The scent and sweat and stale-roasted almond stench of a trade show at 3:00 p.m. can be deadly. Greene was trying to get out of the massive hall without being spotted by an enemy … or an ex-girlfriend. Someone came up behind him from a darkened booth. Greene felt something cold and hard press into the small of his back. A gun muzzle?
“Good afternoon, Mr. Greene. Going someplace?”
It was a cruel voice, laden with menace. Beads of sweat trickled down Greene’s neck and into his shoes. He had sprinty sweat, apparently.
Damn! He thought. They found me!
“I sincerely doubt that EXPO show security will approve of you sticking guns into distributor’s backs,” Greene said coolly to his assailant.
“Oh, hey,” replied Paige Millard from Jetline, “It’s not a gun, it’s our #FL119 Mini Metal Carabiner Flashlight. I thought you might want one for later tonight when it gets dark and scary outside!”
Greene, irritated, spun around, reached up and slapped Millard silly, which he usually was anyways.
This is a true story, aside from the fact that it’s completely fictional. But how does this exciting intro tie into the informative article that follows? Wait for it …
When you approach our industry as a Bold, Different and Memorable partner, you connect with clients in ways that exclude price-cutting and product-selling in your go-to-market strategies. One way to separate yourself from that bottom-of-the-barrel pack is to specialize in a vertical market or vertical approach. And one such approach that anyone can be an instant specialist in is the trade-show arena. And January and February are the prime trade-show months of the year.
Trade-show marketing is an area where you don’t need technical knowledge and you don’t need to speak the client’s language. What you DO need to know is the following shadowy untold secret: The least important part of your client’s trade show is your client’s trade show. Yeah. I know. It’s nutty. But the fact is, it’s all about pre-marketing the event and post-show follow-up afterwards. That’s where trade-show success lies. (Or is it lays? Perhaps it’s merely reclining with a cold glass of lemonade.)
First, ask your client/prospect if the reason they are exhibiting at trade shows in 2014 is to create brand awareness for their company’s products and services. If the response is ‘yes’, then counsel them that this perspective is all wrong. It’s not competitive enough for today’s approach to building business. Get aggressive! Shoot higher! What they should be aiming at is BRAND PREFERENCE. You can help them to create Brand Preference by custom-tailoring a trade-show experience that will exceed their expectations.
That experience to position them in this “Brand Preference Place” is a before-during-after experience. And all three components of assuring a successful trade show involve branded promotional products. I thought you’d like that.
BEFORE THE SHOW
The most important aspect of the Before component is for the client to identify WHO their target audience is for the show. Not how many badges they want to scan, but which specific buyers and customers and companies they want to attract into their booths. They know who these people are. Have them create a mailing list and craft promotional solutions to entice these folks to come to their booth during the show. Send a personal invitation tied to a branded microfoil helium-filled balloon so it floats out of the box when they open it. Send them the deluxe case for an expensive Cross pen requiring them to bring it to the booth and get it filled with that excellent writing instrument. There are dozens and dozens of clever ways to create Before-show buzz.
Suggest they focus their show budget on this smaller audience—the audience that will impact their sales—rather than the great masses grabbing handfuls of stick pens out of a bottomless bowl. The client should spend MORE on the pre-show invitations and follow up on that mailing with personal calls by their reps. They need to ask the potential conference attendee if they got the mailing and would like to schedule a specific appointment in the booth, filling the days of the show with these appointments. They should come away with 25 or 50 amazing meetings, most of which will result in sales, new clients and strengthened relationships.
DURING THE SHOW
Next is that “least important” segment. During the show. Help them make their booth memorable with fun apparel for the show staff, interesting decor or themes, and ways to grab attention. The most successful booth I ever worked was one in which we filled the 10-foot area with glowing bracelets and flashing badges, caps and mugs from CleggPromo. We drew attendees into that booth like moths to a flame. We were the busiest booth at that entire show, the envy of our booth neighbors (who, incidentally, became customers by buying flashing hats to wear at their future shows). At another event, we came up with an “It’s A Jungle Out There” theme for our client. The three-part pre-show mailing focused on jungle animals and clever copy. At the show, the booth was decorated with trees and bushes rented from a local garden shop. The staff was in pith helmets and shorts, there was a CD playing of jungle noises and drums and mini-plush tigers and lions were given to all who attended a booth meeting. Each hour on the hour, giant plush jungle animals were awarded in a drawing, the prizes to be shipped back to the winners homes by the client-or delivered in person by their local sales person. It looked very different from every other booth at that show-and was the one booth that everyone remembered.
AFTER THE SHOW
Finally, coach your clients about their after-show experience. Send each booth meeting-appointment attendee a thank-you gift and then follow up on that mailing with another personal phone call and a call to action. Walk them through it. There’s a funny psychology I’ve notices about sales people who work trade shows. I’ve seen again and again through the years. The account executive has invested their time and money and sweat into the show, worked it hard, met people who seemed excited and interested and said they’d call or needed a quote, left their contact info and … then they don’t follow up. They don’t send the requested sample or follow up on that quote made from the show floor. They won’t verbalize this, but its almost as if their position is, “I put in the time and the money and the effort … you said you were interested … you should call ME!” But it doesn’t work like that. They will get busy and won’t call. They have to be pursued relentlessly. Be sure your clients are open to coaching and coach them on trade-show success. Again, position yourself as THE authority on trade-show marketing and success. YOU are someone they need to be working with in 2014.
So, how does the opening Spy Adventure ultimately tie into this trade-show marketing success article? Well, it really doesn’t. I just wanted to cast myself as a James Bond-type hero in a sticky situation. Slapping Paige Millard of Jetline was just a bonus.
Rick Greene, MAS is the Western Regional Vice-President for Halo Branded Solutions, a current Board Member with SAAC and the author of the comic fantasy novels, “Boofalo!” and “Shroom!”, available at www.amazon.com. He can name every single James Bond movie in chronological order. That’s cool.
