Tradeshow Tidbits

Tradeshows are a significant investment and in today’s economic environment it is vital that you maximize your time spent at your next show.  After many years of experience I put together a set of guidelines that I have found very useful and thought I would share them.  These should come in handy with Print 09 just around the corner.

The Top Five Tidbits

The Demo:  This is the primary reason that an attendee elects to attend a trade show.  They are there to see the product demonstrated live.  You need to have your demonstrations well scripted, prepared and customer centric.  Have you done your research on the attendee, are you demonstrating to their needs? You may be very proud of your products features but they are meaningless if they are not delivered with the customer need in mind and the resulting benefit.

Six degrees of Separation:  Use your network.  If your booth is recommended to a potential customer by someone else than the likelihood that they will visit is much higher.

Personal Invitation:  Use your sales force and the relationship that they have built with their customers and prospects.  Today a personalized invitation signed by the sales rep inviting a prospect to the booth can be very effective.

Location Location Location:  We have heard it many times in many areas but there is no doubt that this is a key contributor to the success of your booth.  If your customer can’t find you then it is going to be pretty difficult to deliver an effective trade show demonstration.

Size Matters: Like it or not it’s a fact the biggest booth gets the most attention.  Even if you need to manage your budget, creative signage and layout can give you the illusion of having a “big booth”.

About your Prospect

Never Underestimate ANYBODY

They may be wearing jeans, they may be younger than you expect, and they may be asking casual unrelated questions.  No matter what treat every person that walks into the booth as a potential buyer.  I remember a tradeshow where the gentleman handed me a business card with the title “trouble maker”.  We later sold him $750,000 of equipment for his printing firm in Hawaii.  (you know who you are).

We don’t need no stinkin’ badges….

There is a reason that badges are issued to attendees, so you can read their names.  After you do, use them!  “So Tom, tell me what area is your firm looking to make improvements, you have invested the time to attend so….”

Early Riser Or Late Bloomer

This person shows up right when the doors open.  They may not appear to be anyone special; however they are often your power buyer.  It is also typical for the power buyer to hang around when things are winding down.  They me be perusing your booth after most have left and asking a lot of questions, this is more than likely someone who is ready to buy.

Don’t Ignore Prospects

One of the rudest things you can do is ignore a prospect . . . even for a few seconds.  Nobody likes to be ignored.  If you’re busy when someone approaches, either acknowledge him/her to try to include him/her in your conversation.  If you’re talking to a booth mate or neighbor, break it off immediately.

It’s All ABout You!

Party Time… Not!

OK, let’s be realistic tradeshows can have a reputation of being an opportunity to be a little wild.  Don’t get caught up in the excitement, let your competition whoop it up.  The next morning when the potential buyers walk in and you have had your 7 – 8 hours sleep who is going to be ready to address their questions and concerns?

Competitive Edge

Tradeshows can be consuming.  I have heard many of my peers comment “ we were so busy we never got out of the booth” too bad, what venue other than a trade show gives you an opportunity to hear your competitions entire pitch, new product announcements, key solutions, the trade show.  By planning and scheduling your staff effectively there is ample time for someone to gather the information necessary to maintain your competitive edge. .

Etiquette

These should be obvious but I have to mention them because it still occurs; chewing gum, eating, drinking, sitting and even reading the newspaper should NEVER occur in the booth.  Nothing is more irritating to a tradeshow attendee then walking into a booth and seeing any or all of these in combination.

Clustering!

One of my pet peeves…  OK, you work for a large international corporation and you have offices around the world.  Wow what a great opportunity to catch up with or even meet the people that you have been e-mailing back and forth for the past year.  Do yourself a favor and have pre-show meeting the day before so you can get that out of the way.  You are there to talk with the tradeshow attendees, your prospects, not each other!

You Are What You Eat (And Drink)

A nice steak, couple of martinis, maybe a bottle of wine, now that’s what I call customer entertainment.  It is also what I call having a rough morning the next day.  Stay away from heavy and rich foods and alcohol.  Let’s face it, this is only for a few days you can do it.  You will be much better “on your feet” the next day.

Grooming

I know, it’s all the rage to wear a cool sport shirt with your company logo, maybe even ball caps that are monogrammed.  Personally I think it is time to get back to basics.  Whatever happened to a nice conservative 2-piece suite for a man or dress suit for women when working the booth?  Who would you rather do business with?

Lanyards Are So “Techy”

I carry a small clip with a plastic loop that snaps through the lanyard badge.  That way I can clip it on my right lapel where it is visible, turned facing the customer and to his or her left.  When I lean in to shake their hand they can clearly read my badge eliminating the embarrassing “oh your badge is turned around on your lanyard so what is your name again?”

Keep it Clean

I like to call it “I get no respect” that is if the booth could talk.  Empty paper cartons, food containers, drink cups, the list goes on.  Keep it off the show floor and most certainly out of the booth.

This Is A Lead Generating Opportunity!

OK, I can accept that this is one of the key reasons for attending.  On the other hand if your customer is coming to the show to buy, who are you to discourage them!  Yes folks this is an order writing opportunity as well!

Time to Improve

Things are tough all over, in fact if you think things are tough for you try checking out the Printing Industry, talk about a challenging environment.  So we have a couple of choices; one choice is to cry in our beer or curl up in the fetal position and hope that everything goes back to “normal”.  Not a choice that I am considering or that is productive, in fact the “hope” that everything goes back to normal is in itself the definition of hopelessness.  So like always I am looking at the glass half full and so are many of our customers. 

