Making Friends at the Home and Garden Show
A poster for CPI’s upcoming Minneapolis workshop, placed outside the US Bank Stadium
If you were recruiting for a political event, where would you go?
Hold a cardboard sign on a street corner? Pass out leaflets at activist rallies? Or, would you go speak to vendors at the Home and Garden Show? The latter is exactly what CPI member Penny Arcos did on February 1st, with surprising results. She held casual conversations, asked vendors about their businesses and the economy, and left with valuable leads to call later. Now, some of those contacts are already registered for CPI’s upcoming Minneapolis workshop on February 22nd. For an organization like CPI, with our focus on educating everyday people, there are few skills more useful than learning how to strike up friendly conversations with strangers and create lasting connections. Penny talked with CPI to share her experience, stories, and advice.
Getting started was easy. “I looked up the US Bank Stadium schedule on Wednesday and found out the show was happening this weekend,” Penny explained. “So, I put up posters on Thursday, met a nice couple on the street, and invited and registered them on the spot.” Making quick connections sounds more difficult than it is, in Penny’s opinion. With experience both working in retail sales and customer service, and recruiting for charity events, she says that “the key is just to be genuinely interested in other people,” and everything else will follow.
The show floor inside the stadium
Finally, on Saturday, Penny arrived at the Home and Garden Show ready to meet people and spread a positive message. At the venue, she quickly realized this was not a place to just drop palm cards.. Different kinds of outreach suit different purposes – this time, Penny’s focus was on making contacts and registering attendees for CPI’s upcoming Minneapolis workshop on February 22nd. To that end, she focused on an interpersonal approach – acting like an ordinary homeowner attending the show and letting the vendors engage with her.
As a retail manager, I pay attention to customer service. So when anyone who reached out to me, I asked about their product or service. And I asked what position the person held in the company (sales rep or owner or other).And I asked about how the economy is affecting their business. And from there it was small talk and asking for the business card. — Penny Arcos
Penny came home with a ziploc bag full of business cards, and immediately added the names, contact info, and a few notes for each conversation to her CPI contact list. She met all kinds of vendors – people with different political views, people from different countries, and a man from a window company with a very amusing story about muffins. Since then, she has been calling these contacts and successfully registering several for the event!
Asked what advice she would give to fellow CPI members doing outreach, Penny said:
“Be real. Take interest in people and relate the concept of innovation and growth to what they are presenting.”
For future events, she hopes to find an outreach partner so that it will be easier to distribute print materials and palm cards. As time goes on, CPI hopes all our members can become better and better at all kinds of outreach. CPI believes next Saturday’s Minneapolis workshop on February 22nd will be another strong step forward.
