What about Booth Babes and Booth Blokes?

I am often asked whether it is worthwhile having "Hired Beauty" (what I call Booth Babes and Booth Blokes) on your stand.


This is what I think!

What are you doing for 2010?

2010 is just around the corner.  You know it will be here quicker than you expect (look how quick Christmas crept up on us!).  So what are you doing for it?

From a Trade Show or Expo sense, what are you doing for 2010?  Exhibiting is a magnificent way to build and grow your business, but as I have always said, you will hemorrhage cash if you don't do it right!  So take some time over the coming weeks to decide:

• What is the best target market for you and your business?
• What exhibitions does this target market go to?
• What kind of presence do you want to have at this exhibition?
• How can you build a presence that becomes a hub at the exhibition?
• What do you want to get out of your exhibition?
• How will you measure your "success" in 2010?
• What do you need to do NOW to put you on the way to achieving this success?
• Who do you need on your team to help you?

The questions are simple but the answers will help you define 2010 and the success you will achieve.

I think 2010 will be an absolute cracker and I would love for yours to be also.  Let me know if I can assist you getting there.

Enjoy!

Engage or Exit!

So many visitors to a Trade Show or Expo have on their mind "Engage or Exit".

It's not a conscious thought, but they know if you don't pay them attention or at the very least acknowledge their presence, they are out of there.  How do you do that?  It's easy when there are only one or two people per staff member in your booth, but what about peak hour?  You MUST have a strategy to deal with the busy times.  Even if you have one of your team nominated as the "Preview Person".

The Preview Person will quickly move among the people, get their contact details and what they are interested in.  They do not have to be as knowledgable as your key staff members but they can quickly engage, comment on how busy it is and get someone to get back to them.  It is a way that everyone gets engaged and your can then follow up later in the show by calling their mobile phone or follow up after the show.

How do you deal with peak hour?

You gotta Stand in the Stand!

One of the things that annoys me, but more importantly, costs exhibitors money, is sitting in your stand.

Let me explain.

If you were an exhibitor at a Trade Show or Expo, you would have paid thousands of dollars for the privilege. Dollars for the space, dollars for the stand, dollars for the promotion, dollars for the travel to get there and back, dollars for accomodation and meals and dollars for emergency sundry things that you forgot about and needed to get last minute. So after spending all of these dolllars, what do you get?

Anyone who has worked at a Trade Show knows that the biggest thing that you get is the pain in your feet! The show floor is concrete with a "film" of carpet if you are lucky. No matter how good your shoes are, the feet hurt. If only I could just sit down!!

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Nothing will scare a prospect away quicker that someone sitting in the stand. Think about you own reaction when you walk up to someone who is sitting in their stand. Because it starts with the sitting, then the person sitting says to themselves, "I'll just relax a little". When the prospect comes over, they say to themselves, "I'll get up if they are interested".
The person coming over thinks, "They are not that interested so I'll move on."
The seated person thinks, "Yay, I don't have to get up because my feet hurt!"

Prospect, potential sale, potential lifelong value of customer GONE! The thousands (if not tens of thousands and sometimes hundreds of thousands) invested in the show WASTED all because you have sore feet.

The Trade Show or Expo may be on for one, three or maybe eight days. That's only eight days of your life that you have to have sore feet. As wifey says to me when I am whining, "Suck it up princess!!" This is why they call it a Stand. You have to stand there. You have to be on full alert. You have to make your guest feel welcomed when they come over and not feel uncomfortable. Standing at the edge of your booth welcoming guests, being friendly, engaging with prospects will do this so much better than sitting at the back of the Stand thinking about your sore feet.

Each prospect visiting will be visiting your stand for the first time, so for you it has to be the first time. With all the enthusiasm and vigour of the first time.

You Gotta Stand in the Stand!!

Enjoy

Warwick Merry
The Get More Guy

Don't be a Vulture!

I was at an Expo recently and saw some Vultures. I strongly encourage you to NOT be a Trade Show or Expo Vulture. Watch the video and see what I mean!



