Go Big or Go Home

Go Big or Go Home.  In entrepreneurial circles you hear that statement a lot.  It means that in order to get noticed you need to be extravagant.  Don’t lie, cheat or steal, but find a way to make the most of your assets.  It may mean that you have to increase your assets in order to be able to sell them in a big way.

Recently, I have had the opportunity to see this in action in a couple of venues.  I wrote last week about the DePaul e-Motion event.  One of the new ideas that the Coleman Center staff cooked up this year was an opportunity for some of the fledgling companies that they mentor to have a table to showcase their company to the guests.  These guests, presumably had an interest in supporting entrepreneurial ventures and had an opportunity to vote using play money on the best presentations.  There were about 15 companies in the exhibition area.  Each had an earnest young pitch person behind the table ready to talk about their venture.

It was obvious which teams came prepared to Go Big.  One had her entire table covered with pictures of the events that she produced, in full color.  She was dressed in business attire and handled questions from the audience like a pro.  Another had various samples of her products on the tables for people to touch and examine.  She was able to easily describe her company and the benefits she was able to bring to both her customers as well as her vendors.  A third had a sample of his product on his table and could clearly talk about his customer, their drivers and how his service differed from the competition.  These folks came prepared to do business and make a splash to an audience that was already predisposed to hear the message. The best presenters received significantly more play “venture capital” than the less prepared companies.

Others looked like they had not planned for this event or worse, had spent the previous night pulling an all-nighter to get the minimum amount done.  Most did not have materials to hand out or samples or even table decorations. This is basic blocking and tackling. Entrepreneurs need to be able to understand how to display impressively at these types of events in order to be successful.

It is not only the entrepreneurs who need this lesson.  This week I was able to go to the National Restaurant Association Show.  I like going to this show.  It is not just the samples (although there sure were a lot of them). It is an opportunity to see what is important to companies in the restaurant industry —  both to the companies who display at these types of trade shows and the restaurant owners who attend.

A couple of lessons from this show.

There were several times that we took samples from food vendors and the food was awful.  Not just ok, but truly awful, face crunching awful.  It might have been due to sitting out for a while or lack of proper attention from cooking in a non-traditional setting.  It actually doesn’t matter.  OK food at this show was table stakes — the price of being at the show.  You at least had to have ok food.  The best purveyors had taken the time to show off their best and they were able to get customers to pay attention.  They went big.  The others just showed up and spent a ton of money just to say that they were there.  The result was marketing dollars poorly spent.

The big guys are not immune, either. You can’t get bigger than Coke and Pepsi.  It was amazing to see the difference in their booths. Coke’s booth was huge, colorful, full of product and showing off new dispensing systems and flavors.  People were carrying around large shopping bags with Coke on them. Pepsi’s booth was about the same size. There were few people around.  They had a small dispenser station for the carbonated beverages.  Their iced tea was on a small uncovered table in two stainless steel dispensers. A very different vision for the visitor.

Pepsi probably spent 80% of what Coke spent.  They both had to have staff there, both had to have product shipped in, both had to deal with the unions in Chicago, both had to rent space.  The difference in the spending of the additional 20% was huge. Given the sizes of Coke and Pepsi, the 20% is a rounding error, even in these difficult financial times.

Moral: If you are not going to go in with your A game, it probably is better not even to show up.  There are 3 potential outcomes.  First, you don’t show up.  Nobody knows about you, but then nobody has made a value judgment about you.  Second, you go all out and bring your best.  Everybody knows about you and hopefully talks about you.  Third, you limp in.  People know about you and don’t like what they know.  You spend the money and people come away not liking what they now know.  There is even a good case to be made that if you aren’t going to Go Big, then don’t go at all.  At least people don’t know anything about you and may be willing to take a chance on you and your product or service.


Photos courtesy of Howard Bender

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