Too many times at trade shows I wonder why some people are exhibiting. Based on some of their behavior, I’m not always sure if they even are exhibitors. Companies exhibit at trade shows to make money. So here are some do’s and don’ts to make the best out of your company’s trade show experience.

Wear your badge where it can be seen. Your potential customers want to know your name and location.

Have plenty of business cards available in the booth, as well as brochures if you have them. No one can buy from you if they don’t know what you are selling or how to reach your company.

Do not sit on a chair with your back to the people walking by. That says you aren’t interested in customers.

Stay off of your phone unless you are looking for something specific to show a customer. I went to a vendor’s booth that I purchased from every year because I needed a new catalog. When I walked up to the booth, the two sales reps were on their phones with their back to the booth. One turned around, looked at me and went back to his phone. I bought over $28,000 worth of trees that year and I didn’t buy trees from them ever again.

Do not eat in the booth unless you are left alone and have no choice. I walked past a booth earlier this year and all four members of a company were in their booth eating. Not one looked up, which told me that they didn’t care about customers. Take turns eating, preferably at a table near food vendors.

If you have to leave your booth, leave a sign that says, “Back in 15 minutes.” I have seen some booths that were set up but never occupied by the exhibitor even though I went back several times over a two-day period.

Say hello and smile. Look people in the eye. Shake their hand. There’s nothing like a good handshake to tell a potential customer that you are interested in doing business with them.

For a long time, this industry has been male oriented, but now there are almost as many women who own businesses whether it be a greenhouse, garden center nursery or allied business. They might be someone’s wife or daughter, but they are there for the same reason as everyone else — looking for new products/equipment. Never assume.

If you are a company owner and not attending the show, you should set some goals for your staff. Introducing a new product? Increasing sales? Product demonstrations? All of these should be discussed long before they leave for the convention. Training for a trade show is just as important as being there.

If you have someone who is a real “people person” but not necessarily a sales person, consider sending them to the show to make the first contact with customers.

If you are selling your booth, have one person in charge so it is orderly at the end of the show.

At the end of the show follow up on the leads you get whether they are small or large. You have a 10% attrition rate each season, so these leads are your lifeline to future success.

Denise is a freelance writer and horticulturist from Pittsburgh. www.edibleflowers1.com

Q: When is the ideal time to start a succession plan?

A: Today. It’s more than just the succession of the company, it’s the succession of the roles that each of the employees currently play within the organization. My take on succession planning is ‘tactically, what are we doing to make sure that we have the most competent people in those roles that are needed and what’s plan B in case they leave? And strategically, what’s the strength of the organization overall if I were to look to sell it?’

Q: What should business owners do to prepare?

A: Business owners can study because there’s plenty of stuff online. They can engage with a professional who is able to help navigate the choppy waters of succession planning if it involves family members because that can become chaotic. Navigating the waters of family is a unique skill set for somebody to help with, which I do specialize in. Family dynamics relating to the succession and sale of a business becomes chaotic because at that point, you become part psychologist, strategist, consultant and consoler. If it’s a business with no family involved and someone wants to maximize their sale price, then they should lean more toward a financial planner, attorney or business broker. The road you’re on depends on who you’d chose to help prepare.

Q: What’s a common mistake when crating a plan?

A: Bringing emotion to the game plan. It’s difficult to separate the business from the person, especially in the horticulture industry because a lot of folks have been in it for years and they’re emotionally connected. At some point, the business becomes an emotional child in the family, but everything is a business decision. The most challenging part is trying to extract emotion from the equation.

Q: How often should business owners review and/or change the plan?

A: No less than annually, but it would be more advantageous if it was biannually.

Q: Why do you advise that time frame?

A: Things change, economies shift, employees leave, markets adapt and some folks often wait until it’s too late. A lot of things can change in a year and if you’re only looking at things on an annual basis, you’re missing trends that are happening right in front of you. I advise my clients to meet every six months to discuss where they are, their game plan, what needs to change and what needs to be added. We discuss this in three steps called “start, stop and continue.” What should we start doing that we’re not doing now? What should we stop doing since it’s not working, and what should we continue doing based on the fact that it is working?

Q: Are there different challenges in the nursery industry compared to other industries that make succession planning more difficult?

A: Yes. The horticulture industry is more often a family-owned and operated small business. As stated before, the business becomes another family member. Sometimes the next generation is great and sometimes they’re not the right fit. Having the same last name doesn’t automatically make them the best candidate to take the business to the next level, so it’s important to understand and acknowledge this to maintain success.

