“In all things that you do, consider the end.”
Welcome to High-Value Skills.
It’s the second part of the Trade Show Stand Mastery training course.
Part 1 is for people new to trade shows.
I assume that’s not you, or you’ve already completed the first course.
The focus here is to help you improve exhibiting results.
It’s why the quote from Solon, the ancient Athenian lawmaker and poet heads this page.
We start by considering the end and the results that we wish to achieve.
And by results, I mean sales.
Why sales, as opposed to leads collected, samples distributed or any other measure?
Without sales, businesses decline and die.
Also, you must know that events have paid for themselves and delivered new revenue and clients.
That result starts with increasing the number of leads collected.
Then, it’s about turning as many of those leads as you can into sales.
If your job title includes Marketing and the word “sales” makes you itch, read this short extract from a Fast Company interview with Manuel Arroyo, Coca-Cola’s Chief Marketing Officer.
It highlights that increased sales are also the top priority for one of the world’s biggest and best-known brands.
Coca-Cola’s Chief Marketing Officer, Manuel Arroyo
Image sourced from Marketing Interactive.com
Just today alone, 1.9 billion Coca-Cola products will be sold around the world.
Now, Chief Marketing Officer Manuel “Manolo” Arroyo is aiming to double its number of consumers very quickly.
“We’re in the process of deploying QR codes in every package available for all of our brands in the next three years,” Arroyo tells Fast Company. “QR codes are arguably the most unexploited and under-leveraged media vehicle that exists out there. Even if you only get a 3% redemption, imagine the return on 1.9 billion per day, what we can do in terms of first-, second-, and third-party data moving forward. One [strategy] at a global scale, and it’s going to take us to very different places.”
Arroyo is a marketing leader openly focused on (doubling) sales.
Coca-Cola’s brand and advertising strategies are there to support that goal.
He’s not interested in Coke’s ads winning awards.
If awards come, they’re by-products; nice to have things.
But they are far, far away from the main thing.
And this brings us to another theme of the course;
Not seeing exhibiting as a separate thing distanced from other marketing activities.
Instead, you’ll see that by integrating exhibiting and piggybacking on it, you’ll supercharge the collective effectiveness of your marketing.
It’s a very different process from simply exhibiting.
It’s proactive and exciting because you get to engineer outstanding sales results.
Objectives: Choose The Result You Want To Improve Most
“Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesperson, not the attitude of the prospect.”
W. Clement Stone, Insurance salesman, philanthropist and author
To begin, let’s imagine you’ve taken responsibility for a stand in an event your company participates in annually.
To improve on previous results, you need to know what was achieved last time.
Benchmark what happened previously in the areas you want to improve.
Among other things that might include;
- The total number of enquiries (leads) collected
- Sales made at the event
- Sales made post-event (but directly connected to participation)
- On-stand appointments held
- Visitor attendance to on-stand seminars
- Key buyer attendance to your stand
- Media interviews conducted
- Samples distributed
- Downloads of white papers or reports pre and post event
When you know what you want to improve, you can develop a plan for the goal or goals.
When you make that goal the driver of your thinking, other sub-achievements may also happen due to activity directed towards your primary objective.
It will become evident how this happens as you work through the course, but for now, decide on your goal.
Most exhibitors seeking to improve sales results will aim to increase the number and quality of leads they collect.
This objective may also deliver other successes, but they will be secondary benefits to the primary goal.
Here’s a straightforward goal statement about increasing leads;
- We collected 100 sales leads at the previous event
- Our goal for the upcoming show is 125 leads (a 25% increase)
- We have two days to achieve the objective (it’s a two-day show)
Note that I haven’t mentioned anything about the value of those leads or the industries they must come from (attributing values to leads and sales is covered in the next module).
Those things could be primary goals in their own right. Here the goal is about the number of leads collected.
Keep things simple, and you’ll know if you have achieved an objective or not.
When you’ve fixed your goal, you can develop the strategy to achieve it.
NB. Most shows are what you make them to be.
Take them seriously and work them hard.
Have your stand team ready for action when the show opens.
No leaving early either because there will still be visitors in the halls.
Hold daily team meetings.
Swap notes, and above all, avoid (better still), ban hangovers.
They’re the last thing needed when working on a stand meeting and greeting for seven hours or more.
Decide On Your Strategy
“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”
Sun Tzu, The Art Of War
Your event strategy could be as simple as turn up and exhibit.
It’s not much of a strategy and unlikely to achieve your growth objective.
Yet many exhibitors rely on this for their results.
On the other hand, you could base your strategy around making your stand one of the most valuable and exciting places in the whole event.
And in case you’re now thinking, “but we’re not Google, or Ford or some other world-leading brand”, the good news is, you don’t have to be.
You only have to be attractive to the most relevant buyers of your product or service.
What is a compelling story for them?
What do you offer that’s so good for their businesses that they shouldn’t miss seeing your stand at the show?
How will they and their companies benefit from what you offer?
Listing all the possibilities will help you identify the big message for an event or a whole series.
Pick the most decisive benefit and rank other sub-benefits below the lead.
- Can you increase their production capacity?
- Or remove one or more of their current processes?
- Perhaps you can improve delivery times
- Or offer twenty-four-hour service support
- Maybe the significant benefit is reducing overhead costs
- Or you can improve efficiency in one or more areas of operation
- Are you able to provide a skilled workforce when demand requires it?
- Can you increase the colours or the models in their range?
- Will what you offer increase or improve tolerances in client machinery?
- Can you cut their energy costs substantially?
You could develop supporting themes from the leading “what’s in it for them” benefit.
These might include show offers or new additions to your range of products and services.
As highlighted in the Trade Show Stand Mastery Course Part 1, the word “new” is powerful in event marketing.
However, newness by itself does not benefit a client.
You need to explain the additional capability that’s delivered.
The other possible benefits listed below the show’s prime lead story can help you build a sales script for the stand team.
Most likely, these sub-benefits support the big story in some tangible way.
Let’s say you will be exhibiting a machine that can increase production by 30% compared to current rivals.
That’s the lead headline for screens and graphics across your stand.
It’s how your stand team can start conversations with visitors: “Do you look after production for your business?
If yes, then, “Let me show you how we can help your business increase your current production capacity by 30% without needing additional space?”
The fact that the machine doesn’t take up more space than current rivals is a secondary benefit to the increased capacity.
It might also be energy-saving because of some new technology inside.
Your business might provide in-depth training in the first three months of operation.
Plus, an around-the-clock call out service package comes with any purchase.
By layering the benefits, you build your sales script.
An interpretation of that headline message could also be on stand team T-shirts or the giveaways you hand to selected buyers, or in an online report.