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The Bulls-Eye Principle
Timing your marketing
Every business has natural ups and downs in its sales cycle. Some sales trends are tied to seasons, like air conditioning units and fashion products, while others are tied to an arbitrary amount of time, like purchasing a new car or buying a home. Whatever the cycle, it’s always easier to raise or lengthen a peak than to raise or shorten a valley. You will also achieve a higher marketing ROI raising a peak as compared to shortening a natural sales valley. ...GO |
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Going Beyond Marketing Metrics to the Bottom Line
Calculating ROMI (Return on Marketing Investment)
Measurement of marketing programs is complex and tedious. By definition, it requires well-defined and quantifiable objectives that should be inextricably linked to an organization’s higher-level business and operational goals. With this type of framework in place, marketers and executive managers can accomplish two things: ...GO |
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Tradeshow Success
How do you track tradeshow success?
Trade shows can be your best-concentrated sales opportunity. A host of interested prospects and customers come to you. (The days of “tradeshow trips” are over. If they attend, they’re interested.) But instead of viewing tradeshows as an opportunity to meet prospects face-to-face, some companies attend only to prevent competitors from saying they’re out of business. A tradeshow is no place to play defense. As the economic recovery continues and competition intensifies, companies will need to invest more in focused initiatives to generate revenue and reinforce their brands.
With fewer people attending tradeshows today, you enjoy a greater concentration of serious buyers — a target-rich environment. Here are some ways to run smarter so you hit more of those targets at your next show.
Measure your success
40,000 attendees at FRAMMIS 2005! Sure, but how many real prospects can you talk to? Not 40,000, that’s for sure!
- Serious prospects spend about 15 minutes in a booth that has something of value.
- One person can qualify about 25 prospects in an eight-hour show day (minus breaks and lunch).
- Multiply 25 times the number of days (typically four) and the number of people in your booth (let’s use two) and you get 200 potential sales opportunities. (25•4•2=200) Tradeshow surveys indicate about 10% of tradeshow prospects will be “hot” prospects — people who came to the show looking to fill a specific need, wanting information and expecting immediate follow-up.
Did you average 10 hot prospects per person in your last four-day tradeshow? (Whether you talked to 200 potentials or not.)
Get more hot prospects into your booth
Lots of prospects, but how do you get the “hot” ones to YOUR booth? The same way you sell your product once you’re face-to-face — lead with your strongest benefit.
- Booth header — concisely state your product’s #1 benefit. (Example: 33% more pieces per hour with the new hole puncher.) Do NOT lead with your logo.
- Highlight secondary benefits on large captions next to clear benefit photos.
- Your name and logo are placed in the booth, near the benefit photos, and large enough to connect the benefits with your company.
Your booth header should pull in prospects looking for the specific solution met by your product. Your benefits will stop them. Your name (95% of the time) won’t. Additionally, benefits get people familiar with your product to stop, even if they have no immediate need.
Isolate the hot prospects
You’re getting lots of people to visit your booth. How do you quickly isolate the hot prospects and make sure you get significant return on your valuable time? Get to what’s important — immediately ask about THEIR needs.
- First contact — Watch for even casual interest in your booth’s benefit header. Then ask “Do you (insert your PROCESS) now?” Do NOT ask if they need your product. No one needs a product; they need a solution.
- If they do — “What would improve your current process?”
- If they don’t — “Could better (insert your best process benefit here) improve your profit/productivity?”
- Next, meet the prospect’s stated specific needs with continued product benefits.
- Obviously, if the answer to the two questions is “no,” move on (politely).
Since you can qualify only around 25 prospects per day, each minute wasted on a non-prospect costs you lost opportunities. Additionally, you’ll be doing that person a favor by not wasting their time.
Keep the hot prospects hot
Everyone returns to a full desk after a week-long tradeshow. The only way to properly handle the valuable contacts you paid for is to be ready BEFORE you go to the show.
Draft three letters: for hot prospects, delayed purchasers and those only “interested” in your product. Leave the first paragraph open and, on your return, personalize it (with notes you made in the booth).
- Hot prospects — Call them immediately. And “visit” each week — personally, by phone, by e-mail, by snail mail — until you are asked to present a proposal. DON’T mail a wad of literature. They’re ready to buy. Or at least you’ll keep them hot if this is a capital equipment purchase and the committee is very cautious.
- Delayed purchasers — Send a letter only after you’ve finished the hot prospects, but give them the chance to call you if you’ve misread their level of interest.
- Just “interested” — Send the literature and follow-up in six months, perhaps with one of the series mailings you sent to the hot prospects.
Making strong follow-up contact puts you ahead of 80% of the other exhibitors. (Tradeshow attendees report they only get a follow-up in 20% of the cases.)
Get more real prospects to visit your show
Give real prospects a REASON to visit your booth. Just letting them know where you’ll be is hardly unique or compelling. Immediately ask about THEIR needs.
- Send an invitation a week or so before the start of the show. Give them a business reason to seek you out.
- Use NEWS — New products, new salespeople, new literature, new pricing, whatever. Just make sure it’s not the same old stuff.
- If you have no news, offer them a reasonably valuable handout — something they’ll use at work, or even a toy if it’s intriguing. Then trade it for information on how/when/why they use your product.
- Avoid hiring models to hand out the premium. They know nothing about your product and can’t evaluate the prospect. Your reps should offer the handout, after getting the prospect info.
Poor tradeshow attendance can be blamed on not giving your prospects a good reason to attend. Give them a reason and you’ll get a very nice return on your investment.
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April 14–17, Hunt, TX: AIGA - Austin Design Ranch
June 4–7, Nashville, TN: AAF National Conference
June 7, Nashville, TN: AAF National ADDY Awards
June 11–14, Chicago, IL: HOW Design Conference
Sep. 15–17, Boston, MA: AIGA National Design Conference
Oct. 6–9, Scottsdale, AZ: HOW Business Conference
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Nothing says “love” more than a teddy bear in a straight jacket. At least the Vermont Teddy Bear Company seems to think so. The company produces handmade teddy bears and is known for, “the only bear made in America and guaranteed for life.” ...GO |
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“Give real prospects a REASON to visit your booth. Just letting them know where you'll be is hardly unique or compelling.” |
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