June 2000

A New Paradigm For Successful Trade Show Marketing
Would You Believe 1,200 Quality Leads!

BY NADJI TEHRANI

In these editorials, I've highlighted some of the mistakes made by trade show marketers, which invariably result in a significant loss of money. From my perspective, the most damaging of all of these mistakes is believing the following myth:

Myth
If an exhibitor does not get considerable sales leads from a trade show, it can only mean that the show was not the right place to exhibit.

Fact
Provided the trade show has a sound reputation for bringing an adequate number of buyers to the exhibit hall, and assuming the exhibitor carefully chose the expo for the target audience it promised to deliver, the exhibitor should not place the sole blame for its lack of leads on the trade show, but, instead, should seriously evaluate its own trade show participation practices. The four areas that should receive the dissatisfied exhibitor's immediate scrutiny are: 1) The staff on booth duty during the show; 2) The design of the booth itself; 3) A review of all of its pre-show marketing efforts; and 4) An evaluation of other exhibitors' efforts to attract leads.

If you think any one of these factors doesn't matter, consider the following. First, which I wrote about in one of my earlier editorials, is a real-life example of the relationship between booth personnel and the quantity of leads generated during a trade show. This particular scenario occurred during a Comdex Expo, which normally attracts 100,000+ attendees to the show. For the first two days of the show, the individual responsible for staffing our TMC booth was the wrong person for the job. I refer to her as Type B. In a nutshell, despite thorough directions on what was expected of her, she lacked motivation, enthusiasm and interest. She had a laid-back attitude and stayed as far away from the aisles as she could, as though she wanted to avoid attendees. Her attitude was that she had put samples of our products on the table and if people wanted them, they could take them. If attendees insisted, she'd run their identification card through the imprinter to get them on our mailing list. She seemed far more interested in talking to the salespeople in the adjacent booths about social matters, lunch appointments and which hospitality suite she planned to go to. At the end of two days, she collected a total of 58 sales leads.

I immediately arranged for another individual to staff our booth for the last two days of the show. This person, who I refer to as Type A, was the right person for the job. Not only was she extremely knowledgeable of our products, but her warm, sincere and bubbly personality fueled by her positive, can-do attitude literally stopped every attendee to hear what she had to say about our products. Despite the fact that the last days of a trade show are typically lighter in attendance than the first, the Type A booth attendant distributed 3,000 magazines, sold dozens of our books and generated more than 400 sales leads (see accompanying photo for a comparison of the number of leads generated by Type B versus Type A). Clearly, the person who represents your company in your trade show booth will have a great impact on the number of leads you generate.

There Is Much More To Trade Show Marketing Than Just Showing Up
Successful trade show marketing is a two-way street. The more you put into it, the more you get out of it. This brings us to the second and third areas every exhibitor should scrutinize: their booth's appeal and their attention to pre-show marketing. Unfortunately, there are quite a number of companies that reserve their exhibit space at the last minute, grab a 10 X 10 booth and hastily put together booth signage that offers little information on what they make or what the benefit is of even talking to them. Worse yet, many of these types of exhibitors are unknown in the marketplace, and as we all know, no one buys anything significant from a company unknown to them.

Apparently, these exhibitors fail to realize that they need to compete with several hundred other exhibitors for the attendees' attention. Be sure that your booth graphics tell all attendees (in less than two seconds) what you do or offer. Why? Given that attendees are often senior executives from major, growing corporations, they'll only have two seconds to decide whether or not to come into your booth. They don't have time to stand there trying to figure out what your company offers.

If the name of your company does not explain what your company does, it is vitally important that your booth sign provides this message. In all cases, large block letters supported with relevant, well-lit graphics with pleasing colors (i.e., yellows, warm reddish orange accented with a touch of magenta, aqua green and royal or navy blues) will encourage attendees to enter your booth. Otherwise, if they have to spend a lot of time trying to figure out what you do, while staring at an unattractive booth, you can bet they will walk by.

Obviously, exhibitors that have an outstanding booth display, coupled with Type A booth attendants, will fare far better in capturing the attention of the attendees or prospects perusing the aisles, than those who fall short in these two areas.

What else can you do to draw the masses to your exhibit? The answer is simple: make sure the attendees actually look for your booth.

How do you do that? Pre-show marketing. Logic dictates that the better job you do of pre-show marketing, the more traffic you will gain at your booth. It stands to reason that if attendees don't know who you are or what your company is all about, they have no reason to stop at your booth. Consequently, what you do in terms of aggressive marketing and advertising prior to the show are major keys to success in exhibiting at any trade show.

