This week marks my third week out of nine for product shows. I am exhausted already. Let me back up....I sell laboratory products and services to mainly academic, biotech, and pharma. I am what they call a manufacture's rep, meaning we make product and I can either sell it direct or through a distribution channel. Around this time of year, either my distribuition channels or the universities put on vendor product shows which basically calls for me to haul in my balances and other products, set them up and then wait for people to come by and hopefully want to learn more about my products. In previous jobs, this just involved a tablecloth and a lot of product literature. Now, I haul in mulitiple tupperware containers filled with equipment and such. I am now one of the first to arrive and the last to leave.
I have already been in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Columbia, MO. I have shows in St Louis next week, then Kansas, then St. Louis again. I used to love doing product shows and now I am already burnt out. You do not want to miss them because you do not want your competition to get all of the leads if there are any.
This is an idea of what I am up to day after day for the next month and a half.
