{tab=5 Ways to Increase Sales}

5 Ways to Increase Sales at Trade Shows

excerpt from the book Guerrilla Trade Show Selling
by Jay Conrad Levinson, Mark S.A. Smith, and Orvel Ray Wilson, CSP

Whether you’re new to trade shows, or an old pro, here’s five ideas guaranteed to increase sales at your next show.

Greet visitors quickly

A trade show isn’t a cocktail party. You don’t have to open a conversation with meaningless pleasantries, like, “How are you?”, or “May I help you?” When you first see a visitor, gently offer a handshake, and introduce yourself and your company. This immediately sets the tone of the conversation, and establishes basic rapport.

Qualify visitors in seconds

The most important thing for you to know is the responsibilities of your visitor. This lets you know what questions to ask next. Your questions to a CEO will be different from those to a technical person. Your approach with a consumer will be different from with a corporate buyer.

Rapidly qualify your visitor by seeking to disqualify them as a buyer. Keep looking for the deal killer — the one thing that means you can’t do business. The instant you find that deal killer, stop the conversation and move your visitor along.

Ensure 100% after-show contact

As you get contact information for after-show follow up, ask your visitor, “Is the best number to reach you?” Frequently they’ll give you their direct dial line, home number, lab number, or car phone number.

Double your leads

Whether they can do business with you or not, ask every visitor, “Who can you think of that would benefit from what we do?” Almost everyone can give you a name, virtually doubling the number of leads you’ll get from your show. When you contact these referrals, use the visitors’ name and where you met them as your introduction.

Move visitors along

When it’s time to move your visitor along, restate what will happen next, even if it’s, “I’m sorry I can’t help you.” Next, offer a handshake, and then say, “Thanks for stopping by.” This three step process moves visitors along every time.

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{tab=Trade Shows vs Consumer Shows}

Trade Shows vs Consumer Shows

excerpt from the book Guerrilla Trade Show Selling
by Jay Conrad Levinson, Mark S.A. Smith, and Orvel Ray Wilson, CSP

Trade shows and consumer shows require different approaches, promotions, and follow up. Here’s specific strategies to succeed at each type of show.

Trade Shows

People attend trade shows review the latest developments in their industry or association, make future buying decisions, and meet with other industry colleagues.

Buying or writing shows are a special type of trade show that purchasers attend to order inventory for their businesses, shops, and chain stores. These shows happen at regular times of the year tied to consumer buying patterns.

Exhibits are often large and complex, with companies spending lots of money to buy position and prestige in their industry.

The exhibit staff tend to be sales and upper level management. Many peer-to-peer meetings occur — CEO’s visit with CEOs arranging business deals. Visitors expect access to high-level decision makers and want to speak with people who can make commitments. While some sales are closed at the show, most of the closing is done after the show is over.

Consumer Shows

Consumer shows are a collection of temporary stores, like a bazaar. Vendors present their goods and services for sale, and are looking for consumers of what they sell. Examples include home decorating shows, sports shows, and Chamber of Commerce expos.

Exhibits at consumer shows are often no larger than a single booth, only going to larger sizes if there are many products to show, such as an appliance or furniture company.

At consumer shows, you’re probably talking to the buyer, or a person who has direct and powerful influence on the buyer. You only have to impress and persuade the person you’re speaking with to make the sale.

Visitors don’t need to speak with decision makers, and expect to speak with a sales person. At consumer shows, you should be selling and closing as much as possible.

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{tab=4 Follow Up Strategies}

4 Follow Up Strategies to Drive Sales

excerpt from the book Guerrilla Trade Show Selling
by Jay Conrad Levinson, Mark S.A. Smith, and Orvel Ray Wilson, CSP

Often, you’ll close sales after the show is over. Here’s four strategies you can use to maximize your trade show investment.

Start before the show

Lead management starts before you go to the show. Decide who you’ll see and what follow-up packages they’ll need. Do you need a special package for management, technical evaluators, and end users? Estimate how many you’ll need and get them ready. Make sure there’s enough literature, samples, evaluation units, and sales force to follow up properly.

Get packages out immediately

During a busy show, have someone enter the leads into a computer at the show. Or express the leads back to your office for entry there. In any case, get the follow-up packages out immediately.

When you follow up promptly, visitors perceive that’s how you do business. A study by TARP showed that when a customer gets immediate response from a company, 95 percent of the time they will do business with that company.

The follow-up call

If visitors want something from you, such as your give-away or a sample, they tend to tell you what they think you want to hear. This means you’ll get hot leads that aren’t really hot. On the other hand, some visitors downplay their readiness to buy to keep sales people from “attacking”. It’s difficult to get a good indication of a visitor’s buying temperature.

So, to requalify your visitors, call them five days after the show. Ask them if they got what they needed in the follow-up package, and check their interest level. Ask them when you should call them next.

