Hey Valued Customer, Throw This Out For Me

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Do you remember the last time you were at an event or trade show.  There were hundreds of exhibitors and before you left your home you choose five companies.  You wanted to know more about these five in order to make the decision of who you want to do business with.  You travel to the event looking forward to seeing the new products and talking with the company representatives about your needs. 

When you get there the companies representative was unhelpful, did not ask the right questions (or any), and had a general air of I don’t want to be here.  You left with unanswered questions, and a flyer on the product that the contact had provided to you in order to get you to leave.

Time and time again I see this happen.  There is a better way.  Although the comic here is done for humor there is more truth in this than you know.  At any event that is not in the hometown of the attendee more than 70% of the collateral handed out does not leave the city and is filed in the hotel trash receptacles.  Don't get me wrong, collateral is a necessary and powerful tool in the sales cycle but it should be used in the proper way and supported by a trained and powerful show staff. 

Here are a few things to think about when it comes to interacting with show attendees.

Never Assume: Each conversation has the opportunity for a multi-million dollar change in your companies balance sheet.  Dependent on your business remember that these two days are most likely the largest gathering of decision makers in your industry.  

A Few Tips:

  1. Understand the attendees role, and yours! 
  2. Develop real engagement time
  3. What challenges are they having 
  4. How does your product or service fit a need
  5. Identify the unique benefit of your solution 
  6. Understand how does the attendee make decisions 
  7. Confirm the conversation and make sure you can follow up post show

 

Research Opportunity: With such a large gathering of like minded people from all facets of the business (Sales, Engineering, R&D, C-Level and more) know that the conversations that occur at your trade show could lead to many things. Product development revisions, needed support changes after the sale, and much more.

A Few Tips:

  1. Ask questions
  2. Gather feedback
  3. Document the return on knowledge
  4. Share the knowledge with the right departments at HQ
  5. Come to the event with a set of questions
  6. Reward the two or three minutes you spend with a prospect gaining this feedback

 

Tech Integration: Don’t leave the collateral at home yet.  Collateral is an important part of the conversation but the integration of tech tools like tablets, QR Codes, RFID, Near Field Communication, Bluetooth Beacons (more on that <<here>>), large format touch screens, and so much more help to make your more efficient and more connected.  Many of these tools can help empower conversation and engagement.

A Few Tips:

  1. One-on-one meeting time with limitless data
  2. Screen sharing for larger groups
  3. One touch file sharing with lead development software
  4. The ability to share multiple file formats quickly
  5. Ease and speed of content manipulations    

So the next time you see “collateral with no conversation”, whichever side of the fence you are on, what will you do?

To learn more reach out to <<JENOA>> to discuss your specific business challenges today.