In this article, you’ll learn how to…
Effectively attract and engage qualified prospects at your next tradeshow
Identify and handle those not likely to become customers
Get your team poised for sales success at your show booth
We’ve all read about the business benefits of face-to-face interaction: It creates personal connections, builds trust, and fosters engagement. Tradeshows are one of the most common—and successful—examples of face-to-face interaction because they allow for a brand to connect with a high number of customers and prospects at once.
However, it’s unrealistic to expect that just because you have an exhibit at a show you’ll be flooded with hundreds of qualified leads. Real effort needs to be expended to ensure you spend time with the right people—and know how to disengage with the wrong ones.
The good news is that achieving that goal is simple: Just develop and implement a thorough qualifying process for all booth visitors. Here are a few tips you can use for your next show.
1. Identify the ideal customer
Every tradeshow attracts a spectrum of attendees, but not every single one of them is a target for your business. Recognizing that and understanding the attributes of your ideal customer are critical to ensuring that you channel your valuable time and marketing dollars toward prospects who are likely to result in real business.
Start by building a profile of your ideal customer several months before the show’s doors even open. Perhaps he or she works for a company you’ve been targeting for years, has a specific title that gets you beyond the decision maker you currently work with, or is part of a new market sector where your company is looking to grow business.
Most events give exhibitors access to lists of registered attendees and provide a breakdown of business category, job
title, and purchasing authority. Take advantage of that gold mine! Merge the information with your company’s internal sales database to create a master list that will serve as the foundation for all of your pre-show and post-show marketing efforts.
2. Dangle the carrot
Now that you’ve identified your top prospects, you need to get them interested in who you are and what you can do to help their businesses. That can be a challenge, since there may be hundreds of other exhibitors vying for their attention during a very short time frame.
Start by understanding the attendees’ motivation for attending the show. Tap into your sales team for insight into key business issues that prospects may be facing, and combine that knowledge with general challenges confronting the industry you serve.
Make sure that the tools you use to communicate with customers before, during, and after the show contain messaging that clearly demonstrates how your company can help them resolve their problems. You can also consider offering special incentives that attendees can’t find elsewhere at the show, such as special pricing or market research.
The bottom line is that attendees will give their time in return for something of value—communicating that value is the key to a successful program.
3. Train the sales team
Effectively engaging key prospects and customers onsite is another critical step in maximizing event return on investment (ROI). Part of that is identifying the employees that will be the best representatives for your brand and putting them front and center in your booth. Offer incentives to maximize their performance, and task them for a specific level of interaction. Practice “prospect hand-offs” so visitors experience a logical and comfortable series of encounters on their quest for information.
Reviewing responses to anticipated questions about your product or service and being aware of the weaknesses of competitive offerings will ensure that conversations are guided in a positive direction.
4. Qualify through data capture
Developing an effective process to capture data is essential. Whether you choose to make that process fun with giveaway drawings or educational with an interactive game, collect the vitals—name, rank, and serial number—as soon as visitors begin their experience at your booth. Every name you collect at a tradeshow can be valuable. However, make sure to train your staff to quickly identify qualified decision-makers with the help of a script; there is no time for casual conversations that don’t lead to some form of business transaction. Of course, if you are looking to build a personal connection with a good prospect, make the time investment.
Your script should also include tips on how to politely disengage with unqualified visitors as quickly as possible. If you calculate the cost of every minute you spend at a show, that simple rule of thumb will surely resonate. You need your staff free and able to interact with real prospects with real interest and real decision-making power.
5. Say goodbye with a smile
Once you’ve concluded your conversation with booth visitors, thank them for their time and give them a small token that will help them remember your company, then move on. Save the extended conversations for after the show, when you have more time.
For your most-qualified prospects, engagement shouldn’t end when the show does. Your initial follow-up may be something as simple as mailed collateral, but it must effectively respond to the needs the prospects expressed at the show. Showing them that you really listened to their challenges and want to help them find a solution will increase your chances of getting that second meeting.
* * *
Tradeshows remain one of the most effective ways to market your brand. But it’s essential to understand who your key targets are—and aren’t. Implementing a well-thought-out engagement strategy will ensure that your sales team maximizes the time they have on the show floor and the overall event ROI.
-Written by Rob Murphy of Exhibitor’s Daily
An Example of Branded Post It Notes!
If you decide that giveaways are an important component of your strategy and will help you achieve your objectives at a show, here are eight tips that will help you save money and plan ahead for hidden costs.
