What you need to know about talking to potential clients on the trade show floor
- Your staff must appear comfortable and confident and knowledgeable about your product or service.
- Listen carefully
- Whenever possible, take notes and write them on a pre-formatted lead form.
- Follow the golden rule and treat others as you would like to be treated.
You’ve designed the perfect trade show booth, everything is set up and ready to go, you’ve assembled your staff, and the first potential customers are approaching your trade show. Now what? Your staff must be trained to be assertive, but not authoritative when interacting with the customer. Some managers even hire professional trade show trainers to prepare for the big day. Here are some common sense tips to think about before you interact with a potential customer.
your staff
Your staff should appear comfortable and confident. Think of them as goodwill ambassadors for the company. It is prohibited to be seen chewing gum, eating or drinking, or talking on a cell phone. Your staff must appear focused on the matter at hand, even during the occasional break in activity.
Your staff should not congregate in groups while working on the stand, as it can seem like a social conversation to customers. Place them throughout the exhibit. This will help the client feel comfortable.
Interact with the potential customer
This advice is obvious but fundamental: listen carefully. Never talk about a client in your enthusiasm to recite the speech for him. Nothing will turn off a customer faster than the feeling that they are not being heard. You have a product or service to sell, but until you know what the customer needs, you don’t know how your product fits with their specific requirements. Good salespeople know that selling successfully is all about asking the right questions and listening.
When giving your presentation, keep it short, no more than thirty seconds to a minute, and maintain eye contact the entire time. As you talk, look for body language cues. If a person seems bored, don’t take them hostage; consider handing them over to another staff member. On the other hand, if the person is excited, you should guide them to the assigned person at your booth to answer their questions or write down their information. Too often, anxious and positive customers are dismissed to speak to the next person in line.
Whenever possible, take notes and write them on a pre-formatted lead form or electronic lead generation sheet. Customers appreciate your desire to capture their information. Write your name on the form. Details matter and in a day or two, often hours, you will forget about specific conversations. At a successful trade show, you can talk to several hundred prospects. No one can be expected to remember every conversation. After the show, these details make the difference between an efficient and productive follow-up conversation with the prospect and starting from scratch.
Don’t make assumptions based on your appearance. Unfortunately, we all do this and it never fails that a customer dismissed as “not worth the time and effort” becomes a major customer for a competitor.
The Golden rule
The most important advice is to follow the golden rule and treat others as you would like to be treated yourself. Engaging the customer can be a tricky business. Karen Paxton writing in Computer and software news notes that “staff at a trade show booth typically have only eight seconds to grab a customer’s attention.” Your staff must be vigilant in searching for every clue. Anyone who flips through a brochure or takes a gift should be engaged and treated like the CEO of a company. After all, they could be!