Trade Show Basics

Wifey and I went to the Holiday Expo at the Melbourne Royal Exhibition Building on the weekend. We went looking for information on an up coming holiday Wifey is having with one of her friends and to just have a look at the Expo and how people and companies worked it.

First things first, The Royal Exhibition Building is a stunning building. The very first Australian Parliament met here in 1801 and it has recently gone through a major refurbishment. It has a great deal of history associated with it and it is amazing reading some of the plaques there. Having said that, it is not really the best location for a trade show. The layout of the building makes it challenging to maximise the space for the exhibitors and the flow through of the traffic and air. Air?? Yes, air. It was so hot and stifling even though the weather was not very hot. This is one old building without the benefit of air conditioning!

There were a stack of people there, which was great news for the exhibitors. Many exhibitors were giving away free holidays so there was a frenzy of people wanting to win the trip to Disneyland, Tour of Africa and even a trip to Port Stephens. Experienced Trade Show people know that they are collecting the details of interested people to market to after the show. What most of the competitions did not have was a sign saying that by entering the person was agreeing to be contacted by the company to let them know more about their great offers. In this "new age" of privacy this is essential

Another thing that is essential is booth presence.

One booth had no posters. You read that correctly NO POSTERS. So while everyone else had glossy posters of the destination, pictures of people having a fabulous time, even dummys hanging from the top of the booth, this one person had just the blue walls of the booth. He had a stack of brochures on the table but nothing to attract people to him to get them. Even if he had stuck the front page of the brochure around the place, it would have made a difference. You booth needs to have a presence. You don't need to cover the walls, but something that will attract or engage the customer.

You also need something when the customer comes over. Another booth had run out of brochures on the first day and so had none for the second day. Running our of brochures is a good thing. It means you had way more prospects than you expected, but to have nothing to give is not OK. Surely the guy could have found a place to photocopy the front cover of a brochure with his website on it. While it may not have been as sexy or attractive as a glossy it gives them some resource to work with. He spent most of the day just sitting in the chair waiting for people to come and talk to him. You could see people look his way, notice the brochure stands were empty and walk away.

What have you done to dress up your walls or to replace brochure stock when you ran out? How do you create a Both Presence? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Enjoy!

Warwick Merry
The Get More Guy
www.warwickmerry.com
www.GetMoreBlog.com
www.GetMoreShowSuccess.com

Are You Wasting Your Time?

I spent a few hours at the Melbourne Motor Show on the weekend. So many of the booth holders are wasting their time, which is effectively hemorrhaging money!

So many of the stands had two types of people.
1) Booth Babes
2) Car Dealers

Booth Babes

After talking with some of the booth babes it was quite obvious that their training was minimal. Most of them confessed to not knowing much about cars. They could point out the different ones and possibly had a bit of an idea of idea about features and benefits but not much. I can put up with a lack of knowledge on product, particularly if they admit they don't know the detail. Let's face it, if you are an enthusiast you probably know more than the sales team does let alone a Booth Babe. What annoys me with Booth Babes is when they don't know how to engage with prospects. Simple conversation - what models do you like, what colours have you considered, are you interested in buying a car, what are looking for at the show, are you having a good day. These are all really basic questions that can be used to engage and qualify potential prospects. A qualified prospect can then be introduced to a sales person.

I would love to have a car company understand that the "engagement" with the prospect (or future prospect as heaps of kids were there) is more important than knowing about the car.

Car Dealers

Car Dealers seem to ooze an aura of "I am more important than you". Maybe they are assessing the prospect for financial value or maybe they see the Motor Show as a personal inconvenience, whatever it is, their attitude sucks. If I ran the booth I would keep the Car Dealer out the back. They tend to have a negative impact on people.

What I'd Like To See

What I would like to see is members of the associated car club on the stand. How cool would that be!! A group of people who are clearly passionate about the car and willing to engage with others to talk about them. Give them free uniform, free entry and free lunch and I suspect they would do the job willingly. Enough basic sales training to identify a qualified prospect and be able to pass them on to a sales person and then just let their passion for that car or that brand flow.

The person you select to operate the stand is as important as what you put on or in the stand. If the person is just sitting there, not engaging or not interested, you are wasting your time and wasting your money.

Who would you like to see on a stand at the Motor Show?

Enjoy!

Warwick Merry
The Get More Guy
www.warwickmerry.com
www.GetMoreBlog.com
www.GetMoreShowSuccess.com