Mail forever

Continuously mail information to your prospect. Send them press releases, new product information, articles about your company and products, and other trade show activities. Feed them bite size pieces of information so that when they’re ready to buy, they prefer your company.

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{tab=Trade Show Giveaways}

Trade Show Giveaways

excerpt from the book Guerrilla Trade Show Selling
by Jay Conrad Levinson, Mark S.A. Smith, and Orvel Ray Wilson, CSP

Premiums and incentives have been a staple of the trade show business since the beginning of civilized sales. The polite term is “advertising specialties.” Call them what they really are: “bribes.” Show visitors’ offices are littered with pens, coffee mugs, note pads, and other “trash and trinkets” (or SWAG, for “Stuff We All Get” another term often heard in the trade show world).

You’ve been to shows, swiped goodies from the candy jars, collected a bag of trash and treasures, and then taken them home to either throw them away or give to the kids. Now ask yourself what impact these give-aways had on your buying decision?

If you choose to use a give-away, make sure that you’re trading the prize for your visitor’s name, address, and phone number.

Any advertising specialty item should reflect the quality of your product and the good reputation of your firm. You don’t want your logo on a cheap pen that doesn’t write. There is a subconscious discounting of who you are when a visitor throws away something you’ve given them.

Your premium should be something genuinely useful, and it should be kept in a place where the prospect will refer to it when they have need your product. A good example is the Domino’s Pizza refrigerator magnet. You come home, nothing in the fridge, call Domino’s delivery. If you can’t position your give-away effectively, don’t use it.

The best premiums are those that help your visitor get their job done faster or better. They have a high perceived value, and cost you very little to reproduce. Information premiums have the highest perceived value and the lowest relative reproduction cost. Examples are reprints of articles, special reports, audio and video tapes, computer software, and books. Such premiums self-select your prime prospects, because they are of little use to the general public.

An effective premium is a laminated wallet card covered with valuable reference information that your customers use regularly. For example, a Century 21 office in Denver gives out a three-fold city street guide that doubles as their business card.

Spectranetics, a company who builds lasers for clearing arterial blockages, created a plastic wallet card summarizing the recommended treatment options for various patient conditions. The cardiologist can discretely review the technical details of the procedure before scrubbing up. A welding equipment distributor gives out wallet cards with recommended amperage settings for welding a variety of alloys.

One of the most effective promotions I’ve ever used is a laminated wallet card which includes the “Trade Show Success Checklist.” It includes valuable information that any trade show exhibitor will need, it’s a reminder of what I do, and the contact information is included, discretely, so that clients can easily call with their questions.

The next best premium is,something that a visitor wants or helps them do a better job but they wouldn’t necessarily buy for themselves or their organization wouldn’t buy it for them, and is specialized enough to self-qualify them as a potential buyer.

Specialized tools make excellent premiums. For example, an imprinted dive table card for scuba enthusiasts, or a plastic slide rule for landscapers used to calculate application rates for fertilizer. Another example is a wine selection book for a meeting planner, or a keyboard-mounted calculator for a computer programmer.

If you decide to use premiums, select something meaningful and useful to your customer or prospect and then use it as a parting gift. Say, “Thank you for stopping by. Here’s something for you to take with you as a thank you for your time. We’ll talk after the show.” Insist on making your give-away work hard to get you sales.

How are you going to give it away?

You can also use a controlled give-away to attract visitors and qualify them. Some of the most desirable give-aways are apparel items like T-shirts, hats, and sunglasses. Ask the visitor to complete a survey, a questionnaire, or have them listen to a presentation to qualify for the prize.

Professional association shows often prohibit certain give-away items like food, candy, newspapers, posters, T-shirts, bags, and novelties. Ask show management what you’re permitted to do before ordering 10,000 imprinted Frisbees®.

Don’t get caught in the “Bag Wars,” where others give away better quality bags than you do. So you move up to more expensive bags, and they counter with even more expensive bags, and then, what’s the point? Bags seem attractive for two reasons: everybody wants one, and they become walking billboards. The problem is that they fail the prime criteria for self-selection and value after the show. I suggest avoiding bags and containers altogether! The only really effective bag promotion I’ve ever seen was when United Parcel Service distributed specially designed bags, offering to ship them back to the visitor’s office at the end of the show (for a fee!)

Why your candy bowl turns visitors into thieves

When you set up a candy bowl or offer other trivial give-aways to all visitors, you actually turn visitors into thieves. You’ve seen them, they sneak up, take a piece of candy, and sneak off, avoiding eye contact. If you do make eye contact, they say, “Hi-how-are-you,” and move away at full speed.

A candy bowl really doesn’t add any value in getting the right visitors into your exhibit, and it takes up valuable exhibit space. An exception, of course, is if you sell candy and you’re giving away samples. How many times have you been asked, “Can I have another for my kids?” You have to say, “Yes” or you look like a jerk. Then they ask you what you do, and you have to do your pitch so they don’t feel bad taking your stuff.

