Your one day in Birmingham can achieve a lot. The simple obvious benefit is that you can get to see all the major suppliers in one pass. You can compare and contrast what's out there. You find out the full range of products on offer. You can see print and embroidery machines operating. Typically exhibitors have sales, marketing and technical staff available so you can talk in full detail about what is on offer.

You will also see new products because shows are the classic time to launch them, which means you'll be ahead of any competitors who don't bother to go. Compared to seeing salesmen at your own premises, this is actually very time efficient, not least because all parties are focused on the same thing and there are no interruptions.

If anyone thinks they have their thumb so firmly on the pulse of the industry that they know everything that's available, I doubt it. To satisfy yourself that you are up to speed is reason enough to visit and I'll take a racing bet that you'll get something new, different or beneficial out of the day.

Something else you may well get is a pistol-hot deal. Plenty of exhibitors offer ‘only at show' deals. Take advantage of this - it'll pay for your diesel as a starter.

The show offers you a lot more, all under one roof. There are commercial and technical seminars - training that would cost far more elsewhere and be far less focused. On plenty of stands there will also be expertise: the machine manufacturers as a case but also the clothing producers.

A visit to the show will also give you access to what your competitors are doing. What are they buying and why? How are they making their businesses more successful? You'll get a bit of inside track on this from fellow visitors (in the bar, maybe) but also from the exhibitors.

Plan your visit to the show. Not many people do - plenty just turn up, amble round, talk to a number of exhibitors, chat to a few mates, try to blag some free samples and go home. What a waste! Even if you do plan to enjoy yourself in the company of peers, this is work. Nothing wrong with a jolly, but the business end is first.

I would strongly recommend having a shopping list. You could do worse than having this written down. "This is what I want, Mr Exhibitor, can you deliver?" Apart from the fact that it'll pop open some eyes, it will save wasted time. In the same way ask lots of awkward questions. For instance, how much marketing support do you give customers? Do you give cumulative discounts? Can we agree 60 days' credit?

You will have some key suppliers who are there. Make appointments in advance to see them on their stands, rather than just turning up. Trust me, they will be delighted. Take information with you regarding how much you've spent with them (they ought to know that) and how much with their competitors. The teams on those stands should be busting a gut to convince you to spend more with them and want to do a deal right now or at least right after the show.

Spend some time on the show handbook before you go into the hall. It's an expensive production and exhibition organizers are driven wild by how little it is used. See your key target exhibitors first, check out the major stands in the middle of the hall and then go for a recce round the edges. This is where the smaller exhibitors are and often where the nuggets of new ideas are to be found. You'll need to have eagle eyes because it's a commonplace for such exhibitors to hide their light under a bushel.

A successful visit to a show is not defined by the weight of the carrier bag you take home. If anything, it's the other way round. Yes, you want the literature that applies to those products that are genuinely of interest but otherwise you're just creating work for the local recycling unit. Make sure you've got a full supply of business cards and ask for the less essential literature to be sent to you after the show.

I sometimes wonder how much planning exhibitors put into a show. There I am, at an exhibition and I've walked onto their stand and what happens? The short answer is often nothing. Folks, you've paid big bucks to be there and more to present yourselves as well as you can and then you fail to sell. Yes, yes, I know that Brits aren't the world's most enthusiastic audience for active selling. But when you go to an exhibition you must be a plank if you don't expect to be sold to.

I suspect this is down to a lack of specific aims for the stand. I would suggest the following can all be achieved in a few minutes. Find out what they've come to the show for. Get their contact details. Convince them to sit down while you tell them the key sales messages you need to impart (somebody sitting gives you more time and they're probably a bit foot weary). Propose a sales visit (get your diary out) or a visit to your factory/warehouse if geographically appropriate. Get them to handle the product or take a trial run on a machine to prove how easy it is to use. What you are not aiming for is just to give everybody a brochure, but I've been on plenty of stands where that seemed to be the only aim.

A classic reason for visitors to come to the show is to see new products. Quite right. Reconsider the definition of ‘new'. Exhibitors invariably think in terms of ‘a product we have just launched'. But the visitor means ‘something I haven't seen before'. That could be several years old, but it doesn't matter. Care is required, but so too is an open mind on what the visitor is looking for.

Go onto a stand at an American show and someone will collar you immediately and say something after the fashion of "John, let me tell you the five key reasons for doing business with us". Get those benefits up front and tell everybody. Personally I'd get some questions in first to establish which of those benefits is most important but that American approach is right.

If at all practicable have a special offer which is only available at the show. Nothing beats actually signing orders to boost staff morale. It also attracts interest from other visitors.

Do you actively drive visits to the show from your customer base? Yes it's the show organiser's job to make the hall busy but you can help yourself. Call people in advance and make appointments for them to visit you. Consider offering an existing customer incentive to visit you. Make your stand busy.

A favourite complaint by visitors is that there was nobody to talk to - all the stand staff were busy. This is exhibitor's Sods Law. Like buses, visitors all turn up together. I saw this solved neatly at one show by having a staffer whose job was essentially a receptionist. If all the sales team were tied up she took the visitor's mobile number and rang him when the stand was quiet. I went back and I thought it was professional.

But my own loudest complaint relates to what happens after the show. Somewhere between 10 days and a fortnight after I will get a standard letter including the brochure I already have. Said letter makes no reference to what I talked about with sales staff and is not followed up with the aim of a sales meeting. Worse still are the exhibitors who make no effort to contact me whatsoever.

I believe this is part of poor planning. I accept that sales follow-up starts with the hottest prospects, but I think the aim should be to make contact by e-mail with everybody whose details you collected within three working days of the show ending. That contact should refer to the conversation held on the stand and remind the visitor what you were showing (he saw dozens of stands and may have forgotten you). The e-mail should be followed up by phone. Since very few exhibitors will do this, you will stand out and I think this process is part of demonstrating good service.

For more information about Printwear & Promotion 2010, call Exhibitions Manager Richard Smith on 01622 699172 or email rsmith@datateam.co.uk. Printwear & Promotion 2010 takes place in Hall 12 of the NEC from February 28 to March 2. For the first time, the Promota Exhibition will run concurrently on March 1 and 2. Registration will operate independently. See www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk

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