Trade Up

A trade show can be a great place to connect with many potential clients simultaneously, without the need to cold call and visit each prospect separately. Being on your feet most of the day can be frustrating, however. It can also be difficult to establish rapport quickly with everyone who visits your booth, determine who is a serious prospect and who is a waste of your selling time.

Kristin Koga-London is a senior account executive for the Premier Information Center’s Pre-Employment and Tenant Division. Her team sells background and credit searches to employers and apartment owners to screen candidates. Business-to-business trade shows help her company connect with potential clients.

Koga-London advises other reps to have realistic goals. Remember that first impressions are important. Don’t expect to have a contract signed on the trade-show floor. Provide good information and schedule an appointment for later. You have only a small period of time, so find out whatever information you can about each potential customer. Include a short commercial (such as a logo, sign or other creative message) to whet visitors’ interest. Other effective strategies include giving product demos (based on attendees’ questions and their body language) and giveaway promotions in which you obtain business cards from potential leads. Koga-London offers visitors a personal copy of their credit report and score.

What are some mistakes reps make at trade shows? Koga-London cautions reps to resist the temptation to be on their cell phone or sit in a chair talking to a coworker. Instead, focus on making eye contact with attendees. Avoid doing a product dump and telling attendees about products in which they may have no interest. Many reps talk too fast about their own products and don’t ask enough questions. Instead, use the time to fact find about your potential customers, so you can better understand how to fulfill their business needs.

Koga-London recalls a trade-show success story. “A large booth, with a neon company sign, included terminals and laptops staffed with marketing and sales people. Marketing people would entice attendees to view the products within the terminal, and the salespeople would show the product demo on the laptop within the terminals. After the product demo, the attendee would get a great giveaway with the company’s name and logo on it. This impressed the attendees and got them interested in the product.”

Rick Ellison is senior vice president, Customer Relations, for Lucks Food Decorating Company, based in Tacoma, WA. Lucks is the premier manufacturer of edible food decorations for cakes, cookies, pies and cones. Customers include in-store bakeries, independent bakeries, ice-cream stores, branded food companies (such as General Mills and Kellogg’s), chain stores with in-store bakeries and food service accounts. Lucks is also a leading direct supplier of edible decorations to many major wholesale bakery manufacturers.

Ellison and his reps attend two different types of business-to-business trade shows. National and international trade shows are generally attended by senior management and attract 50,000–100,000 people. Regional trade shows, generally attended by 5,000–10,000 people or less, attract hands-on users of products as well as small-business owners.

Your planning should begin with an annual show review. What is the target market for each trade show? What should the sales strategy be for each show? Ellison’s reps contact each trade show’s organizer in advance to request a list of last year’s attendees (name, position and company), who they expect to attend this year’s show, plus information about each company attending. Many shows have a Website where you can see who is attending and who will be displaying (including your competitors).

Lucks uses market-segment strategies, ideal-customer profiles and customer-specific strategies to help them decide what trade shows to attend, which to avoid and what message would be most effective for each trade show’s attendees.

“Our trade-show model requires that we know who is attending well in advance. That enables our sales and marketing team to set up appointments with important target customers and notify them about new innovations in advance. We put together specific agendas and presentations for each customer we are meeting with, usually sharing them with the customer in advance. This encourages each customer to add to the agenda and take ownership in the meeting.

“In many cases, the meeting focuses on the ongoing relationship between firms and the progress of a specific project or program. This process has helped us secure meeting times with important customers at or away from the booth. Without this process, important customer meetings would have been left to chance.”

An important part of advance preparation is to understand who will attend, what they expect and have the right people to staff the booth. For example, Ellison’s reps may display at a trade show attended by high-skill-level R&D (research and development) cereal chemists, scientists and other research staff. They expect dialogue with people who understand their language. At this type of fair, Lucks R&D specialists, engineers and others who are technically knowledgeable are available to show attendees how they can collaborate and solve a problem together.

Ellison recalls a meeting that led to a collaboration. The company wanted to create an interactive cookie kit to provide a positive experience for families baking cookies. Lucks and the client company collaborated to develop the kit, which included the client’s product (cookie dough and icing) and Lucks’ product (decorating element, such as a witch or pumpkin on a Halloween cookie). Selling the kit at retail price made money for both companies.

Before the show starts, booth staff are prepped on the show’s goal, target audience and schedules (to include customer meetings). When Ellison’s reps are away from the booth, they stay in regular contact with the booth staff to coordinate any last-minute schedule changes or surprise customer visits.

In addition to at least one regularly scheduled representative apiece from sales, marketing and R&D, each booth (usually a 20’x30′ footprint) is staffed at all times by three or more customer-service people. Having sales and marketing people on a set booth schedule allows the flexibility needed to be with target customers on and away from the show floor. Each sales and marketing person has access to all meeting agendas and presentations in case a meeting with a customer has to be rescheduled.

Lucks’ goal is to talk with everyone who stops by the booth, qualifying each visitor through targeted questions, then segmenting them. The trade-show registration process makes ranking customers easier. Most trade shows provide attendees a scannable badge that when scanned at the booth creates a printout of the individual’s name and credentials. All leads are gathered and sorted according to the type of business and level of authority.

Even visitors with no interest in purchasing Lucks’ products may know someone who might become a good customer. “If our booth is busy,” says Ellison, “we ask if the visitor is interested in learning more about our products. If so, we invite them to come back later when we will be less busy and can give them more individual attention.”

Lucks reps never eat or drink in their booth. They don’t talk on the phone or check email while staffing the booth. They excuse themselves if a call comes in and don’t sit in their booth unless it is with a customer. They are prepared to have discussions with all customer types and levels attending the show.

Ellison’s reps try to educate visitors about products and avoid pressing for an immediate sale. “We have found that if we explain why we are attending the show versus trying to sell them something, they are more likely to open up and discuss their reasons for stopping by.”

The reps’ goal is to develop “mind share,” which is when customers develop such a positive image of your company or your product that they bypass other options and choose you. After the show, Ellison’s reps follow up with frequent contacts – through phone calls, personal visits, notes and/or emails.

When you see trade shows as a way to gather leads and connect with potential and present clients, rather than as a means to close sales, they can be a valuable and effective part of your sales strategy.

Skill Set

– Before the show, find out who will attend (users, R&D staff, executives) and what they expect. Use this information to determine who should staff your booth.

– If an advance list of attendees is provided, send an enticing letter or postcard to encourage them to stop at your booth.

– Always look professional. Avoid activities that distract you from greeting visitors.

– Ask questions to qualify leads. Invite less-qualified leads to return at a less-busy time when you can give them more attention. Even if they don’t make a purchase, they may know someone who could become a good customer.

– Instead of giving out brochures and catalogs, offer to send them to the visitor’s business. After the show, send them a thank-you letter with a catalog.

– Always have a pad of paper and pen to write notes regarding the people with whom you talk and the information that you find out. Use note cards with prewritten questions to ask about each visitor’s business, and write their answers down.