Modern Strategies for Trade Show Results

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Welcome to the Same Side Selling podcast. I am your

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host, Ian Altman. One of the common questions I get asked,

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right about this time of the year, almost every year is, what

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do we do when it comes to trade shows, we invest money, we show

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up at these trade shows, but we don't always get the best

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results out of them. And invariably, what happens is we

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get a few people come to us and say, Wow, I'm really interested

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in what you do. They captivate our time, we spend a lot of

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quality time with them, we may miss other opportunities. So

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what are some strategies that you can employ in trade shows to

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make sure you get the best results? For starters, what we

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want to do is want to make sure we're focused on specific

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objectives and goals. If there are attendees who we know we

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want to connect with, before the event even happens, we want to

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meet with while we're there, we want to reach out to those

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people in advance. Now, we can't just say, Hey, I'm going to be

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the show, I want to show you our stuff, because then we sound

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like someone who's just a stereotypical salesperson. And

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when that happens, what happens is that prospect thinks, oh, I

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don't need to spend time with them just so they can try and

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sell me something. So your first outreach should be something

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along the lines of here's some trends that we've been seeing

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lately in our industry. And I'd love to talk to you about those

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and see if you're facing those, you might be facing different

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ones, something along those lines, you get someone to say,

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wow, they have their finger on the pulse of trends in our

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industry, they might be helpful, then at that point, once you

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engage in that level of conversation, it's a matter of

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look, let's connect here and I want to learn more about what it

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is you're doing. I don't even know if we have anything that

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would be helpful for you. But we work with a lot of people in

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this industry. And I'm happy to talk about different trends,

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different initiatives that we're seeing, to see if those line up

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with yours. We might not do anything together for years,

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which has the added benefit of being true because you may in

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fact, not do anything with them for years, because at this

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point, you don't know enough about their situation, to know

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if you can help. Now, what about at the tradeshow? Well, for a

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lot of organizations, the goal is how do I capture as many

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business cards as many contacts as possible. And I don't think

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that's a great strategy. Because if people are not a good fit for

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what you do, then you're just collecting names of people who

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you're going to be breeding with information that isn't relevant

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to them. If you want to get top results for your team, take a

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look at the Same Side Selling Academy. Just visit same side

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selling.com to learn more. So when someone comes up to your

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booth, there's a couple things you want to do first, in terms

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of booth design, you want to focus your design and messaging

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around the problems that you solve, instead of describing

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what it is that you do. research I've done across over 10,000

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executives says that the first thing people care about is what

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problem might you be solving for them? Why is that problem worth

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solving, and then what's the likely outcome or result if they

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actually implemented whatever it is you're offering. So describe

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the kinds of problems that you solve. And ideally, you want to

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pick the top two or three things most likely to resonate with the

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attendees at that event. And here's a little trick, if you're

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showing up at an event, and you don't know the three biggest

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problems that you're solving for people, you probably should not

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be going to that event. In fact, you want to make sure you're

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showing up in a place where most of the people there are a

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significant portion of them have the kind of problems you're good

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at solving, or at least you know, that's where those people

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go to hang out. What that allows you to do is if your messaging

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on your on your booth is centered around, what kind of

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problems? Are you good at solving them? When someone comes

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up to your booth? The first question you can ask is, oh,

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what inspired you to stop by today? And usually, they will

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say, Oh, that second bullet on that backdrop, really caught my

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attention, you just say really why that one. And now we're

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talking about what they're looking for, not what it is that

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you're selling. As soon as you start showing a demo, showing

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some sort of capabilities, you look and act like a

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stereotypical salesperson. And think about what happens when

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you walk into a store. And the salesperson says May I help you?

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You probably like the rest of us say no thanks. Just looking

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because we've been trained to believe that we don't want to be

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sold to we don't want someone else trying to sell us

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something. And so it gets that knee jerk reaction that says,

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Look, get away from me, which is a totally reasonable reaction I

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have. So instead, we want to make sure that we're focusing on

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their issues. Now, some people will say, wow, this person is

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really interested. I'm going to focus my time on them. But I

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often ask is, so you spent a half hour with that person,

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right? Oh, yeah, they were really interested. Okay. How was

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their level of interest? And how good of a fit are they compared

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to the three people who were behind them? Who lost patience,

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lost interest, and went on to the next booth? And the answer

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is we have no idea because we didn't talk to those other

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people. So the idea is to have a specific game plan at a trade

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show that says look, my goal is kind of a kid Catch and release

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program like fishing, I want to attract the interest of my ideal

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client, I want to find out what's important to them. And is

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it important for them to try and solve. And then once I gauge

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that interest, I either want to set up a specific time, when

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it's not the typical show hours to meet with them and in depth,

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or I want to schedule the time I take out my phone or something

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like that and say, Hey, why don't we schedule a time for the

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second day after you return from this event. And we can talk

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about in greater detail to see whether or not we can help. I

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don't want to monopolize your time, I'm sure you want to see a

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lot of other people here. And I'd be happy to talk to you next

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week to see whether or not we might be able to help. What that

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does is it allows you to pique their interest and you don't

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seem desperate. Instead, what people do is they spend all this

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time with that individual and they they totally overlook the

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people behind them who might be even a better fit. The idea is

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to come out of the show, saying, here are the subset of people

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who had a genuine interest who impressed upon us that that

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problem was costing them enough to make it worth finding a

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solution. And we've already scheduled a time next week for

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us to follow up with them and find out whether or not we can

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help. See, the idea is that we want to come away with a list of

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people who have interest in what we do. And we're still not quite

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sure where the fit is, rather than have 1/10 A number of

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people who we think are interested, but we may have

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missed some of the better opportunities. So as you're

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looking at trade shows, just to recap where we're at. First,

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make sure that your messaging on the trade show is focused on the

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problems that you solve, not what it is that you're selling.

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Then, if there are people who you know, are attending the show

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you want to meet with, reach out to them in advance, talk about

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the trends you're seeing in the industry, not just you want to

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show them a demo. In fact, we want to avoid demos in these

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trade shows wherever possible, because once you're doing that

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you look and act like a stereotypical salesperson. Once

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they come to the booth, we ask questions like What inspired you

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to stop by today? And they'll usually talk down about

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something they saw. That's a problem. You say? Why that one,

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now they're talking about their problem, then we want to gauge

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how important that problem is for them and set up a follow up

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time to take a deeper dive. If you follow that approach, you'll

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get a much higher conversion rate than you might otherwise

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and you're not going to come across like that pushy

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salesperson. If there are topics you'd like me to address, just

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drop me a note to Ian at Ian altman.com Of course visit same

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side selling.com And I will see you next time on the Same Side

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Selling podcast so long