How to Get the Most Out of a Trade Show
One of the questions I hear often from clients is whether it makes sense to attend a particular trade show or conference. They tell me they don’t get as many leads as they used to, and they’re wondering if it is worth the expense.
I tell them that they need to think about trade shows a little differently from the way they used to.
The main reason to attend a trade show is that you have the most influential people in the industry gathered together in the same place at the same time. You can meet a lot of people and gather a huge amount of information in just a couple days.
And no matter how useful the Internet is, you build a better relationship when you meet people face-to-face.
Here’s the system I use for getting the maximum value out of any trade show or conference…
Pre-show brainstorming
Sit down with your team about a month before the trade show and talk through what you want to accomplish:
- Who do you want to meet?
- What do you want to learn?
- What do you want to test?
Let’s talk about each of those areas in a little more detail…
Who to meet… Prospects, customers and business partners, of course. But who else? Do a little brainstorming to come up with a list. Who would make a big difference to your business?
- Editors, bloggers, and industry analysts.
- Consultants and other influencers.
- Prospective employees.
- New business partners, for technology, distribution and outsourcing.
You can see who will be speaking at the event by looking at the sessions. You should also look over the list of exhibitors. Some shows provide lists of attendees too.
What to learn… I like to pay attention to the issues people are talking about at the conference – what are the hot problems people are trying to solve? If everyone is talking about a topic and you can frame your product as a way to address it, you can get more doors to open for you.
I also like to check out competitors – see what they are talking about, who is visiting their booth, what they are promoting, how they are selling. You might be able to get some hints about the future direction of their products.
This is a good opportunity to see what booths are attracting the most traffic – what are they doing that’s working so well? Do they have a fun giveaway? Have they launched a new product? What’s on their booth signs? Are they doing something in the booth to draw people in? You can get wonderful ideas from seeing what works for other companies.
Do you have technical issues or situations with clients? You might be able to pick up solutions for those.
What to test… At a show you have the opportunity to talk to a lot of people within a short period of time. This is a great place to see how people respond to a new marketing message or test different ways to describe a new feature.
Think about decisions you have been debating internally for some time. Here’s your chance to get feedback from real people so you can finally settle the issue.
If you want to do usability testing, a conference can be a great venue. You can do this informally, even in a hallway between sessions.
Design a plan
Once you know what you want to accomplish, look at the opportunities that you will have at the conference. Where can you encounter the people you want to meet, find the info, run your tests?
- Educational sessions (think in terms of both attendees and speakers)
- Exhibits
- Vendor events, hospitality suites (think about hosts and attendees)
- Birds of a feather and other networking events
If you have more than one person attending, decide who will do what. You’ll get much better results if you split up – even if you attend one or two of the same sessions, sit on opposite sides of the room so you can meet more people.
Plan to get together once a day so you can report back on what you found. This makes each person accountable – and it gives you a way to share your triumphs.
Do your research
Take the list of people you want to meet, and do a little research ahead of time. Glance at their website, subscribe to (or at least scan) their blog, follow them on Twitter and check out their tweets, maybe like their Facebook page.
This takes a little effort, but you will find out what they are currently interested in and it will be much easier to open a conversation.
If you’re on Twitter, find out the conference hash tag and make a few tweets before the conference.
If you don’t already have a Bump app, this might be the time to download one for your phone.
At the show
Work your plan but stay flexible. If an opportunity arises, take advantage of it.
At every session… Introduce yourself to 4-6 people. I usually meet the people on either side of me, in front of me and behind me. Even if you are naturally an introvert, remind yourself of the type of people you want to meet and make the effort to reach out. You will be amazed at the interesting people you will find. If you’re not sure what to say, ask them what they hope to get out of this session or why they are at the conference.
At the end of the session, make a point of going up and introducing yourself to at least one of the speakers. If you’re not sure what to say, just tell them you enjoyed the session. It’s even better if you can mention something specific they talked about that you agreed with or found useful.
Every time you are in line… At lunch, at a coffee break, at the Starbucks – introduce yourself to the person in front of you and the one behind you. Again, you will be surprised at the great people who are there.
Remember that conferences are one of the very best places to meet senior management. They are more open to being approached there than anywhere else. In fact, often one of their goals is to hear what regular people think. So take advantage of that!
Working a trade show like this takes a lot of energy, so make sure you take care of yourself. Eat right and try to get enough sleep so you can keep up your energy level.