Everything in your exhibit has to work to get you business. If your give-away doesn’t buy you customers, don’t give it away. Otherwise you’re throwing away your money that could be put to good use closing sales.

Drawings and Prizes

Avoid gimmicky promotions like “pop the balloon,” or “miniature golf” because they waste time and money with people who will never do business with you. Perhaps you’ve seen these acrylic “grab the bucks” boxes with cash blowing around inside. This type of promotion will attract everyone. That may be appropriate for your business, but more likely, you’re just blowing your cash.

If collecting names for your mailing list is one of your marketing goals, hold a drawing to give something away. Consider giving away smaller prizes more often throughout the day versus a bigger, single prize at the end of the show. More visitors will drop their name and address in your fishbowl when they think there is a reasonable chance to win a prize.

These contests, like advertising specialties, should self-select for qualified prospects. At a consumer electronics show, two competitors were both selling refurbished toner cartridges. The first vendor put out a fishbowl with a sign, “Drop your business card to win a COLOR TV!” The competitor put out a fishbowl with a sign, “Drop your business card to win a FREE TONER CARTRIDGE!” Which stack of leads would you rather take home?

If you want all the names possible from the visitors at the show, consider not going at all. Instead buy the registration list, if the show offers it. If it’s an association show, you either rent the membership list, or get it when you join. You may be even better off skipping the registration list and buying a good proven mailing list to your target customers.

The Wrong Way to Use Incentives

Unqualified give-aways mean you collect unqualified leads your sales force won’t follow up. Unqualified leads come from give-away items that attract every visitor, whether they can buy from you or not.

An insurance company held a fishbowl drawing for a set of steak knives. This is one of the least attractive give-aways I can imagine for a professional organization. (Reminds me of the movie, “Glengarry Glen Ross”, sales contest where first prize was a Cadillac, second prize was a set of stake knives, and third prize was, “You’re fired!”) Few experienced professionals even need a set of steak knives.

I looked at the fishbowl full of business cards and asked the salesman how many of those cards were prospects for his business. He said, “None of them. The hot ones are here, in my pocket.”

“So what will you do with the names in the fish bowl?”

“Pitch them.”

“How many of your hot leads want a set of steak knives?”

“I’ll give all of them a set if they want.”

So, he would have been much better off offering a free set of steak knives with every consultation appointment and only talked to people who wanted to do business with him.

Draw for something that is only interesting to visitors with whom you can do business. Never give away things that are of general interest like stereo equipment, travel, cameras, or TVs. Save those for your sales contests.

As a professional, lawyer, physician, accountant, consultant, or trainer, you could give away an hour of your services. Yes, you’ll get some unqualified leads, but the number will be much lower than if you were giving away a Hawaiian vacation.

As a sporting equipment company, give away nine holes of golf with your owner or president. If you’re in the automotive industry, give away something that has to be installed by you, so the winner has to come to your shop, or your dealer’s shop, to get it. You then have the chance to sell them more.

At smaller, specialty conferences, you may want to consider drawing for various levels of prizes, including airfare, room and board, and registration fee for the next conference. Make sure the incentive brings the winner back to next year’s show.

Pick your winners

Just because it’s a drawing doesn’t mean that it has to be random. Strategically choose your winners to help achieve your marketing goals. You might choose to have your top ten customers win, or your top 50 prospects. You may even choose to have everyone win the drawing. Use the winning notification as an excuse to contact a buyer.

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{tab=Hiring}

Hiring Sales Guerrillas

by Orvel Ray Wilson, CSP

The best predictor of future sales behavior is current sales behavior. This guerrilla approach to screening sales applicants gives you an opportunity to observe their sales skills before putting them in front of a prospect. By seeing how well they sell themselves to you, you can predict how effective they will be with remarkable accuracy.

Set Up Voice Mail

Arrange with the phone company to set up a dedicated number that rings into a DDE (direct-dial extension) equipped with voice mail.

Run your classified ad outlining the basic qualifications for the job, but do not mention the name of the company. You do not want people dropping in or mailing you their resumes. Include the language, “to schedule an interview call (phone number).”

The outbound recording on the voice mail says, “Due to the overwhelming response to our ad, we have had to automate our screening process. At the tone please leave the following information: your name, your daytime and evening phone numbers, a brief summary of your qualifications, and why you think you would be a good candidate for this job. If your background meets our requirements, you will be contacted for an interview.” (BEEEEP).

Listen to the recorded messages. First listen to the voice. Is it warm? Friendly? Intelligent? Is this the voice of someone who you would feel comfortable representing your firm? If so, save the message; if not, delete.

Did They Follow Directions?

