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
Monday, November 16, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
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?
Thursday, August 20, 2009
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
Monday, March 23, 2009
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!
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 essentialAnother 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
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
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
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
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
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
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:
Warwick Merry
The Get More Guy
www.warwickmerry.com
www.GetMoreBlog.com
www.GetMoreShowSuccess.com
Image by Pablo Sanz
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.
Warwick Merry
The Get More Guy
www.warwickmerry.com
www.GetMoreBlog.com
www.GetMoreShowSuccess.com
Image by Pablo Sanz
Sunday, January 4, 2009
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
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
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