How to Better Work Trade Show Leads
Ted Ridgway
Once your firm has made all the necessary decisions for its booth space, exhibit type and graphics for the upcoming expo, it is time to begin considering how to generate the best leads from the show. It often seems like you have already made all the important decisions by getting a great pop up exhibit or truss display for the show, but you have actually only done the simple things. Now you have to decide who will be in the trade show booth and how they will manage prospects. Here are some pointers.
This guide makes the assumption that the trade show your company is going to is not a consumer-oriented convention – it isn’t one where companies take orders or actually sell on the floor. Those types of trade shows usually have an engagement pattern that mirrors what happens every day in your company and typically you and your people know how to handle that. But in a business to business expo, where your company is promoting products and services, you will probably attract leads that you have to convert after the show. This guide will help you think through the best people to do the lead qualification and help you think through the optimal engagement strategy.
many businesses use a combination of sales and marketing staff on the show floor and in the trade show booth to work prospects. You can add technical or engineering staff if your business sells a highly technical product or service. But keep in mind: most firms that have great trade shows are not actually trying to close sales on the trade show floor. And many trade show attendees aren’t prepared to make orders at the show anyway. So don’t overdo the technical staff – put people in the trade show booth that can qualify, position and follow up. It’s better to get a lot leads than close 1 sale, since all those leads will probably generate more than one sale.
Ok, in the pop up booth you will have a mix of marketing staff and real sales people. The marketing staff are the first line. They’re good at the 10,000 foot explanations and they are great at positioning. They should be the first people to “meet and greet” a prospect when he or she walks up to your pop up display. They should hand a prospect off to a sales person if the prospect seems real – if they’re worth a longer pitch in your trade show booth and a follow up afterwards. Be mindful – the main goal when working your trade show booth is figuring out which prospects aren’t a good use of your time and moving them out of your trade show exhibit quickly. The guy who is there because he’s a reporter isn’t a good person to spend time with, while a VP with a short time horizon to purchase can be a great prospect. You may also think about having a person with business development responsibilities in the trade show booth, if your business has this role and you expect partners to be attendees at the trade show.
Now, you have the right people but how do you engage the attendees and make the engagement useful? First, your staff – even if it’s just you and another person – must understand that all prospects aren’t equal. So at every opportunity they (and you) need to ask “is this person a potential customer or am I just wasting my time?” If you end up with a looky loo, be polite but exit the conversation. Say “thanks so much for coming by our booth and feel free to contact me after the show.” Give your card, walk them out of the booth and be done with it. How do you know if they are a looky loo? They have no product spec, time-frame, budget, etc in mind. Anyone that’s a serious prospect will know these things. The more time you spend with your looky loo the higher are the chances you miss the real prospects – they may walk right by if you were at your cool trade show display but you were busy with your looky loo.
So you have a prospect and they seem qualified. How do you handle this? First, try to get actionable information from them. Take notes or make mental notes that you will transcribe immediately. What do they like about what your company offers? Dislike? What other companies are they looking at? What company do they use currently (if any)? When will they make a decision? Who else is involved in the decision? What role do they play in the decision (information gathering, evaluation, recommendation, final say, deal blocker?). Also, find out why they’re at the trade show – are they well down the evaluation path or just getting educated? Are they going to make a decision based on what they see? Do they want a quote after the show? Answers to these questions tell you (a) how much information to give the prospect, (b) how much time to spend with the prospect and (c) how to follow up with the prospect after the trade show. A rough rule of thumb – your “best” prospect should get no more than 15 minutes of your time. This is a person with purchasing authority or great influence that has done a lot of research and is planning to buy within the normal selling cycle. If the prospect is “good” but not the best – maybe they’re not buying in the near-term or they aren’t the decision maker, they get 5-10 minutes before you move them out of the trade show booth. If they are just an “ok” prospect – they’re at the trade show just getting smart – they get just a few minutes. To repeat: if they are just a looky loo, be polite but move on right away. There is no upside in spending more time than you have to, and there may be valuable opportunities lost while talking to them.
Even if you have made all the right decisions – from trade show graphics and banner stands to accessories – you still have to prepare carefully to have success on the trade show floor. But with a thoughtful approach you can have a great show, qualify leads and generate revenue and profits.
Ted Ridgway is President of Impact Displays, a full service trade show display and trade show graphics company. The Company can be reached by clicking here, by calling 877-217-2681 or by emailing to info@impact-displays.com.