Once you have narrowed the field, listen to the messages a second time. How well they followed the directions they were given in the outbound voice mail will be an accurate predictor of how well they will follow your directions in the future. Did they state their name clearly? Did they spell it if the spelling would be in doubt. Did they then give you their contact phone numbers next, and volunteer a best time to call? Did they summarize their skills and experience (benefits) or just read their resume (features)? Most important, did they close with some sort of call to action; are they “asking for the order.”

If they pass this litmus test, phone them, and conduct your first interview by phone, opening with the question, “tell me about yourself.” Confirm that they have the requisite experience by asking questions along the lines of, “Tell me about a situation where you . . .” (dealt with some particular challenge or situation they are likely to encounter in your employ.) Watch for them to try to take control of the interview (any good salesperson will) and start asking you questions.

Ask for a Resume

By now you should be able to make a decision. Is this someone you think you would like to hire? If so, they must pass one more test. Ask them, “could you FAX me a copy of your resume? Yes, right now.” You will get one of two answers: either they will stall and apologize and make excuses (“My resume isn’t really current, and I don’t have access to a fax machine,” etc.), OR they will say, “Sure. I can do that!” THAT’S the response I would expect my salespeople to offer a customer in need. Then check the time/date stamp on the fax and calculate how long it took them to get it to you. More than a couple of hours is too long.

You can reasonably ignore the resume, except for the references. Call them and ask, “Tell me about your experience with Mr. Smith. . .” If the references check out, call the applicant and invite them in for a face-to-face interview. By now you should have already decided that you would like to hire this person, or don’t bother with the interview.

Sell the Position

During the face-to-face interview, your primary objective is to sell them the job, and get them excited about the possibility of working for your firm. Give them the tour. Give other key personnel in the office an opportunity to meet them.

Finally, after meeting all the finalists, make an offer to your favorite candidate(s).

Each of these hurdles is designed to give your candidate an opportunity to sell themselves to you as a potential employee. It is this sales behavior more than any other factor that is the predictor of their success.

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{tab=The Holiday Rush is Over}

The Holiday Rush is Over

by Orvel Ray Wilson, CSP

All the decorations are stashed away, and retailers face the winter doldrums. This time of year can be lonelier than the Maytag Repairman. But Guerrilla Retailers recognize January golden window of opportunity to build for future business and gain long-term competitive advantages.

Guerrilla Retailing author Orvel Ray Wilson insists that this is an ideal time to re-evaluate your merchandising, your training, and your competition.

Merchandising

Experiment with new layouts and fixtures. Inventory levels are low, so you have less stuff to move around. Go through the store with a digital camera and take a couple hundred shots. The lens will see things that you don’t notice. This is also a great time to consider painting, or at least touching up marked walls and scuffed fixtures.

Experiment with changes to your floor plan. Does it draw customers in? Does it move them toward your most profitable products or to the stuff you’d like to move out right now? Invest time, energy and imagination, not a lot of money.

Get out the ladder and adjust the lighting. If your fluorescent lamps are more than a year old, replace them with a new set so you achieve an even color temperature across the floor. Play with the track fixtures, washing walls, spotlighting posters or fixtures, highlighting different areas and merchandise.

This is also a good time of year to consider adding a new product line.

Training

We have this argument with retailers all the time. “I can’t afford to invest in sales training! What if I train them and they leave?” Which begs the question, “What if you don’t train them, and they stay?”

Training your sales team is one of the best investments you can make, because it will pay dividends for the rest of the year. Your staff is much more likely to listen to an outside expert, and even the expensive ones are a bargain. The Container Store invests 235 hours of formal training in every first-year employee, vs. the industry average of only seven hours. Turnover is only 8% among full-time employees, and only 20% for part-time. Compare that to the average retail turnover of 120%.

Start by reviewing the job description with each employee. This is a good time to re-evaluate roles and responsibilities, and to establish new sales goals.

Then review last year’s sales figures, and identify your best performers. Good salespeople thrive on serving customers and making sales, so when things get slow, they miss the buzz. They are feeling a bit bored right now, and your best ones may quit, so encourage them to stay on by offering them an opportunity to train others or by expanding their responsibility to include opening or closing. You might even just give them an important-sounding title, like “Assistant Department Manager.” If you haven’t already implemented a performance-based compensation plan or commission system, now is a good time.

January is also one of the best times to conduct a sales contest. When traffic is slow, you have to optimize every selling opportunity, and a sales contest will motivate the staff to give every customer their very best effort.

You can train on the cash register, computer systems or paperwork, review your customer service policies, and review procedures for resolving customer problems. This is one of the best times to conduct sales training. Take time to explain the store’s sales goals for the month, the quarter, and for the year. Share your general sales philosophy.

Your suppliers are a free and readily available source for product training. Ask them to come in and lead a one-hour pre-opening sales meeting to talk about their new items, and trends they see in their line. Salespeople tend to sell the products they know best, and the more they know about a particular line, the faster it will move. That means more volume for your supplier.

