from a couple of these folks. I just keep talking away.

hot rod

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don_97

Thanks everyone

for sharing your knowledge and experience.Mike I also like to thank you for sharing the pics WOW thats a nice booth.

One thing I can say about you guys here at the wall you always seen to get me pump,pun intended.

Thanks again,and Mike would you be willin to rent out your booth? Just kidding!

joel_19

hey mike!!

Nice booth in one of your pictures you have a Sanyo airhandler and an LG A/C on the bottom what is the real thin sleak unit in the middle of them I've never seen one???

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Irontom

Home shows

Irontom

Irontom

home shows

I think your time will be well spent doing this Don. It might not seem like it right away, but it is amazing how many of your business cards come back to you even up to three years later. It is a good place to find serious prospects.

If you have the time, I found that building some displays to peak peoples curiosity worked really well to get people to stop. Everyone would stop to see what all that shiny copper was about.

Talk to your wholesaler to see if they will help out with co-op money and display materials. If they are even half as generous as the people that I am fortunate enough to deal with, you will have an awsome booth

Mark Eatherton1

Welll GOLLLLLllly

I ain't seen so many pretty displays since ISH:-)

Hey HR, I smell a new category for the RPA members. Best Mobile Display...

I can't touch any of these...

ME

hr

Excellent idea, Mark

the showcase comitte just re-did the categories for this year, maybe you should suggest it to them!

It would also drive more contractors to get creative and build displays if we created the category. Competition really drives creativity.

Wise man you are guru.

hot rod

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hr

That's a great display, Tom

Big Sky clever! What powers it and do you have a trailer to haul it around? I may copy that and make it mobile for my next FarmFest. If I may?

hot rod

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Mi39ke

hr

Thanks, hr.

Would appreciate any info on the new wave of wood boilers when you get the info in hand. The demand will probably be incredible. -- Mike

Mi39ke

joel

The sleek unit is an LG as well. Three LG's and a Sanyo are displayed with a Sanyo condensing unit, of course. Hmmm...hope I get a check for mentioning them! [chuckle]

I guess they (LG) won't let us have all the multi-colored covers for the time being. What a pity. -- Mike

Irontom

Not a working display

Hi Hot Rod

This isn't a working display, but was meant only as a visual aid to show how a system is installed, and the proper installation of various floor coverings. It proved to be a very helpful tool to help explain proper installation to all these future homeowners.

You would be more than welcome to copy it, but if you could figure out a way to get it home, you could have this one. I no longer have room to store it and I haven't had the time to make our home show the last couple years.(it must have worked, I can't keep up with all the work.) If you can't, the same offer goes to anyone else that could use it.