The Booth

I am used to being on the other side of the “Vendor Booth”. Now that I am on the sell to side, I have been thinking what works. There are lots of strategies. One example is the “Hired Gun” By this I do not mean a hired professional sales person, rather hired beauty. It is easy to spot. They are generically the blond in “Stick out clothing” and no understanding of the business. I avoid these booths. It is hard to get value. Next is the “Trinkets and Trash” An example of this was a company that was giving away toys. Sure, I picked up a toy of the kids. Did it keep my attention? No, I did spend just enough time for the sales person to ask me the name of my company. Again, no value for either of us.

There are other booths that have people behind the booths that are playing video games, talking to each other and generally avoiding potential clients. I do realize that it is hard to keep focus. But lets face it, there is lots of money invested to be there, it is important to be on the game all time.

So what is the most effective way to attract quality business at these events? My opinion is that the people make the biggest difference. They can do some simple things to gain business.

1. Have a booth that is simple. Has what you do, simple terms and not too many words or graphics that distract from the main point. Bigger/fancier booths do not attract more business in my opinion.
2. Do not have a gimmick that distracts from what you are trying to sell. Examples include playing golf, video games or other games. Sure, they do attract people. I question the quality of those interactions. Sales people that are getting quality one on one interaction gets interrupted by people wanting the trinkets or to play games.
3. Knowledgeable people that have the elevator pitch down. That would be the who you are, what you do and a quick value statement. In these type of occasions it should be mandatory to have this memorized. Yesterday it amazed me that many of the reps I spoke to could barely explain to me what it was they did in 2 minutes. THIS IS WHAT THEY WERE THERE FOR!
4. After the one on one conversation and it is identified that the two parties may be compatible, make sure you get the next step!. Again, yesterday I had a lot of people that did the RFID tag read that had my contact information. So then what will happen is I will get some type of spam I will probably ignore. I think what should happen is an appointment, schedule a call, bare minimum send a personalized email. This is the most KEY step. I may see value in the relationship at the time, but forget, not follow up or get lazy and the entire time was wasted.

These events can cost $1,000’s, $10,000 or even at larger events $100,000’s. yet the marketing people create great graphics, good trinkets and nice booths. Still without simple followup, quality people and simple sales skills it is all for nothing. Are these type of sales events worth the cost? I don’t know. You do get a large number of qualified people in a room. This should be a target rich environment.