The first three functions highlighted here should be viewed as the "Fundamental Commandments of Successful Trade Show Marketing." Now there is a new evolution emerging that one must consider with utmost attention. The new paradigm is so powerful, no exhibitor can be successful without it!

The New Paradigm
I learned early in my chemical engineering and marketing career that successful marketing of high-tech products and services can be achieved through a concept known as "marketing through education." It seems that the new breed of successful exhibitors of wireless, computer-telephony integration, Internet telephony and broadband communications products have also discovered this powerful concept, which is why you will see in truly advanced and comprehensive expos such as Communication Solutions EXPO more and more companies offering demos and mini-seminars in their booths right in the exhibit hall. These exhibitors have one of their top sales engineers who has great communication skills explain the concept, application and benefits of the new technology in question. Without exception, every company that conducts such informative "show-and-tell" demos reports extremely successful, qualified sales-lead generation at trade shows.

CellIT Is A Master At It
A company that is practically a master at marketing through education within their exhibit space is CellIT, Inc. The accompanying photo indicates the tremendously successful concept that CellIT has used in generating more than 1,200 qualified sales leads at every Communications Solutions EXPO for three consecutive shows. According to CellIT's vice president of sales and marketing, Mario Villena, "We get in excess of 1,200 high-quality leads at Communications Solutions EXPO. However, what holds the most value is that the publications behind the EXPO consistently deliver quality content to the readers, which, in turn, draws well-informed and educated prospects to our booth. While we are extremely pleased with the quantity of leads generated at the EXPO, we are equally impressed with the quality of the attendees." (The publications to which Mr. Villena refers are TMC's Communications Solutions C@LL CENTER CRM Solutions, INTERNET TELEPHONY and TMCnet.com .)

Indeed, CellIT is one of many exhibitors that believe in conducting marketing through education, i.e., seminars and "show-and-tell" in their booths, thus capturing the attention of large groups of attendees for approximately 20 minutes of uninterrupted education. If an exhibitor in a 10 X 10 booth spends 20 minutes per person to explain his or her technology, by the end of the day, this type of exhibitor can only inform between 10 to 15 prospects. By contrast, an exhibitor in a or 20 X 30 or preferably larger booth can train groups of 15 to 20 or more people every 20 minutes. As such, by the end of the day, this exhibitor would have educated at a minimum 150 prospects. You do the math: logic dictates the larger booth, the higher the number of attendees you can educate, as CellIT has proven.

Those of you who are familiar with a department store in the New York metropolitan area called Syms have probably heard the company's positioning statement, which says, "At Syms, an educated consumer is our best customer." The same holds true in the high-tech area: an informed customer is your best prospect and the best way to do the informing at a trade show is right on the exhibit floor.

I certainly hope you will keep all of these guidelines in mind as you plan your next trade show participation.

Checklist For Successful Trade Show Participation
Here are some excerpts from past editorials that will help you practice successful trade show marketing.

• Does your company have name recognition? For example...would the attendee know what you sell by simply seeing your company's name (i.e., Compaq sells computers; Cisco sells routers, etc.)?
• Are you visible everywhere as a company?
• Have you advertised in the leading industry publication(s) inviting readers to visit your booth? Did you offer them a FREE VIP Pass to do so?
• Do you regularly get your message across through your advertising?
• Have you sent several mailings to your database, especially 3 to 4 weeks before the show, each time giving them a new, important reason why they must visit your booth?
• Have you communicated with customers and invited them to attend the show with complimentary VIP Passes and visit your booth?
• Have you taken the right people, who are well trained in exhibit marketing, to the show with you?
• Have you made it crystal clear to them that they are not going to the show to socialize, they are going to work hard (12 hours straight a day) and generate business?
• Have you explained that they should be actively seeking out customers from the aisles 100 percent of the time?
• Do you come up with a major new attraction or "attention-grabbing idea" in your booth to make you stand above the crowd?
• Do your booth graphics grab attention quickly, communicate in a few seconds what type of product or service you offer and provide a benefit for any attendee to stop by your booth?
• Do you sponsor events at the show to draw all delegates' attention to your booth?
• Are you practicing the new paradigm in trade show marketing, which is marketing through education?

If your answer is positive to most or all of the above questions (and I certainly hope it is), chances are, you will have a very successful trade show. If it is not, do not expect to have a successful show, unless you act now to implement these simple guidelines at your organization.

Sincerely,

Nadji Tehrani
Executive Group Publisher
Editor-in-Chief
ntehrani@tmcnet.com