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Sales Energized Trade Shows (Post 6 – Show Time)
3 min read
Once again the show objectives should serve as your bible for creating your show specific training plan. Make sure that you’re specifically training on the focus areas for each particular show.
You’ll want to determine the key takeaways for each target group that you’re focusing on at a particular show. These takeaways, or “messages” should be created at a target specific level. As an example, if you’re selling a software product to help manage trade show programs, then you may have the following corporate targets:
- VP marketing
- Marcom Manager
- Trade show Specialist
- IT Director and/or CIO
And each target will have a different message. So – be sure to properly train the booth staff so they aren’t delivering the CIO message (that probably discusses architectural benefits) to the Trade show specialist (who cares about ease of use, workflow, and how it makes her job more efficient).
And be sure to include sales in all aspects of training -- including development. Often sales is left out of the show training program which is a big mistake since sales has the benefit of doing this every day in their normal job and can really help ensure that the training is appropriate for the real world audiences that you’ll be seeing at you trade show booth.
So by this point you’ve set yourself up for an amazing “Sales Energized” trade show that will blow away your competition and set you up for recognition as someone who excels at pulling together a team effort and doing it in an exceptional way that deeply involves the sales team.
Prior to the show you’ll want to make sure that you have the appropriate meeting and demo locations to support your outreach program, and monitor these locations and staffing during the show.
Also be sure to monitor your lead tracking closely to make sure leads are being captured and identify any glitches early, before they become an issue.
As an aside here, there are new technologies being developed to enhance the lead capture and distribution process and I recently came across a new app based system that even allows leads to be assigned to specific sales team members on the show floor, with appointment times set, and everything input into SalesForee.com
In terms of technologies, we have a extensive blog post on our website entitled “52 must have apps and tools for Marketing Pros” that’s a great resource for marketing professionals.