Marshall Yard:

I had a peculiar phone call with a prospective client today. The client, which was a marketing company in Chicago, working for a European company in this case, was charged with organizing a Canadian tradeshow exhibit booth for this company. They got their obligatory three bids - one company in Ohio, one in Boston, and us. The first bid already came in, from the Ohio outfit. They like the design a lot. The second bid was expected yesterday, and when my contact called the company, curious as to why the design hadn’t been delivered yet, she was shocked as to why.

The kind folks in Boston decided they were not going to bid on the project.

Put yourself in my client’s shoes. Here you are - your major European account, one of your most coveted clients - and you have to go to them, with your tail between your legs, and explain how you only got two bids. It’s not as though exhibiting is an inexpensive endeavor. It’s not as though you have less-than-normal competition for a direct mail campaign. We’re talking about tens of thousands for a two day event, and you’re going to skimp out on competition. Oh, brother.

In much the same way that the marketing rep is going to need to manage the expectations of her European client, it is any responsible exhibit house’s responsibility to manage the expectations of our own clients. There are reprocussions for stiffing a prospect on the design you promised you’d deliver.

Was it a short time frame to come up with a creative and innovative 10×20? Yes. Is it a tight budget to create a show-stopping design, as requested? Yes. But this is 2009, when only the strong will survive, and letting prospects hang out to dry seems like a risky business plan.

Of course, my prospective client did share the name of the exhibit company. I made a mental note, and a written one too. I suggested that this might have happened because of “internal issues.”

Yeah, we’re seeing a lot of that. 2009 is the year when only the strong exhibit houses - the ones with talent, honest ethics, and a strong balance sheet - will be “passing go.”