The Secret Weapon Every Savvy Exhibitor Should Use

By Susan A. Friedmann

It's time for a visualization exercise. Are you ready?

You're standing, with your booth staff, in your exhibit at a large tradeshow. Your team is prepared. Your display looks terrific. You have interactive demonstrations, a sponsored speaker, and giveaway items conveying your marketing message. Everything in your booth appeals to your target audience; and they are in plentiful supply.

There's something in this scene, something I haven't mentioned yet, that could take you over the top! Not only will this boost your ROI, but will create that most vital of marketing tools.

It’s a secret weapon: “word of mouth marketing,” which has been around since the beginning of time but only now is it realizing its full potential.

I've recently read Seth Godin's Flipping the Funnel, and it really brought home the concept of how underutilized tradeshow attendees are as a marketing tool. Attendees are more than prospects and contacts: they're a potential sales force, just waiting to be tapped on your behalf.

According to Godin, we should:

• Turn strangers into friends.

• Turn friends into customers.

• Turn your customers into sales people.

Why?
Why would you want to recruit a whole bunch of amateur salespeople, you might ask, when you already have a perfectly competent, fully trained professional sales team? Regardless how big your sales force is, there's no way they're going to be able to connect with every person who might be interested in your products and services.

This is where your friends and customers enter the picture. If you view them as assets, as allies in the world of sales, you've already expanded your potential marketplace. When more people are working on your behalf, you'll reach more customers. It's simple mathematics. When your friends and customers recommend your products and services, their words carry far more weight than anything your sales team can say. People value the opinions of colleagues, peers, and relatives far more than they do the assurances of a salesperson. It's the difference between editorial speech and advertising, played out in a face-to-face setting.

Now What?
A slight shift in priorities might be in order. While starting new business relationships will always be important, a new emphasis has been placed on strengthening and maintaining existing relationships.

Consider your current customers. Ask yourself – or even better, ask them – how they feel about your products and services. What is it about your customer service or doing business with your organization is unique, enjoyable, and/or remarkable?

Whatever the answers, what are you doing to help your customers spread the word? Godin offers a number of technical solutions in his free e-book (which I highly recommend you read). Here are a few more hands-on tools to implement at your next tradeshow:

Be Honest
Tell your best customers how much you appreciate them and how much you would value having more customers like them. It's no secret that you're in business to make money. No one thinks you're at the show as a philanthropic endeavor. Appealing to your customers to spread the word carries with it an implied compliment: you're reinforcing the fact that you think they're important, and that their opinion of you matters.

Encourage Referrals
Do you know how often your customer thinks about your company? It's probably less than 1% of their daily life – after all, they have their own companies to worry about, and their own customer base, not to mention their own personal lives and world events. Sometimes, people need a little prompting to spread the word – otherwise, it might never, ever occur to them

Offer Incentives
If you want your customers to do something for you, you need to do something for them. Godin's idea is that by offering superior products and services, in a remarkable fashion, you'll transform customers into fans. Having strong advocates and supporters never hurts. Offering incentives for spreading the word can be a simple thing – an attractive discount on their next order – or something more elaborate. Remember, younger tradeshow attendees may be motivated by more than financial savings or benefits to their company. Consider offering something more personal: a gift that would appeal to your target audience.

Transforming customers into fans may not have been the top

priority on your exhibiting list; but it should be. Recruiting an all-volunteer sales force to augment your existing efforts is one of the most cost effective ways to get your marketing message out there.

Remember: people like to share stories about what they find good, interesting, or unique. By offering these at your next tradeshow, you're giving yourself a vital leg up on the competition. Those who are concentrating on the next new thing miss out on the value of what they might already have.

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Written by Susan A. Friedmann,CSP, The Tradeshow Coach, Lake Placid, NY, author: “Meeting & Event Planning for Dummies,” working with companies to improve their meeting and event success through coaching, consulting and training. For a free copy of “10 Common Mistakes Exhibitors Make”, email: article4@thetradeshowcoach.com; Web site: www.thetradeshowcoach.com