How would you help marketers and sales people work in tandem more seamlessly during a trade show?

That’s the question Ardath Albee recently asked when commenting on another blog post I’d written.  It’s a good question, as the economic hardships of the last couple of years have accelerated the need for sales and marketing teams to better cooperate.   Wouldn’t you like a little less rumble and a little more kumbaya between your sales and marketing?

Here are some ideas about what you can do before, during, and after a trade show to help your sales and marketing players become a more cohesive team. 

Before the trade show:

• Set and communicate the show goals, which include both sales and marketing metrics, like number of leads, sales revenue generated, new product introductions, and increased brand awareness, so both groups see they have strong reasons for ensuring success
• Ask sales what information they want gathered from booth visitors at the show, and get that on the lead card, so they feel valued
• Work together to set in-booth appointments before the show
• Train both sales and marketing how to work a trade show booth, so they are less nervous and less likely to turn on each other
• Take them out to dinner the night before the show to get them acquainted or reunited with each other

Just before the trade show:

• Let each staffer introduce themselves to the booth staff team, and tell what they want to get out of staffing at the show
• Tell your sales and marketing people that it’s okay to ask each other for help with booth visitor questions they don’t know the answer to (pricing, new product info, etc.)
• Re-emphasize that each booth staffer needs to record what booth visitors were interested in, and what follow up was promised, so the sales person who receives the lead can make a good follow up phone call
• In the rush before the show opens, be sure to treat the sales and marketing people equally — don’t ask the marketing assistant to load up the staplers, but treat the sales director as a visiting dignitary

In your trade show display during show floor hours:

• Try to balance the number of sales and marketing people on each trade show booth staffing shift
• Casually mention to a marketing person on the booth staff team when a sales person gets a great lead, and likewise, tell a sales person when a marketing booth staffer gets a great lead
• Hold sales and marketing booth staffers equally accountable during show hours — if a marketing manager hides behind a table or a top sales performer only chats with his neighbor, coach them with the same level of urgency

After the trade show:

• Report to the booth staffers how they all either achieved or did not achieve the show goals — let them know how sales and marketing performed as a team
• Share anecdotes from the booth staffers, such as when a sales person spoke with a prospect who liked your new branding, or a marketing person who heard from a client how much they value their sales person’s customer service skills

While you would expect the at-show activities to matter most, I think what you do before the show is the most effective.  And reporting results after the show helps solidify gains made for the next show.

Do you need to do all this at every show?  That depends on how wide the gap is between your sales and marketing teams.  But if you employ some of these tactics, you may find that the gap between your sales and marketing groups gets smaller, while the results you create together get bigger. 

How have you built stronger sales and marketing teams at trade shows?  Let us know in the comment box below.

You can make both your sales and marketing teams happier by boosting your trade show results.  Click here to get your free copy of the 32-page White Paper, What’s Working in Exhibiting, which reveals best practices in improving results, stretching budgets, lead management, promotions, exhibit design, and more.

1. If you forget everything else, remember this one thing: The number-one key to success is persistence, “stick-to-it-iveness.”  Live the “last man standing” rule: Quitters never win, winners never quit.
2. Be a lover of current affairs.  Read the paper (online if not in print), and not just the sports page!  Make the business section your favourite section.
3. Know something about a broad range of topics, make connections with customers, be a perpetual student.
4. Rehearse, practice, train constantly.
5. Focus.
6. Pick the low-hanging fruit first.  Find the open doors.
7. Be action-oriented.
8. Ask the customer what they want, and give them exactly what they want.
9. All good relationships are built on two things: Trust and Respect; you need to have both for your customers, and they you.
10. Think big, promise big, deliver bigger.
11. Don’t make promises you can’t keep.
12. Take notes!!
13. Match your approach to the personality traits of your customer (Give an Analytical lots of data, give a Driver just the facts, make an Amiable feel they are not alone, and tell an Expressive how great they are).
14. Be a doctor: Never prescribe medicine until you’ve diagnosed the patient.
15. Ask questions.  You have two ears and one mouth so listen twice as much as you speak.
16. Three very powerful words:­ “Tell me about…”
17. Answer questions with questions: “Does you product have (feature)?” “Tell me how that fits into your needs?”
18. Answer objections with questions: “I see, tell me how that is important to you?” NEVER argue with a customer … they are always right, even when they are wrong.
19. Be the specialist.  Become the guy they all go to for the answers.
20. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, get back on the horse.
21. No whining. There are no problems, only opportunities … The glass
22. really is half-full.
23. Take risks … push yourself out of your comfort zone.
24. No B.S.  Know what you are talking about, but if you don’t know, it’s okay to say, “That’s a really good question. I don’t know the answer to that, but I’ll find out for you, if you like.”
25. Do your paperwork outside of ‘Pay Time” (pay time is 8:30 to 5:00pm when you have an opportunity for face time with the customers).
26. Ask yourself, “Is what I’m doing right now making me any money??”
27. Do it now, do it now, do it now … Less time thinking, more time doing.
28. Form good habits.  Make your work ethic habitual.
29. Be in the game to win, not just compete.
30. You are not a salesperson, you are a business person.
31. Show leadership.
32. Know your competition.  Be better than they are.  Know why & how you are better.
33. Customers will lie to you; expect it, but don’t you lie to them.
34. Be nice to your fellow employees, you’ll need their support.
35. Divide the selling process into a series of “handshakes.”  Never move to the next step until you have agreement from the customer.  When would you rather learn that you are going to lose a sale, in the first 3 minutes, or after you’ve spend 6 months on them??
36. You need 100 “NOs” before you’ll hear a “YES.”
37. Your closest friends and family will by the quickest to tell you “that can’t be done.”
38. You must learn these five criteria to be 70% closed:

