Pre-Show Preparations for Trade Show Success
"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and
that one word is 'to be prepared.'" — Dan Quayle, 1989
The results exhibitors receive at a trade event are in direct relation to the
amount of preparation they do. We've all seen exhibitors win big through careful
preparation for events and, conversely, we've also seen exhibitors suffer from
lack of preparation. There are a number of ways you can prepare to capitalize
effectively on the event environment. Unless you work for a large company preparing
for a major event, you will probably not be able to utilize all of these ideas.
Feel free to approach these suggestions as a smorgasbord — try only what appeals
to you and fits your available time and resources!
The Goalin' Rule:
Setting Goals for an Event
Events can have a powerful impact on a company's ability to achieve its overall
marketing goals. Event marketing goals should be tied to company's marketing
goals and optimized to the audience, timing, and geography of the event. Goals
should be worth doing, measurable, and achievable. Avoid goals like "build
awareness" and "generate leads" that cannot be measured. Instead,
use goals like "meet with five editors," "generate 150 qualified
leads for the Nimbus 2000," or "build awareness by having 300 attendees
watch our presentation and answer a questionnaire."
What are the most urgent issues confronting my company? Can I address and
improve them at this event?
How do I want to balance sales, customer relations, public relations, and
other goals at this event?
What products is my company releasing around the event?
What products will our competitors be pushing?
What are the hot topics at this event? Can I relate my products to these hot
topics?
Do my products and my company's experts relate to the conference topics? Can
I place a speaker?
Can I achieve public-relations "wins" at this event? What is the
environment in which I will be trying to engage the press? What am I competing
against for their time?
Are key customers and prospects attending this event? Can I create an opportunity
to meet with them? What are my goals for these meetings?
What will it take to "win" against my competitors within this event
environment? If my competitors are not at the event, can I win anyway?
"Ahem": Preparing to Speak at Events
The process for placing speakers at conferences, the guidelines for speaker
participation, and the monitoring of speaker contributions varies significantly
from technology event to event. If placing a speaker is one of your goals, it
is worth learning the rulebook for each event. Too many exhibitors focus exclusively
on keynote opportunities (especially difficult if your company is not major,
your product not breakthrough, or your speaker not a luminary). Remember, a
few conference session speaker placements may be as effective, and more achievable,
than a keynote speaker placement.
Tips for Speaker Placement:
Does the event Web site detail ways to submit topics or speakers? If the Web
site does not give this information, call and find out.
Follow the suggested format for submissions, since some organizers routinely
rule out any submission that exceeds their specified length.
Relate your submission to the hot topics in the industry. Remember that the
event organizer makes money by selling conference passes.
Avoid the appearance of being overly self-serving or implying that you are
so wrapped up in your product that you can't be objective.
While you should make the submission as requested, don't rely only on the
specified channels. The squeaky-wheel approach is often effective in speaker
placement.
Develop a relationship with the conference director if you can.
Is there a conference advisory board? Do you know anyone on it, or can you
get to know anyone?
Call up at the last minute to see if there have been speaker cancellations.
The Full Press Court:
Tips for Wooing Editorial Coverage
If you want appointments with the press, call early. One editor at a vertical
technology publication puts a voicemail on his phone about two weeks before
the events he attends, saying: "Sorry, I'm all booked up for set appointments
now, but leave your company and booth and I'll try to stop by."
Find out if show management provides a list of pre-registered editors to its
exhibitors. If not, use your Rolodex and other resources to target the editors
who will logically be attending an event with a particular focus.
When calling an editor, give the reasons they should take the appointment,
including the product or technology information you'll impart, the level of
the company spokesperson you'll be bringing, or the cool location of the meeting.
Relate your company or product to the editor's magazine or focus area when
requesting the appointment.
Relate your company or product to the magazine's upcoming editorial calendar
(remember lead times).
If the location of the meeting is a conference room in a difficult-to-find
place, consider having runners to meet the editor at a central location and
then bring him or her to your meeting room. If the location of the meeting is
off-site, hire a car to shuttle the editors to the meeting.