Want To Go? “Putting Success in Your Succession Plan” Monday, July 15, 9:45-10:45 a.m., Short North Ballroom A

Q: How serious is rose rosette to the rose market?

A: The rose industry is worth about $750 million. We estimate conservatively that we lose about 15 percent of that figure each year to rose rosette. Some areas of the country are hit harder than the others.

Q: What areas are hit the hardest?

A: The areas that are hit the hardest are the southern Midwest and the mid-south, which stretches from Texas and Oklahoma, all the way to the East Coast.

Q: Why do you think these areas are hit the hardest?

A: Oh, we would love to know that.

Q: What are some of the new developments in understanding this disease?

A: There’s several things. From a short-term approach, we now have the best management plans for landscapers, rosariums and rosarians that involve early detection and removal of plants. We’ve also identified miticides that suppress movement of the disease. We’ve identified resistant roses, but they’re not roses that people can currently buy. That means they’re not available on the market. They have a lot of things that people would not like, so we have a lot of breeding to do to incorporate those chains into things people would want.

Q: What do wholesale growers need to understand about rose rosette?

A: The first thing that needs to be understood is that they have to be constantly vigilant. In 2017, a wholesale grower in California lost more than a million dollars because they were not being vigilant. The disease and the mite were not known to occur where they were, but they were brought in on plant material. The same thing can happen to wholesale container nurseries. We had a container nursery in Georgia last year that suffered a $400,000 loss. Not many wholesale container nurseries can survive with those kinds of losses each year. So, what we tell people is they have to be constantly vigilant and if you’re not, this disease can bankrupt you.

Q: How can the industry reassure consumers that roses are still safe to plant?

A: What we tell them is that there are best management practices in place. They can get these from their extension service, by consulting rosarians with the American Rose Society and by asking rose companies for information. We have found that people don’t have to spray miticides, but regularly scout their roses on a weekly basis to catch and remove it. You have to understand this virus can not move itself. It’s not spread on pruners or by people’s hands, it’s spread by microscopic eriophyid mites that have no wings, eyes, ears or nose. It randomly blows around like dust particles. The odds of them encountering a rose is not high, but once it does, the populations will build quickly. So, if you see symptoms of rose rosette, you have to remove that rose early. We recently published a fact sheet on early detection to aid landscapers and consumers on what to look for and what to do when they find it. If they do this, they can stop the epidemic in its tracks.

Want To Go? “Winning the Battle with Rose Rosette Disease” Sunday, July 14, 10:45 - 11:45 a.m., A115

Q: Please provide a short history of the Chicago Botanic Garden trial program.

A: The trials have been in existence since 1982. They’ve always been a comparative trial, so they were always collecting as many plants within a specific plant group that they could, that were commercially available. Then, they were grown outside in an all-outdoor trial. When perennials became big in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s and hit the big market, that’s when our program became primarily perennials and less woody plants. It’s always been a program to recommend the best perennials specifically for our region, but also any region with a similar environment.

Q: How do you choose which perennials to trial?

A: The selection process varies and there’s a couple of reasons why we choose specific plants. A lot of them are just plants that are very popular and of common knowledge to the average homeowner and gardener – phlox, salvia, coneflowers – flowers that the average person have seen before and will recognize. Plant groups that nobody knows about has also become a big choice for us. Everything we do has to fit into our cultural and environmental characteristics which right now, is full sun, so we’re not looking at shade plants at all. Sometimes a trial is determined by a disease issue. When we did phlox, it was primarily to find ones that were resistant to powdery mildew.

Q: In what conditions are the plants trialed?

A: Our trial garden right now is full sun and clay loam. Our pH is about 7.4 and it’s a fully exposed site, which means there’s no microclimates in our garden. The plants are planted in those conditions and everything gets the same environment.

Q: How can growers get the trial results?

A: Our results are all available on our website. There are all of the official reports we’ve written and published in Plant Evaluation Notes, which is our publication. Everything is available on our website for downloading and viewing. I also write trial report articles for Fine Gardening magazine, which average two to three a year and are also available on our website.

Q: How can the horticulture industry market a plant’s trial results to the end consumer?

A: I hope people are seeing our results and using them for what they are selling. I hope they’re informing their clients that certain flowers have done well at the Chicago Botanic Garden if they have a similar cultural environment and can also work well for them. I hope our recommendations are being recommended in kind by the green industry to the end client overall.

Want To Go?

“Proven Perennials: Trial Update from Chicago Botanic Garden”

Sunday, July 14, 9:30-10:30 a.m., Union Station Ballroom A