Before you leave… Have a chat with the conference organizers. Tell them what you liked about the conference, and if you have ideas for making it better next year, share them. Remember that the organizers probably know every company that attended, and have the potential to connect you with most of the influential people who were there. It’s well worth getting to know them.
After the conference
Within a week after you get home, go through your stack of business cards and send connection requests on LinkedIn. Follow people on Twitter, consider friending them on Facebook or other platforms.
Subscribe to their newsletter or blog, and ask if it’s OK to subscribe them to yours.
Do whatever other follow-up actions items you promised to do.
When you attend a trade show using this strategy, I guarantee you will get 10x more out of it than if you just attend the sessions and work your booth. I’ve been doing it this way for years, and I always come back with great leads and amazing connections.
If you have tips for getting the most out of a show that you’d like to add to this list, post them in the comments.
3 Ways To Get Qualified Sales Leads Using LinkedIn
Image via WikipediaMost people use LinkedIn as a contact management tool to connect with friends or former co-workers. Besides everyday social networking, LinkedIn can be used as a very effective sales prospecting tool. In this post I’ll show you 3 solid strategies to help you get qualified sales leads into your pipeline.
1. Nurture Your First-Degree Network
Other than sending or accepting a connection invitation, when was the last time you truly connected with the people in your first-degree network on LinkedIn? Many of these people may have hundreds of connections to your potential customers.
It’s a good idea to periodically reach out to these folks and offer them something of real value, such as an online resource or even a referral. And don’t discount the potential of a connection who isn’t in your same
industry. They might know someone who can help you. Take a look at their list of connections (if that capability is enabled) and see who’s on their contact list.
2. Use Advanced People Search
LinkedIn has an Advanced People Search function you can use to identify prospects who you can get introduced to through members of your extended network. This tool makes it relatively easy to build a preliminary prospect list using a combination of keywords, industry descriptions and job titles to find key decision makers at target companies.
Once you have assembled your list, you can sort your results by relationship. This makes it easy to identify people in your extended network who might be able introduce you to the person on your prospect list. But be careful when asking for favors from your contacts. This is why it’s so important to nurture them first in step 1. You don’t want to risk damaging your reputation by coming across as an opportunist.
3. Participate In Group Discussions
Another way to use the list you built using the Advanced People Search function is to identify the groups your prospects participate in, join those same groups and start participating in discussions. It is likely that you can offer significant value to group discussions by answering relevant questions and becoming a trusted resource within the group. This strategy takes some time to implement, but can often lead to excellent results. The key is to offer real value.
Continue to grow your network as you implement these three strategies by connecting with every new prospect and customer you meet. This will give you both a direct connection to your new acquaintance and access to their extended network of co-workers and friends. This will in turn give you even more potential prospects.
Start a Nurture Program
If you’re not already doing some kind of nurture program, you should start now. It is inexpensive (typically less than $500/month) and highly effective.
Nurture programs are designed to educate prospects about the value you provide – because almost any offering requires some education – and generate excitement and buzz about your company.
The idea is that you identify a small list of people – typically 100-200. Then you send them something every month.
Who goes on the list?
- Prospects who are already in the sales cycle
- Ideal prospects (people or organizations that you would love to have as clients)
- Influencers (respected individuals who could refer business to you)
- Business partners
- Maybe editors or bloggers who you want to have cover you
- Maybe competitors (if you want to annoy them)
- Maybe your best customers
- You (because you want to see what everyone else is getting and ensure the quality is high)
What do you send them?
Your goal is to educate them about your offering, so they fully appreciate the value. You also want to keep them up with what’s new with your company – to show that you have lots of interesting, exciting things going on.
We typically rotate between the following things:
- Case studies
- Postcards (often with a special offer)
- Press releases
- Educational articles authored by you or someone in your company
- Reprints of articles that have appeared about you in industry publications
- Reprints of articles written by others that support your point of view or help educate about a topic they need to understand to fully appreciate your solution
- Personal letters introducing something new that you are doing or making a special offer
- Giveaways (something cute and relevant to your company or offering)
You can do this by email, which is a good idea if you are nurturing people around the world. But we prefer direct mail, because so few companies use direct mail anymore that your mailings stand out more.
Keep in mind that prospects don’t know that you are only mailing to a couple hundred people each month. For all they know, you are blanketing the industry. And in a tough market, where many companies are cutting back on marketing, that’s impressive.