Set clear instructional objectives. Eighty-five percent of retailers don’t have a clear selling plan. What’s your goal for the session? What skills do you want your trainees to learn? What behaviors do you want them to change?

The most effective format is short, regular, and structured around a particular product line or sales technique. Consider having everyone come in an hour early on Saturday, or staying late one evening a week.

A great way to eliminate negative selling behavior is to ask your sales staff to think back to the last time they had a bad shopping experience, and what behaviors they found inappropriate. List the answers on a flip chart, then ask the staff to commit to avoid doing these things in their store. Since the list came from the sales staff, pride and peer pressure will help change behavior.

Another option is to have your newer sales associates “shadow” your stars, to pick up proven sales techniques that work. Or wire your stars. Have your most effective salespeople wear a wireless microphone, or simply carry a microcassette recorder to tape their conversations as they’re working the floor. Have these tapes transcribed into a word processor, and then edit the resulting files into scripts. Train your new hires to use the same effective phrases and questions as your superstars.

Just as you would never let a theater troupe rehearse in front of the audience, never let sales associates practice new techniques on customers until they have practiced them backstage with each other.

After introducing new sales tools, set up a simple role-play, with one staffer playing the customer, and work out their issues, concerns, budget, or objections in advance. Type up a short character sketch on a 3 x 5 card, and hand it to the “customer,” so that the “salesperson” is going into the situation cold, just as they would with a real customer. Keep scenarios short and realistic, focusing on one particular skill at a time; greeting, qualifying, presenting, summarizing, accessorizing, or closing. Let the presentation run for not more than three or four minutes, then debrief.

Better still, video tape the role-play. A video camera can expose subtleties of sales-killing body language or voice tone that may not be obvious from casual observation. Warn onlookers that this is not a game, and that they’re up next. They may watch quietly, but there should be no commentary until the playback. Then review the tape as a group, using the remote to freeze-frame the picture and point out every behavior you see them doing right. Ignore the mistakes. People are more fragile than tropical fish, and they will see the negatives for themselves.

Research

This is also a great time of year to get out of your own store and do a little spying on your competition. Check out all the stores in your neighborhood, no matter what category. Good ideas are everywhere. Look for merchandising, lighting and display ideas that you can adapt or adopt.

Of course, pay particular attention to your direct competitors. And spend some time in the regional box stores as well, paying particular attention to how they treat your category within that department. What lines have they added, what products have they dropped?

Incorporate these changes now, while things are slow, and you’ll be building competitive advantages and momentum that will serve you the rest of the year.

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{tab=Incentive Compensation}

Incentive Compensation to Increase Sales

by Orvel Ray Wilson, CSP

Michael LeBeouf, in his book The Greatest Management Principle in the World, contends that “Any behavior which gets rewarded will tend to be repeated.” He advocates paying close attention to how employees get rewarded for performing (or not performing) the various aspects of their jobs.

Incentive, or performance based compensation, is nothing new. Commission plans for salespeople are common because their productivity is so easy to document. But small businesses tend to eschew these compensations plans thinking that “we’re mom and pop; we’re different.” In the competitive environment we’re faced with today, you have no choice; you must use every management tool available to maximize your marketing firepower.

Guerrillas are not only intolerant of non-performers, but they lavishly reward their stars, setting a higher standard of excellence for the whole organization. The problem is how to reward your people appropriately, particularly if they’re not directly responsible for easy-to-measure activities like sales revenue.

Some simple guidelines can put this powerful management tool to work for you. The foundation of an effective performance-based compensation plan is a set of clear and specific goals for your organization as a whole, for each functional department, and for each individual employee. These goals must be objective and quantifiable.

For example, “increase inbound inquiry calls by 10% or to 650 per month by the end of the year” or, “Achieve an average rating of 4.5 of 5 on monthly customer satisfaction surveys.” Subjective factors, like attitude or good work habits, may be included in review criteria, but if you can’t measure it statistically, you can’t use it as a standard for performance-based compensation. Then devise methods for gathering data to measure your progress (or lack of it) toward these goals. What you measure is what you get, so inspect what you expect.

The first level of your plan should be directed at the individual, by isolating the particular behaviors that would produce the desired outcome. For example, in a consulting practice, pay a $10 spiff every time an employee asks for and receives a referral from a customer. This behavior, in the long-run, will result in more people becoming familiar with your organization, and more people buying.

The second level of compensation is directed at the group or unit level. Staff in administrative positions can be set up to share a periodic bonus upon completion of particular benchmark objectives, like “reduce the error rate in the shipping department to less than 5% and share a $500 bonus.”

The third level of your plan is structured to reward the collective. Set aside a fund to pay an annual bonus to everyone if the business meets it’s overall annual goals. In this way, you reward collective effort as well as individual initiative, and foster an environment of cooperation and teamwork. Peer pressure becomes a powerful force in keeping everyone on their toes.