So what about you? Are you a Vulture? What can you do differently so that you add value to your visitor and not be a Vulture?

Enjoy!

Warwick Merry
The Get More Guy

How Easy is it?

I have just spent three days working at the Pregnancy, Babies and Children's Expo. I am continually fascinated with how business and individuals present themselves, particularly at Expo's and Trade Shows.

The key learning from the show I would give you is, make it easy for your customer to buy from you.

For me, Expo's and Trade Shows are speed dating for your business. When going speed dating, the person who clams up, won't share about who they are and what they are there for, doesn't get the date.

So be clear:

• What are you selling?
• Why would the customer want it?
• What discounts do you have?
• What is the Key benefit?

Trade Show research has shown that the majority of visitors are there either to find out what's new in the market or to get a "bargain". Knowing that, wouldn't you put up some simple signs saying "NEW", "Expo Deal" or "20% off"? I am continually amazed at how people will stop to explore a bargain without consideration of what they are actually buying!

People want to buy from you. They want to use your services.

DON"T MAKE IT HARD TO DO SO!!

In your business, how can you make it easier for your customer to buy from you?

How is your Fish Bowl?

Here are a couple of key points about how to Get More from your Fish Bowl at your next Trade Show

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

Don't Just Sit There!

I couldn't believe it.

They would have spent a truck load of money for the stand. I wont mention who it was but it was a highly recognisable airline. I was at the Asia-Pacific Incentives and Meetings Expo in Melbourne. It was hard to tell there was a global financial crisis going on. Some amazing stands (multi-level with suites for discussions) and some amazing marketing going on. A surprising amount of traffic was moving around also, apparently attendance was up by almost 10%. From an organisers perspective, it would have to be seen as a success.

There Was Static

So how would you take advantage of all this traffic? Well the airline in question had a reasonable size booth. Nice comfy chairs, welcoming decor, plenty of marketing collateral for people, an attractive woman in the booth and the plasma screen in the background was playing static. I thought it must be a glitch that they would fix but when I went past again 45 minutes later, it was still showing static.

The woman in the booth was not interested in much that I could see. She was still sitting in the chair waiting. I am not sure what for.

Take Responsibility

I understand that technology deserts you just when you need it. But surely there would have been a better way than just showing static. Some thoughts I had on what the company representative could have done:

• Turn off the TV - Nothing was showing, better a blank TV than a distracting one.
• Say "Hello" - At no time did she try and engage me in conversation
• Ask "Do you know how to make the DVD work?" - Who knows I may be an AV wizard and she could then sell me her product
• Stand up - It was horribly apparent that she did not care and did not want to be there, simply standing up would have changed her approachability
• Smile - The easiest and simplest thing to do.

Again this points to a key part of a trade show. Train your people and never forget you are the face of the company. At the very least, don't just sit there!!


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


Image by Pablo Sanz

What's your ROI?

I was speaking to the Australasian Marketing Manager of a large IT company today. Naturally we got to talking about Trade Shows. He said that he always measures the ROI of the show and they are becoming to expensive and the cost per new client was too high. So much so that he was going to avoid Trade Shows for quite awhile.

Then he steeled himself. Surely as a supposed Trade Show guru I would try and talk him back to the Trade Show. So naturally I said, "Good on you, if the ROI doesn't add up - don't go!"

Of course we chatted more and I shared my thoughts on the value of Trade Shows but what was important is that he measured the value of the show to his company. So many exhibitors don't! They go for a nebulous, immeasurable reason - or worse a measurable reason that they don't measure, and then can't tell if it was worthwhile going.

Trade Shows are big business. The organiser is in it to make money - they charge accordingly. You need to ask yourself is this the best place for your business to place your marketing money. For some businesses a Trade Show is the back bone of their marketing plan, for others it is an excessive waste.

What about you? Is the Trade Show worth it? If you don't know you need to find out how to measure that. Naturally, I am always happy to help!!

Enjoy!

Warwick Merry
The Get More Guy
www.warwickmerry.com
www.getmoreblog.com
www.getmoreshowsuccess.com