They get the sense that there’s a lot going on with your company – you must be growing rapidly and doing well for them to hear from you so often. That helps your credibility as well as gains you mindshare.
These programs are simple to put together too. Just define the goals for your program, pull together a list to start with, and line up the first 6 months of what you’re going to mail. Then turn it over to an administrative person to execute – you can do it almost on autopilot.
Just revisit the plan every 4 months or so, as your business needs change. Update the mailing list, and tweak the items you are planning to send as new ideas come up and new collateral gets created.
4 Ways to Get More Referrals
The vast majority of small businesses get most of their customers through referrals.
Referrals are the leads that are most likely to close, and they are usually effectively free.
So why are you not doing more to increase the number of referrals you get?
The problem is that most people are reluctant to ask for referrals. It’s true for you (I’m sure it is!) – I know it’s true for me, and it’s almost certainly true for everyone who works for you.
But there are ways to generate more referrals that are practically painless. Let’s look at a couple of those…
1. Create a tag-team referral process
The best time to ask for a referral is right after someone has become a customer. They are enthusiastic about your company, and referring someone else to you validates and reinforces the decision they have just made. But sales reps can be very reluctant to ask for a favor at this point – they just got the purchase order and they don’t want to jeopardize that.
So make it easy for them. Set up a system where the sales rep calls to say thank you and tell them what the next steps are. Perhaps you need to schedule a kickoff call or meeting. Have the sales rep say that Sally will be calling to schedule the kickoff call, and when she does that she will also be asking if they know anyone else who might be able to use your solution.
That’s easy, right? Your sales rep is not asking for a referral. She is simply saying that in the future, they will be asked for a referral.
It’s easy for Sally too. Sally can now call and go through her checklist with them, schedule the meeting, and say that as Mary (your sales rep) may have mentioned, she would like to ask if they know of anyone else who might be able to use your solution. The question is no longer a loaded one, and it is not being sprung on them.
It’s easy for your customer too. They have had a chance to think about it, and if they know someone, chances are pretty good that they will have that person’s contact info handy. If not, they are prepared for the question and can graciously decline.
2. Have a scheduled referral contest
Let customers know that sales reps will be competing to see who can generate the most referrals in the month of April. That gives the customers a chance to think about it and be prepared for the question.
Then sales reps can email or call customers, tell them they’re trying to win, and ask if they know anyone. When it’s a game, it’s more fun to participate. And when you ask for referrals in a light-hearted way, it is easier for everyone.
3. Segment your referrals
Go through the following groups in your head, and try to find one individual or company in each group that might be interested in referring business back and forth. Then go ask them!
- Competitors
- Companies that sell products or services that are typically sold in conjunction with yours
- Companies that sell products or services that are typically needed before yours
- Companies that sell products or services that are typically needed after yours
- Consultants who work in your industry
- Service providers who work in your industry
- Accountants, lawyers, recruiters and other professionals who work in your industry
Yes, the first item on that list was competitors. Almost certainly your products or services are not identical. Each of you is stronger in certain areas. Refer business back and forth in the areas where you don’t overlap.
4. Consider other touchpoints
Where and when else do customers or prospects touch your company? Can you build in referral processes there? Here are a couple more places to look at:
- Your website (refer a friend button)
- Customer service/tech support (after the satisfactory resolution of their problem)
- Email marketing or email newsletters (ask recipients to forward the email)
If you work on adding one new referral source each month, in less than a year you will be generating a substantial number of new, high-quality leads.
Add One New Pillar to Your Marketing Parthenon
The concept of a marketing Parthenon originated with Jay Abraham, a brilliant marketing guru whose ideas have profoundly influenced many marketers and business leaders.
Most companies get leads from one or two marketing strategies – techniques they have mastered and are using very effectively to drive revenue.
But if you expand the strategies you use – developing a number of marketing techniques that work for you successfully – your company will be built, like the Parthenon, on a more solid and sturdy foundation.
Then if one of the pillars breaks, your company is still secure because you can rely on the other pillars to hold it up.
Think about where you get your leads – and your website doesn’t count, because it is really just a funnel for converting traffic into prospects. Where do your leads really come from?
I bet you get most of them from just a couple places.
This month, try experimenting with a new method of generating leads. Set a goal of building one new pillar – mastering a new marketing technique and making it work for your business.
In my next couple of posts, I’ll talk about three low-cost pillars you can try.
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