1 who are the decision makers?
2 what is the budget?
3 what are the timelines?
4 what is the scope of work?
5 who are you competing with?
Confirm an initial meeting (even phone meeting) with a courtesy “letter of engagement” which re-states the 5 critieria above (If there are any objections they come out right now).

39. Be organized!  Say what you are going to do, and do what you say you’re going to do.
40. Who’s the easier person to sell to?  Your existing customer.  Stay in touch with your customers.
41. There’s a difference between lying and negotiating … Honesty is always the best policy.
42. If a customer over pays you by mistake, take great pleasure in refunding their money, you will have a customer for life.
43. Always be selling … anywhere, anytime … always be feeding your funnel.
44. Be a goal-setter … write your goals down (I mean it), most people want only four things in life:

1 close personal relationships
2 a career they love
3 financial independence
4 good health
Set goals in all four categories.  Review your goals regularly and adjust if needed.

45. Dress sharp, look professional.
46. Be bold, be brave, be smart, be cool.  Success breeds success. Act like a winner.
47. Give to the universe, it will give back to you.
48. Act like the person you want to be, not the person you are.
49. Love what you do, have fun!
50. Life is all about choices.  Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it.

Looking for more strategies learned from experience?  Click here to get your free copy of the Successful Exhibiting Strategies in Uncertain Times white paper report.

My nephew Andy is a farmer.  He’s wanted to be a farmer since he was a little boy.  For Andy, there’s something so special about tending the crop to harvest.

Spend a day with him and you’ll learn that farming is very hard but rather simple work.

Of course technology has made a significant impact on the farming process. Fields are now charted by GPS, seeds are engineered to withstand hardship and chemicals assist in maximizing output.    

But, the process is still pretty simple; turn the soil, plant the seed, water the field and harvest the crop.

Imagine if Andy farmed like many organizations marketed.

Here are 5 lessons that farmer Andy could teach marketers today:

1. Choose the right crop for the right field.  Market segmentation and targeted messaging allow us to focus our efforts and leverage our marketing dollars like never before.  The proliferation of smaller more targeted events, allows exhibitors the chance to tell their story to a very qualified audience.
2. Remember where you planted your seed.  What’s the point to randomly handing out or letting people help themselves to your literature a trade show?  When that brochure gets stuffed into a show bag, it’s one step closer to the trash can.  Just like the farmer controls his seed, the trade show marketer must control his information.
3. Nurture your seed as it grows.  Focused follow-up and relationship development after the show is CRITICAL!  The farmer would never toss his seeds to the wind and expect the crop to harvest itself.  Why do exhibitors think that they can show up at a show, hand out literature, give away a few pens and expect a harvest to follow?  The harvest will belong to the marketing farmer who works the field.
4. Know when to harvest your crop.  Experienced marketing and sales people know when it’s time to ask for the business.  They take a very strategic approach to developing the prospect into a customer and know when the time is right to close.  And, close they must.
5. Be a good steward of the land.  Give back to your industry.  Get involved with the associations you belong to.  Put your “knowledgeware” (your smart people) on display by getting them on the speaker’s platform and presenting at your big conference.  To be seen as a thought leader you need to act like one.

If farmers behaved more like the average marketer, this country would starve.

With the exception of field sales (interesting use of words), the trade show floor is the only marketing field where we are face to face with our market.  In this field we have the opportunity to nurture a good crop and grow your business like no other.

So put on your overalls, grab your pitchfork and get to planting. You’ve got mouths to feed!

More ways to boost your harvest from your trade show marketing program:  Click here for your free copy of the Successful Exhibiting Strategies in Uncertain Times White Paper, which includes 16 proven methods for generating greater trade show results.