The major retail show circuit starts up again in January and you may be considering using product shows as a way to meet new retailers. Likewise, retailers, refreshed from the holiday selling season attend the shows looking for new products to introduce for their next selling season.

Winter is a great time to bring in new things so customers can get used to seeing them and become acquainted with them. Many retailers use this season to "test retail" a product in a controlled setting before stocking up to sell it in full force during the next holiday season. (Most Christmas buying takes place in late spring and early summer, and so before having to commit to any volume of an item, a retailer likes to be able to confirm it fits his/her store and their customers find the item attractive.)

Few shows really reach a national audience and so you may find that you have to exhibit at more than one to cover the territory you service.

If you have set up a rep network, your costs will be more affordable since many rep firms set up their own booths and you can participate in theirs. If you do it this way, you still want to attend the show so you can present the product to customers yourself and at the same time train your reps to be more familiar with the product line.

Direct customer feedback is valuable and shows are an easy way to get it. The informal time you spend in the booth helps you get acquainted with your reps and bond to them better.

Spending time in a rep's booth will also help you to get to know the other manufacturers that your rep handles - you can use the slow times to network with them and trade ideas and market strategies.

Remember that traffic at shows comes in spurts (except on the busiest days) and that you are limited to talking to a finite number of people at a time. For this reason, it is important to plan ways to make it easy for an attendee to get the basic information on their own so that if everyone working the booth is busy, they can still walk away with relevant information.

Be sure to make your displays as vertical as you can so that they are at eye level with the show attendees - who will be standing and walking - and not necessarily stopping unless they see something worth looking at. If your merchandise is on a table, it won't be seen as well from the aisle.

Add story boards that tell someone briefly and cleanly what your product is and why someone would want to buy it - the information may be on the product but reading it there would require picking it up and looking at it closely.

Put pricing in a visible spot following the standards of the show. Typically you use wholesale pricing but if you do put the retail price out, make sure you specify it is retail so that you don't lose potential customers who'll think they'll have to double the stated price to sell the item.

Put data sheets, including pricing and ordering information, out where a walker-by can easily pick one up and take it home. A lot of retailers will walk a show, pick up literature on products they find interesting, then go back to the hotel and plan their second day to go back to those booths they are serious about. If you don't provide them literature, you'll hinder their ability to decide to take a closer look.

Also, a lot of retailers use shows as an information gathering event and do not place any orders until they get home and can think through what they're doing. If you don't provide good written information, these retailers can't buy from you.

I've always been amazed at manufacturers that will invest large sums of money in setting up at a show, pay people to work in their booths - and then refuse to provide the attendees with literature because it costs too much to print!

Many will hand it out only in return for a business card - which would be ok if they intended to do something with the card - like a follow-up mailing or sales call - but usually nothing comes from turning over the card.

The most frustrating are those that tell you they don't have literature at the show but will mail it - and then either don't mail it or mail it six months later after you've lost all memory and interest in their product.

Sure, many of the data sheets you hand out will not result in an order - and there are attendees that may be "chronic literature collectors" - but even in a direct mail campaign a four percent return is considered good, so don't think you should only give literature to a "sure thing".

Very few retail products are unique and most have many qualified "substitutes" a retailer can put in their store to reach the same customers. In these instances the retailer will buy what they perceive is both the best - and the most workable - product to carry.

Finally, while you're at the show, be pleasant and helpful and have fun! Shows should be the time to showplace your product and reap the benefits of all the behind-the-scenes work you've employed to get it there.