You know, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people out there who would love to buy your product or service, if they knew what it could do for them. If they understood how it would make their life better, appreciate the real results and benefits they can get when buying from you. But, they don’t know. Why? Because you haven’t shown them yet.
Being face-to-face with your customers is one of the most powerful marketing tools out there. And I’m delighted to be able to give you a few tips on the fastest and smartest ways to grasp it.
One of the biggest mistakes that most exhibitors make, leading to disappointment and often lost personal cash is – the lack of planning.
Planning makes all the difference between having conversations with visitors that are nice and chatty… where they pop their business card in a bowl which is great… but leads nowhere! Versus a conversation where you establish rapport and lead them from ‘just looking’ into working with or buying from you, and they feel absolutely delighted about their decision!
So, how do you plan…
ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS
Questions like:
Why are you exhibiting? Who do you want to sell to? Who are your ideal customers AND how will you identify them?
Not knowing the answers to these questions often means that despite your efforts, turning exhibition selling into profitable results, simply fails. There is no easy fix, you need to be VERY planned and organised when you sell at a show. It’s really like a microcosm of all your marketing, held up for scrutiny for just a few hours or a few days. Now you see it, now you don’t! Gone!
This means you really do have get a lot of your thinking right before you turn up, or you most definitely risk being one of those shiny suited, clipboard clutching, business-cards-in-a-bowl-champagne-draw, same-as-everyone-else exhibitor who you invariable see at shows (you know, they’re the ones sat around catching up with Facebook, checking emails and using their mobile phones!)
You don’t want to be like that do you? NO! NO! NO!
Like in all things marketing you must think VERY carefully about what questions to ask yourself to get the strategy right to turn exhibition selling into profitable results.
WHO is going to be there … not vaguely but in some detail
WHY are they going to be there? …again, think it through properly
WHAT outcome are YOU looking for?… are you selling? Raising awareness? Or collecting data?
WHAT is that you do, that’s so unique and compelling that they would want to talk to you? HOW can you really ‘scratch their itch’?
HOW are you going to get that message across in a miniscule amount of time?
And HOW are you going to stand out from the crowd and become that ‘go to’ person on the day…and after the show?
Remember, you have about THREE SECONDS to make an impression … and then they are gone. It’s all over. Finished and done.
Just think – if you can answer these key questions for a business or trade show, just think how you can apply that knowledge to the rest of your marketing.
Carole Stacey
01242 375717 | [email protected]