Over 88 Tips & Ideas to Supercharge Your Exhibit Sales (Paperback)

by Steve Miller (Author), Charmel Bowden (Author) "Have you ever been asked to work a trade show, and you're instantly filled with dread?..." (more)
Key Phrases: qualifying questions, qualified prospects

Editorial Reviews

About the Authors
Steve Miller is a strategic marketing consultant specializing in the trade show industry. He helps corporations more profitably exhibit at trade shows, and works with show management to enhance their trade shows. Author of the book, How to Get the Most Out of Trade Shows, he's been published in over 150 publications, including Fortune, Sales & Marketing Management, Success magazine, the Washington Post, and Washington CEO. Steve's corporate clients have documented millions of dollars in revenues through the unique methods he's developed. Charmel Bowden is known by her clients as the one who creates the track to do the big things her clients have to do. She has worked as a consultant with hundreds of clients nation-wide to help them through the difficult task of doing business in this alarmingly dynamic environment.

The majority of her clients, ranging from K2 Inc., the American Egg Board, Edmark Corporation, and IBM have all significant investments in their trade show efforts as a part of their marketing efforts. Charmel has designed and built exhibits, staffed booths, created advertising and promotions, in addition to her staff and exhibitor training seminars.

She is a published writer and seasoned speaker who enjoys challenging conventional methods and demanding people set measurable objectives for everything they set out to do.

Excerpted from Over 88 Tips & Ideas to Supercharge Your Exhibit Sales by Steve Miller and Charmel Bowden. Copyright © 1997. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
12 Ways to Get the Most from Over 88 Tips & Ideas to Supercharge Your Exhibit Sales 1. Exposition managers should send a copy to all their exhibitors. Corporations should send a copy to all their salespeople and exhibit staffers.

2. Assign Over 88 Tips .... to all of your salespeople to read in the next 3 weeks.

3. Ask them to write down the 12 best ideas they see in the book as they read through it. At your next sales meeting, have each person read his/her list.

4. Have your salespeople agree on the most significant ideas they got from reading the book and list them on a flip chart.

5. Have your salespeople prioritize the ideas and set specific timetables for implementing them at the next show.

6. Make Over 88 Tips ..... required reading for every new salesperson in addition to your regular in-house training material. Design a 20 question quiz that tests the basic material.

7. Use role-playing to help your exhibit staffers more effectively open a conversation with a stranger and qualify them in under three minutes

8. Send a copy of Over 88 Tips ..... to the highest level sales manager in your company for his/her feedback and comments.

9. Design and post a chart showing the objectives and results of each individual staffer for each day of the show.

10. Look for your own tips and techniques and add them on the blank pages in the back of the book. Then fax them to The Adventure of Trade Shows for inclusion in future editions of Over 88 Tips .....!

11. Have a pre-show meeting immediately before your next major show to thoroughly plan your show strategy and tactics using Over 88 Tips ..... as your guide.

12. From now on, before every trade or consumer show, quickly scan Over 88 Tips ..... as a refresher course for staying on track.

Reasons why exhibit staffers fail at trade shows
1. You're imitating the wrong behavior!
Even though you're reading this book, odds are you have worked trade shows before. Do you remember the very first show you ever worked? Think back to that time and ask yourself a simple question: who taught you how to work that first show? The answer is, most likely - no one. No one taught you how to prepare for that totally foreign environment. Nobody explained to you the major differences between working out in the field and working an exposition.

Let's think about some of those differences now.

You have only a short amount of time to interact with attendees. An average quality encounter at a trade show lasts only 13 minutes, barely long enough to introduce yourself out in the field.

You have hundreds, even thousands of strangers walking by your exhibit, with the competition right down the aisle. Hardly conducive to an ideal private meeting with an important, new prospect or long-time customer.

The buyers come to you, which can be good news or bad news. The good news is that large numbers of legitimate buyers can be walking the aisles of the show, more than you could possibly ever see in a few days out in the field. The bad news is that those buyers may be hidden by an equally large, or larger, number of non-qualified buyers. You've got to go through the process of culling them out.

There are many more differences between working a trade shows versus selling the field, and these are important to consider. But if no one taught you these differences and no one taught you how to work the show, then how did you learn?

Odds are you learned by watching others. Other exhibitors and other fellow staffers. Here's the big question, though. Who taught them? Kind of makes you think, doesn't it?

After a while, though, all the exhibit staffers start to look alike and act alike. We beat our brains out everyday to somehow separate ourselves, our company, and our products and services from the competition. We want our prospects and customers to somehow see us as superior in some form. And then we go to a trade show and blend in with the crowd.

2. Staffers have the wrong attitude. The typical exhibit staffer falls into one of two categories. One thinks she is on vacation. "Oh goodie, we're going to Chicago! I can't wait to see all my old friends, go out to Gino's East for pizza and then hit Rush Street for some great dancing and music!