The business card as a weapon…..

So, yesterday a few of us were manning the booth at a local trade show. It was actually pretty slow so, in an effort to make the day pass a little quicker, I thought I’d have a little fun.

Anytime someone walked by I’d strike up a conversation tell them about what a great company we were, give them a business card and tell them to call or email me anytime they had questions….about anything.
What’s fun about that? Well, nothing really except I was telling them I was the one of the other guys at the booth, and giving them his name and his card.

This was really a kick since I especially looked for three different kids of people. The first group was anyone that was a little….um, odd. Usually, these people had never thought of landscaping and had no desire for any but hey, they now have a card and a name in case they do.
The second group was older people. I’d talk to them about their flowers and trees and offer to come out and look at their rose that just wouldn’t bloom or their tree that never had any birds in it or even just to visit if they’d like. And boy did they love to talk.
The third group, and I almost feel guilty about this one, were the sales people. Anyone selling anything was given my (or his actually) complete and rapt attention, made to feel like they were selling the formula for turning lead into gold and encouraged to follow up right away with any and all promotional material…..I was having a great time.

Of course, as we all know, any weapon can be dangerous if it gets into the wrong hands and when I went to visit another booth for a while, that’s what happened.
I wasn’t thinking, dropped my guard and left my cards on the table while I was gone.
Sure enough, I came back and almost the entire stack of cards was gone and he and the other sales guy were both smiling like they knew something I didn’t. They especially thought it was funny every time the guy in the Jedi Academy shirt walked by…..did he just smile at me?
Needless to say, I’ll probably need to change the extension on my phone, update my email blocker and move the recycling bin next to my mail box for all the junk mail I’ll be getting.