Gain-share incentives are often very effective for cutting costs. Challenge employees to keep their own work area clean, reducing the cost of the janitorial service. Put half the savings back into their pay envelopes.

Consider non-monetary rewards as well. Recognize employees publicly at every opportunity for creativity, leadership, or innovation. For many, a certificate, plaque or small trophy is more motivating than cash. Encourage competition for these awards by posting individual and departmental performance statistics where everyone can see them. Heated rivalries often develop over the coveted “employee of the month” parking space. Even seeing the sales “thermometer bar” moving up each week can be a powerful incentive.

And reward mistakes. Create a rotating gag prize for the employee who makes the biggest mess, the most costly mistake, or the dumbest error. This award should be presented in an atmosphere of friendly fun; never to punish or embarrass. Laughing these things off serves two purposes: first it encourages people to take risks by letting them know that it’s OK to fail, and second, it allow them to “pay their dues” with co-workers, appease their conscience and get on with their jobs.

Finally, never argue with results. If a team member goes about achieving their objective in an unconventional way, reward them anyway. What works for you may not work for them. Encourage your people to take responsibility for achieving their objectives, reward them progressively, and stand back. They will amaze you!

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{tab=Promotions}

Guerrilla Promotions that Bring in Buyers

excerpt from the book Guerrilla Trade Show Selling
by Jay Conrad Levinson, Mark S.A. Smith, and Orvel Ray Wilson, CSP

Don’t rely on show management to supply all the buyers you need for a successful show. A strong pre-show promotion guarantees an exhibit flooded with buyers. The best pre-show promotions have three parts, each targeting specific buyers.

Target your best prospects

Make a list of people with whom you really want to do business. Think about what would compel them to stop by your exhibit. Consider a gift, a special report, or the opportunity to meet someone important. Don’t be cheap — when you do business with these people, you’ll make real money. Send out a special mailer letting them know about it. Invite them, peer to peer, over the phone — CEO calling CEO, VP calling VP, and so forth.

Two-part premiums work well. Send them half of the gift before the show with an invitation to collect the rest at the show. Examples are headphones and a cassette player, a baseball stand and an autographed baseball, a picture frame and a signed lithograph. If your industry doesn’t use premiums, invite them to a party to meet a celebrity or sports figure.

Invite your customers

Throw a VIP appreciation party, and send special invitations to your customers. Or hold a sneak preview, introducing customers to your newest products and services. Send them an invitation in the form of a ticket or special pass.

Have your sales force distribute show passes when making sales calls, and personally invite their prospects and customers to stop by the exhibit.

Let everyone else know

Include information about the show in everything sent from your office. Don’t forget a mention in your advertising. Don’t use “Come see us at booth 125.” Who remembers booth numbers? Instead, have them look for a distinctive feature of your exhibit, “Look for our flashing green lights.”

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{tab=How to Select the Right Shows}

How to Select the Right Shows for Your Business

excerpt from the book Guerrilla Trade Show Selling
by Jay Conrad Levinson, Mark S.A. Smith, and Orvel Ray Wilson, CSP

The first step to show success is to only attend shows that attract people who will buy what you sell. Here’s six strategies to select shows that will work for you.

Take a hard look at every show

Review the shows you go to every year. Are they still attracting enough of the right buyers? Shows can change over time, drawing buyers that aren’t interested in what you sell. Don’t be afraid to abandon a show you’ve traditionally attended.

Customers know best

Ask your customers, and people you want as customers, which shows they attend. The shows that work best are those that they attend when they want to make a purchase decision or want to see what’s new.

Check associations

Many associations hold trade shows in conjunction with their conventions. To which associations to your customers and prospects belong? Consult an association directory — check your local library — to get information about their regional and national conventions.

Check show directories

There are a number of trade show directories available. Ask the reference librarian at your local library. Directories list shows by market and geography, useful when you want to reach a new market. When you find interesting shows, call for an exhibitor kit.

Ask friendly competition

Everyone has competition that calls on the same market, but doesn’t compete head-to-head. Ask them which shows they like and which they avoid. But don’t go to a show just because you competition goes. It may not be a good show for you or for them.

Think about a reverse show

At which trade shows do your customers exhibit? Consider attending to sell to their competition. A reverse show is where you target the exhibitors, not the visitors. Selling is different, with your staff working the show floor, inviting exhibitors to come to your booth when their shift is over and during slow periods.

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{tab=The Service Attitude}

The Service Attitude

by Orvel Ray Wilson, CSP

Michael LeBeouf, in his best-seller, The Greatest Management Principle in the World, says that any behavior that gets rewarded gets repeated. Guerrillas build a “fifth column” of customers, a loyal underground of followers who fight for the cause by rewarding them at every turn.