It is interesting to me the customers that decide to capitalize on every situation no matter if it is positive or negative.  We have several innovative and dynamic companies that have made the strategic (and tactical) decision that it is “Time to Improve” .  Yes, some of them have had to make hard decisions, downsizing, layoffs, budget cuts, however they are investing in improving their foundation, the remaining staff that will need to get the job done with less resources and manpower.   

One great example is a customer that has studied the number of product demonstrations they would typically perform and how many they would have to win in order to hit their revenue targets.  As they studied the numbers they quickly discovered that the win ratio they have been traditionally maintaining (which was pretty good) isn’t going to cut it going forward.  Why?  There are less deals in the pipeline, less demos being delivered and therefore the number of wins no longer can produce close to what it used to.  The answer; IMPROVE!  Using professional development programs (like ours for example) they have been able to sharpen the skills of their team, make less mistakes, use fundamentals and techniques and significantly increase their win ratio.  Food for thought.

The 2% Factor and Stand Up Sit Down

I have been supporting, selling and marketing in the capital equipment market for nearly 30 years.  My good friend Bob Riefstahl turned me on to a concept called the 2% factor.  It is really a very simple concept but I believe these are typically the best ones.  If you are in the business of selling, whether it is equipment, software or services this still applies, you will recognize this scenario.  There was some type of pre-selection process, possibly an RFP and the buyer has narrowed down their choice to the three top contenders.  You are one of these contenders!  That’s the good news.  You go through an exhaustive process of presentations, demonstrations, detailed response to the RFP and you finally hear from you client on their decision.  The client calls you in and says, “Ron, you did a great job, your proposal was spot on, your demo was excellent and we really like your team, unfortunately we have decided to go with your competitor but I do want you to know it was a VERY close call!”

These are the words that you dread and the decision was probably very close, based on Bob’s teachings not more or less then 2%!  The fact is that your presentation and demonstration is much like a judged event.  The decision is often subjective.  That’s right I said subjective, now your R&D and product folks are jumping up and down because you have the best product, solution, or service.  Unfortunately today many vendors or suppliers that make the final cut in the decision process are in the running because any of their products will do the job. So how do you differentiate yourself and how do you close the 2% gap?

Here is one example…

Bob told me a story about a large enterprise software deal he was working on when he was selling software.  It was determined that Bob’s technical support specialist (TSS) would give the presentation and Bob would sit in the back of the room to observe, provide support and add any necessary comments.  The technique that Bob and his TSS developed was something he calls “stand up sit down”.  Here’s how it works, the TSS is presenting and Bob wants to interject.  What typically happens, the sales person says excuse me or I have something to add, etc. basically interrupting the presenter.  With “stand up sit down” Bob simply stands up behind his chair and waits, the presenter sees the queue and sits down at a chair strategically located in the conference room.  Bob then begins to speak, when he is done he simply sits down and the presenter takes over again.

I can tell you that the first time I tried this it was amazing.  I was in the back of the room and stood up and waited.  When the presenter stopped and I began to speak EVERYONE in the room turned and gave me their attention.  When I was finished the presenter took over and everything continued smoothly.

Bob’s story has quite an interesting ending.  His client, who did chose Bob’s solution, told Bob that the primary reason for the decision was the unprecedented team work that Bob’s company displayed.  In fact the software solutions were so similar that they had quite a bit of trouble remember who did what.  Pretty interesting and a true story.  If you are interested in finding about more techniques that can help you position you and your company in first place please contact me at rkendig@winningstance.com.

The Changing Print Industry!

I want to spend some time here talking about the industry I grew up in and how it has changed.  Most of my time is spent on the supplier side or the industry.  In other words my clients provide equipment, software and services to printing companies who in turn provide hard copy output and services to their clients.  I have been in this industry just shy of 30 years and have seen several significant changes however the last ten years have changed print, what I believe, forever. 

My latest “hit over the head with a sledge hammer” experience was at a friends baby shower.  Myself and my lovely “better half” sat across from a young lady who introduced herself as a graphic designer.  So of course I chime in commenting that I have spent many years servicing the print industry.  She reply’s, oh well the company I work for only does graphic design for non-printed communications, in fact that is our strategic position.  We do electronic media only.  She talked about designing point-of-purchase (POP) signage for companies like Macy’s that is only electronic.  Now the interesting part of this discussion and the part that concerns me is that her company was never a printing company, never worked with printing companies and started as a graphic design firm for electronic media only. 

Why does this concern me?  Our industry needs to wake up and smell the coffee, now don’t get me wrong there are many progressive Graphic Communications companies who have transitioned a percentage of their business from print media to alternative media.  By the way, that is also kind of funny that we call it alternative media when infact it may be that print is becoming the alternative media.  The fact of the matter is many of the printing companies that are out there today have the skill set and experience to be a great asset to the new media market.  The question is do they think that way and are they really pushing themselves from a marketing and sales standpoint to become a true Graphic Communications firm.

So here is a great example of just what I am talking about….

Welcome to WinningStance’s WinBlog

We have titled this blog WinningStance.  You can read more about WinningStance on the “About” tab up above.  Our focus is professional development skills with a specialty in medical and graphic arts capital equipment.

Many of you in the graphic arts industry, which we will henceforth refer to as graphic communications or GC industry, already know Ron.  For those of you that don’t, he has long history, about 29 years of industry experience. Mariana comes from the high tech and  telecommunications sector.  She is multilingual and supports our international efforts.

This is a B2B oriented blog and discussion points around the GC industry as well as marketing, selling and professional development are areas of interest to us and hopefully those who might read this.  So let’s see what happens…