Does the event have a show daily? If so, can you get editorial coverage in
it?
Don't focus only on vertical press.
If you think your product has applicability, call the technology editors from
the newspapers published in the city that hosts the event.
Bring a camera. I attended an event several years ago and Bill Clinton was
a last-minute addition as a keynote speaker. Exhibitors were thrilled when he
spent an hour on the show floor touring the booths — but only the exhibitors
that had brought cameras got to capture the image of the "leader of the
free world" in their booth.
Above all, plan ahead. Several years ago a young company that occupied a 10x10
booth at a major trade show won the "Best of Show" award from the
editors of the official show publication. The VP of Marketing shared how he
did it. The campaign to win Best of Show was drafted a year earlier. Product
releases, marketing messaging, and executive travel schedules were all developed
with
this magazine's editors and editorial calendar in mind. It goes to show that
long-range planning can be effective in achieving specific goals.
Pre-Show Event Marketing
There are many benefits to pre-show marketing. It can increase your booth traffic,
improve the percentage of qualified attendees you meet, and improve attendee
receptivity to your on-site messaging by pre-selling them.
Here's how to do it:
Prepare a sheet describing your show presence and activities, and distribute
it to your salespeople before the event so they can discuss it with their clients.
If the event provides complimentary pre-show guest tickets, distribute them
to your salespeople and distributors, to your customers and prospects via mail,
e-mail, on your corporate Web site, in your company lobby, and so on.
Include information on your participation in the event on your Web site and
in your outbound newsletters.
Add "bursts" and "snipes" to your display advertising
before the event promoting your participation. Create "see us at the show"
stickers and add them to your outbound mail prior to the event.
Set your expectations for your salespeople well before the event.
Set goals for key sales appointments and create a master schedule of sales appointments
that is regularly updated and sent to all your salespeople.
If you are bringing executives from your company to the event, carefully plan
the use of their time, balancing between client contact, partner contact, press
interviews, and speaking engagements. Leave executives some scheduled time to
tour the show floor to see your competitors' booths and gain industry information.
Preparing for On-Site Activities
Your company is never more visible than it is at trade shows. There, sometimes
only steps away from your competitors, your products, literature, messaging,
and people are displayed for all to see. When it all comes together at an event,
nothing is more satisfying to you, your staff, and your executives. And when
it doesn't all come together then, well … we don't want to think about
this.
Here's how to put it all together:
Create a master list of show activities, including a master calendar of appointments
and speaking engagements. Make sure there are no conflicts.
Schedule a pre-show briefing for all booth personnel. Deliver it on-site the
night before or, if that is not possible, before you get to the event.
The pre-show briefing should cover the event, the event's target attendee profile
(get this from show management), and a summary of your company's event-related
activities.
The pre-show briefing should review the booth lay-out, how you will handle traffic
flow, and how you will funnel prospects to the key company representatives.
The pre-show briefing should cover the products you'll be focusing on at the
event, and how they relate to the event's focus.
The pre-show briefing should discuss effective boothmanship. Try scheduling
some role-play training to practice boothmanship skills.
Schedule daily wrap-up and start-up meetings in your booth for your staff.
Offer some incentives, either individual or team-based, relating to performance
at the event.
Conclusion
"Failure to prepare is preparing to fail."
— Benjamin Franklin
Exhibitors can gain market dominance as a result of their performance at trade
shows. Multi-million-dollar sales are regularly initiated and sometimes closed
at trade shows. At trade shows, teams can pull together and bond through their
performance.
Preparation is indispensable. Once you are on-site at an event, there is no
remedy for lack of thorough preparation. You don't need to implement all the
suggestions in this article to be prepared, nor should you be limited by them.
Set goals, goals that you'll feel good about achieving, and let your preparations
be guided by your goals. When its time to pack up the booth, you'll be glad
you prepared.
Michael Goodman
[email protected]