As the customer turns to leave the hi-fi shop, the guerrilla adds, “Oh, by the way, you’re going to need a pair of headphones, especially when your teenagers get their hands on this new system. Here, take these with my compliments.”

“Wow! Thank you for all your time and help, but the headphones, this is wonderful!” No buyer’s remorse here! This customer is excited about the new stereo system, and grateful to the guerrilla for selling it to him.

Guerrillas know that this last step in the NaB and CaPTuRe selling track is the most critical, and the one most often overlooked by the competition. Rewarding customers involves keeping something extra in reserve, congratulating your new clients, then delighting them by “throwing it in” at the last minute.

Once guerrillas have given the customer the reward, they disappear into the sunset like the Lone Ranger. Hurry on to your next call, help another shopper, or go hide in the stockroom. You want to be remembered for the reward, so give the customer something special to remember you by. Be warned: your customers will be so pleased they’ll want to continue the conversation. Be polite, but break it off.

The objective of the Reward is to leave the new customer feeling special. One of our clients runs a very successful office supply store and is devoted to promoting environmentally responsible products. After writing up the order for a new copier, the clerk thumps his forehead and says, “Oh, I almost forgot! You’re going to need some paper. Let me throw in a case, no charge. I’d like for you to try this recycled copier paper; it’s a bit more expensive than virgin stock, but it has a smoother finish, and besides, I don’t want to mess up my paperwork.”

No matter how hairy the negotiations may have been, no matter how remorseful they might feel about spending the money, even if they think they could have wangled a better deal elsewhere, the last thing the customers are left with is a feeling of surprise and conquest.

Mike Lavin runs the Berkley Design Shop and two other sleep and kid’s furniture stores in the San Francisco Bay area. When a customer purchases a complete bed set — mattress and platform frame, and the purchase has been completed, the salesperson who wrote up the order says, “Oh, by the way, why don’t you go over to our linen display and pick out a set of sheets. They’re on us.” He could have bundled a sheet set with the package, but that would defeat the objective. For the reward to be effective, it must be something beyond the customer’s expectations.

Part of this is gratitude, an expression of appreciation for the business. But frankly, Mike knows that the average American keeps a bed for nine years, and if he treats them right, they’ll come back to buy all their future linen at the Berkley Design Shop.

From a weekend at a resort to a free order of fries, guerrillas have learned the power of giving customers something extra when they make the sale. But make sure that the customer knows it’s a bonus. A guerrilla copy shop offers a courtesy telephone, marked by a large sign that says “For our Customers’ Convenience,” and a mail drop with a sign that reads, “We’d like to save you the trip.” A lumberyard gives every customer an oversized flat carpenters’ pencil, imprinted with the stores name and number, but before putting it in the bag, the clerk always mentions, “These are usually a dollar, but today it’s just our way of saying ‘Thanks.’”

Everyone loves to win, and everyone loves getting something for nothing, especially when they don’t expect it. So guerrillas send every customer away feeling as though they just hit the jackpot. It feels like winning the lottery or getting a call from Publishers Clearing House. In the Reward Stage, guerrillas secure their position with customers by always rewarding them for their business.

Attention!

One of the most powerful ways to reward people who do business with you is to pay attention to them. Even something as simple as a hand-written thank-you note can be a reward. It’s an old-fashioned custom that’s seldom used in business, but it differentiates a guerrilla from a competitor by showing you care.

The travel industry has put the reward tactic to work as competition for the business traveler heats up. Amenities like shampoo, hair driers and mini-bars used to be found in only the best hotels. Now, even low end properties pamper guests with a complimentary basket of goodies. Frequent patronage is rewarded with free upgrades and limo service, complimentary cocktails, coffee, newspapers, and breakfast, or even credits toward catalog merchandise.

Airlines have established special clubs and lounges where they lavish their customers with VIP check-in, comfy chairs, big-screen TV, workstation-size phone booths, desks, conference rooms, fax machines, snacks, and a private bar. Customers pay a substantial annual fee for the privilege of being pampered, and will endure long connection delays in order to fly their airline of choice. And all because they’re members of the Club. Rewards win customers and keep them coming back.

The Right Attitude

Approaching the Reward Stage with the right attitude is essential. Contrast the attitudes of two major airlines, as reflected in the way they administer their frequent-flyer programs. Both companies compete for lucrative business travelers in every major market in North America. Both programs reward customers with a free round-trip ticket after they’ve flown 20,000 miles.

The first airline restricts how the free ticket can be used: you must fly Monday through Thursday, stay over a weekend, and book the trip at least seven days in advance. Holidays are blacked out as well, and once the ticket is cut, it’s non-negotiable. They feel that they’re giving you a free ride, so you really can’t complain. Their attitude is, “You’re a freeloader. We don’t care, because we don’t have to.”

