When you attend the tradeshow for the tradeshow industry, you expect to see and experience the best of the best.
It hurts to admit it, but however exciting the products and activities on the TS2 trade show floor this week, at the beautiful Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, the booth behavior was inexcusable. And, I’m not the only critic who thought that!
As I cruised the aisles looking for “what’s new” in the industry, I just couldn’t help my boothmanship radar register a negative on at least 90% of the booths. I will of course, protect the guilty. What did I see that disappointed me – the same old, same old: unmanned booths, eating, chitchatting with colleagues, sitting around looking bored, talking on cell phones – all the classic no-no’s. Here they are presumably, the best of the best making the age-old blunders, showing that they don’t have any real goals and objectives for being at the show. They’re at “parade rest” – all dressed, ready to go and not engaging in any activity. Not quite the “All Start Team.” Can you feel my pain!
On a more positive note, one of the real highlights of the show was the “In Zone,” the brainchild of Dana Doody, MarComm Manager at The Expo Group. This was the hub of social media for the show floor. Tradeshow Social Me-Jay, Emilie Barta, Interviewed key industry thought leaders, such as Joyce McKee, President, Let’s Talk Tradeshows and RD Whitney, CEO, Tarsus Online Media Division of The Tarsus Group (owners of TSNN), who not only shared their expertise, but also solicited comments from the tradeshow floor audience. Digitell, a leading full service multimedia company, then immediately broadcast these interviews live over the Internet helping to create TS2 as a hybrid event.
This is truly a powerful model that other shows could copy to add excitement, not only for the current event, but for future events you don’t want to miss.
Do your booth staffers know what information they need to collect for a quality lead?
How do you define a quality lead?
Yesterday, in a brilliant webinar, (sponsored by iLeads and Leadature), “Trade Show Follow-up: The Ultimate Competitive Edge,” Joyce McKee, President, Let’s Talk Tradeshows, talked about the “sales-ready” trade show lead. As usual our thinking is so very similar, and the following is an elaboration of the four keys Joyce discussed so aptly:
1. Involve sales management
Right from the beginning sales management needs to be involved in what actually they feel constitutes the “best” trade show lead. So set the stage and arrange a meeting to discuss this crucial aspect of your exhibiting. Unfortunately, too many sales managers assume their team know what information to collect. As we know, ass-u-me (making an “ass of u and me”) is a very dangerous word!
2. Define the “ultimate” sales lead
Clarifying what exactly constitutes a best sales lead possible takes time and forethought. It should be much more than the usual basic information. Since there may be several opinions as to what is the most crucial information, I suggest you brainstorm all possible information your sales reps need to make a final sale (this will probably differ for different products/services you sell). Then prioritize your ideas and take the top ten.
3. Create the script
The script is not necessarily a word for word text, rather a list of powerful questions that your team need to ask, so they gather the best possible information they need from the prospect. Once again, this takes time to create the right approach.
In my trade show training workshops, I recommend the sales team develops a questioning “toolbox,” which contains many different types of questions depending on what type of information they need. Since the object is to conduct a meaningful conversation with their visitor, they probably won’t be using the same questions over and over again. Rather, when they need a “spanner” question, they pull that one out of their toolbox. They won’t want to use a “hammer” question when they need a “spanner.” For example, they wouldn’t ask “What budgetary constraints are you currently experiencing?” when they should be asking “What are your top buying criteria for “x” product?”
4. Get buy-in
Once you’ve defined the ultimate lead, and written a script, the next step is to get the input, and complete buy-in from the sales team. Don’t just tell them what to do, rather have them make their suggestions for improvement, and what they feel comfortable with. In the end, sales people want great leads to follow up, which then generates the ultimate goal – to make sales to increase the bottom-line.
For that to successfully take place , everyone has to be on board – motivated to help make the end result happen.
Susan Friedmann, CSP, The Tradeshow Coach, internationally recognized exhibit marketing expert working with companies to increase their profitability at trade shows. Author: “Riches in Niches: How to Make it BIG in a small Market,” “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Target Marketing,” “Meeting & Event Planning for Dummies” and many other titles. For more great information on trade show marketing strategies that work, and for a complimentary copy of “Exhibiting Success,” visit http://www.thetradeshowcoach.com. Click to download the “Riches in Niches” app.
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