1. Order early
Don’t wait until the last minute to buy your promotional items and risk paying last-minute shipping charges and production rush charges, which can more than double your cost. I try to place my order about a month before I need the items, which usually gives my vendor adequate time. This goes for everything that you put your corporate logo on, from your exhibit staff’s booth attire to press-kit flash drives. Ordering early also gives you time to carefully choose another option if the item you want isn’t in stock.
2. Buy in volume
As a general rule, buying a larger volume of promotional products will result in a lower cost per item. For example, ordering 144 long-sleeved, embroidered shirts instead of 24 drops the price from about $38 each to $28. Look at your entire exhibit program for the year, or for an entire marketing campaign, and estimate your giveaway requirements to make volume purchases. Most vendors will provide a price quote on the quantity you request, but be sure to ask at what quantity the price drops and by how much. It might be worth upping your order to get the greater discount.
3. Get multiple quotes
I’ve found a large variance in promotional-item markups, so before you purchase a specific item, get multiple quotes from different vendors. Let your vendors know that you are getting multiple quotes (which is standard in many companies’ purchasing policies), and ask for their best price up front. Bottom line, it’s best to shop around a bit and make sure you’re getting the best price available.
4. Negotiate fees
It never hurts to ask if the add-on fees, such as production setup fees, digitizing logos for embroidery, or rush charges, can be reduced or eliminated altogether. If you don’t ask, you won’t receive. I’ve seen setup fees for embroidered logos as high as $150, and other “administrative” fees for new clients. One vendor even wanted a storage fee to keep my digital logo for future orders. I generally walk away from vendors who are trying to nickel-and-dime me to death. But before you walk away, consider negotiating to see if the vendor is willing to eliminate — or at least discount — those add-on fees in order to win your business.
5. Be generic
Unless you’re confident you’ll distribute all of your swag at a given show, don’t put the logo or name of a specific trade show on it. Keep it generic with your company’s name, logo, URL, or phone number. That way, you can buy in bulk and use the leftover items at future trade shows, send them out to VIPs who didn’t make it to the show, use them to reward first-time customers, or hand them out at your next corporate event. Whatever you choose to do with them, items that can be repurposed for other marketing efforts are preferable to show-specific items that are outdated — and essentially useless — after the show.
6. Be selective
If your show objective is to meet with customers or a specific group of target prospects, consider buying gifts only for these qualified attendees and not trick-or-treaters looking for free stuff. This can lower your overall costs and allow you to give something of slightly greater value that your target audience will really want to keep.
7. Identify hidden costs
Find out what all the costs associated with your item will be and factor them into a per-item, bottom-line cost. A client of mine gave away insulated coffee mugs in a different color each day of the show, however the company did not have sufficient exhibit space to accommodate the huge boxes in the in-booth storage space. The alternative was to place them in the general services contractor’s accessible storage, and have the next day’s supply delivered for in-booth storage at the end of each day. The charges incurred as a result of the poor planning significantly increased the company’s comprehensive per-item cost.
Other hidden costs exhibitors fail to consider when selecting giveaways are shipping and material-handling fees, postage costs and mailing-list rental fees if you plan to promote your giveaways to attendees before the show, and the cost of additional booth staff that may be required to distribute giveaways in the exhibit.
8. Ship to your hotel
If your vendor is shipping your giveaways to the show via small-package carrier (such as FedEx or UPS), you can expect that the cartons will be unloaded individually. This means they won’t be on a single bill of lading, since small-package carriers don’t provide them, and you may have to pay a 200- to 300-pound material-handling minimum for each package at an average of $75 per 100 pounds (CWT).
Instead, consider shipping the items to your hotel’s business center. Hotels might charge a per-package delivery fee, depending on the size and weight of the packages. But this fee is generally about $15 to $25 per package, which is much cheaper than material-handling fees at most convention centers.
You can also usually lower your shipping rate if you ask your vendor to use your corporate FedEx or UPS account number, if you have one. For even greater savings, simply pack your giveaways inside your crates as part of your larger exhibit shipment.
Although giveaways are often one of the first items to be cut from a trade show budget, promotional items that are targeted to your audience and objectives can be a valuable part of your trade show program. If you plan ahead, shop around, and negotiate with vendors, you should be able to continue giving without losing your shirt.
By Candy Adams, CTSM, CME,
CEM, CMP, CMM,is an independent exhibit-management consultant, trainer, speaker, writer, and an Exhibitor conference faculty member.CandyAdams@BoothMom.com
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