The second airline allows their customers to use the free ticket any day of the week, without restriction (except for some holidays) on a space-available basis. You can book your trip as close as one hour before departure, and if your travel plans change, the ticket is completely negotiable for up to a year. Their attitude is “We want to do everything we can for you. You’re one of our most valued customers.”

Both airlines are giving away an identical seat, but the perceived value of the reward in the customers’ minds are quite different. An attitude of gratitude is what matters. Perhaps that’s why the first airline is losing millions, while the second just placed orders for 40 billion dollars worth of new aircraft.

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Ten Characteristics

by Orvel Ray Wilson, CSP

It’s a jungle out there. You are not paranoid; they really are out to get you. Doing business in this highly competitive business environment requires the boldness and ingenuity of a veteran commercial mercenary.

Today’s winners in business are the renegades, the rebels who break all the rules, who use information and surprise to gain a tactical advantage. There are ten characteristics that set these guerrillas apart. Study them. Sell by them.

1. Investment

The average business in America invests only 3% of gross sales in marketing. The guerrilla averages 10%. Guerrillas believe that the difference between winning and losing, more often than not, is a very slim margin. So they invest heavily in technology, in people, and in themselves. They are constantly expanding their horizons, constantly training, and constantly on the lookout for anything that will give them a slight advantage.

2. Consistent

Poor selling done consistently will be more effective than great selling done sporadically. In the mind of your customers, consistency is interpreted as credibility, longevity and success. Guerrillas earn this confidence by communicating their identity, not their image. They are very resistant to changing their name, their logo, their color scheme. Be consistent and you will outsell the better armed, better equipped, better organized corporate regulars.

3. Confident

Guerrillas believe in their products, their services, and their people. They count on others in the organization to deliver on every promise, every time, and then some. If you can’t feel that kind of confidence, you’re working for the wrong outfit. When something goes wrong, take personal responsibility for making it right, right away.

4. Patient

A guerrilla will set in the trees for days waiting for a clear shot. Less than 4% of sales are made on the first call, over 80% are made after the eighth call. Guerrillas are always on the lookout for the next need cycle, and strive to be there when the need arises. So stick with it. Keep mailing out your brochure.

5. Assortment

The old days of Henry Ford, when “you can have it any color you want, as long as it’s black” are long gone. Guerrillas offer a wide variety of goods and services, and adapt their offerings, their terms, even their delivery schedules to meet the customers’ needs. Look for the new, the unusual, the unique, and add it to your offering. Ask customers what they’d like to see. The more flexible you can be, the better. The more options you offer, the more people you can serve, and the more successful your company will be.

6. Subsequent

Guerrillas are in this for the long haul, and getting the order is only the first step. Guerrillas spend 10% of their resources educating the universe, promoting the business to the community at large. They spend 30% of their time marketing to prospective customers. But they spend a whopping 60% of their time, energy and money marketing to people who have already bought. Why? It costs five times as much to sell a new customer as it does to make the same sale to an existing customer. Guerrillas sell and re-sell and re-sell the benefits of their offering.

7. Measurement

Any behavior that is rewarded will tend to be repeated, so guerrillas reward every customer and client for the opportunity to serve them. It’s the thirteenth doughnut in the baker’s dozen; it’s doing everything you promised, everything the customer expected, and more. And because expectations are constantly changing, guerrillas are always asking “how are we doing?” and “how can we improve.” Survey your customers. Get out in the field and talk to them. If you do exactly what they tell you, you cannot fail.

8. Convenient

Guerrillas are both receptive and responsive. They know that they have to be “user friendly.” That means easy to reach, easy to talk to, and easy to do business with. They return their calls. They give out their numbers at home, at the office, in the car. They keep phones staffed at night and on weekends, even if only by an answering service. They are in touch. Be available. Lend an ear to your customers when they have a suggestion, a question, or a problem. And do everything immediately.

9. Excitement

Guerrillas are enthusiastic, and militantly optimistic. They have a good word for everyone, and never complain about the weather, the economy, or the people they work for. Their passion spreads like a wildfire. People love to do business with people who love their business. Spread good news and cheer about your people and your industry to everyone you meet. Start a one-guerrilla revolution to turn your corner of the economy around. Launch a success conspiracy. Enthusiasm is contagious.

10. Commitment

The guerrilla is enlisted in a larger mission than just closing the deal and getting the order. They are deadly serious about adding value and serving the community. When a customer complains, the guerrilla tracks down the cause and corrects it, whatever it takes. They have no time for excuses and apologies, and they never argue with results. They treat every customer as if the survival of their business depended on it, because it does.

Get committed to your marketing effort, and if you’re more comfortable hosting receptions or maintaining membership rolls, assign someone to be your full-time designated guerrilla. It’s time we launched a revolution in American business. You have no choice. To survive in today’s brutal economic environment, you must become a guerrilla.

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