Join Q2 Marketing’s Pamela Girardin at the ASBC’s “How to Maximize Trade Show Marketing Spending” Wednesday, March 11 at 9:00 a.m. The presentation will follow the ASBC’s weekly Business Over Breakfast™ at the Tower Club in Tysons Corner. Pamela’s session is for government contractors interested in learning more about maximizing investments at industry trade shows, and specifically, the upcoming 19th Annual OSDBU Procurement Conference.

An unsurpassed tradeshow and conference veteran, Pamela will offer tips on how to best leverage your industry tradeshow spending and maximize the impact of business objective achievement. Getting full value from the shows you attend is a deliberate and ongoing process. We all need to spend our marketing dollars where it makes the most sense. Pamela will reveal useful tips to help you marry up the many logistical and moving parts with a solid revenue-driven strategy. With over 20 years of strategic marketing experience, Pamela is President and Founder of Q2 Marketing, a strategic marketing firm that drives revenue for B2B and B2G technology companies.

We will also be joined by David Powell of Federal Business Council, Inc., producers of the annual event, and Dan Sturdivant of the Department of Homeland Security, one of the original coordinators of this event and planning committee chair for ten consecutive years.

 Tips for Exhibitors and Attendees of the 19th Annual OSDBU Procurement Conference

David Powell, FBC and Dan Sturdivant, Department of Homeland Security

The OSDBU Procurement Conference is a national conference fostering business partnerships between the Federal Government, its Prime Contractors, and small, minority, service-disabled Veteran-owned, Veteran-owned, HUBZone, and women-owned businesses. This year, over 400 exhibitors and 4,000 attendees will meet to identify business opportunities and encourage small business utilization across 49 government agencies.

The conference, sponsored by the Federal government Offices of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, was originally established in 1990 as the Procurement Opportunities Conference & Exposition. The purpose is to provide networking and educational opportunities to all conference participants.

This is a complimentary event hosted by The ASBC Marketing Silo. Pre-registration is required. Space is limited. Learn more at: http://www.theasbc.org/events/event_details.asp?id=53003.

I was at the Affordable Meetings National Event Technology Expo tradeshow (http://www.affordablemeetings.com/ete/) at the Washington Convention Center last week. It was about a 10,000 square foot expo area, so it was a fairly easy floor to navigate. These are good opportunities for me to observe and be reminded of what works well when working the booth–and what can be improved.

Among the exhibitors, there was a strong contingency of vendors representing various hotels, conference centers and regions. While Q2 plans events, I’m fairly far removed from that service offering. Many of the reps came out into the aisle and hit me with all of the reasons I would want to plan my next conference or team-building outing at their facility.

However, and this is important, no one asked this basic question: “Are you responsible for meetings and events for Q2?” Or : “How many events does your firm plan a year?”

Many insisted on promptly scanning my badge. Wouldn’t a better approach have been to see if I was qualified?

Toward the end of the day, a number of booth staff were insisting that I take home their freebies. I’m sure this is because they didn’t want to carry them home with them. Anybody want some keychains, pens, etc. that came home with me against their will? The lesson is, if you have to find unwilling (unqualified) strangers on which to unload your promotional items, don’t bring so many in the first place.

I don’t fault these people from trying to generate interest. But I take issue with the methodology that says, “everyone who comes by our booth is a customer.”

A group sales rep with Club Med did it right. I told her I was interested in going to Club Med with my husband. By most definitions, especially hers, he and I don’t constitute a “group.” She politely gave me a brochure with her card, chatted for a few moments and moved me on. She didn’t scan my badge or take my card, so I won’t appear in her database. She realized that’s not a good use of her time.

Is this your company’s standard approach to trade shows: You show up for the install, put up your booth [or watch others put it up for you--making more money in that 4 hour period then you will make over the next 3 days], dress in your trade show uniform [if you are lucky enough to have one] and then proceed to stand in the booth for the next couple of days dreaming of the show’s close?

How many people pass by the booth without ever stopping? How many people look down at their feet as they pass your booth? How many people take a giveaway and then walk quickly away before you can say, “Hi. Would you like a pen?” Isn’t it amazing that horde of people can be so rude as to pass right by without engaging you in conversation or notice your presence?

Well if you have been a victim of the above, it’s time to take control of the trade show conundrum. Trade shows are an event unlike any other. Standing at the booth while waiting for people to approach you is a surefire recipe for disaster. You need to take control and here are some steps that will allow you to do so:

1. Engage passersby in conversation.The beautiful fact of trade shows is that attendees walk around all day and night with their name badges hanging around their necks. As people pass the booth, make eye contact, address them by name and engage them in conversation. You would be surprised at how successful you will be with this approach.
2. Qualify prospects BEFORE swiping their lead card. The show shouldn’t be about getting as many leads as possible. It doesn’t help anyone to come back from the show with 10,000 leads if only 100 are actually a fit for your offerings. You should come to the show armed with qualification questions that are asked before the card is swiped. If the lead is prospect, sales will armed with qualifying information up front, which makes for a more productive follow up call.
3. Pack limited amounts of collateral and store it away from the front/registration counter at your booth. It’s well known that attendees at shows will grab every piece of collateral known to man with the best intentions on reading it. However, when packing up to go home, typically every piece of collateral is thrown into the hotel trash bin do to weight and/or available space in luggage. Let qualified prospects know that you would be happy to send brochures to their office after the show. Most will take you up on this offer. On the ones that don’t, give them the brochures that fit their issues/needs and let them know you will follow up with them once you are back in the office.
4. Separate leads into different categories. As soon as you’re back in the office, you need to divide the show leads into different categories based on the answers to the qualification questions. Each category should have a different follow up mechanism: phone calls, emails or letters. Leads should be followed up withing 2-3 weeks after the show.
5. Actually follow up on the leads. It is always surprising to hear that companies spend a small fortune to go to trade shows but never follow up on any of the leads obtained. Instead, reps often get back to their offices and continue to follow up on the prospects they were working, and the trade show leads languish and eventually become forgotten.

Your first attempts at putting the above steps into play may be a bit cumbersome. But eventually you will have all the steps down pat and your return on investment for each show will greatly improve. Shows can be tremendously successful. There aren’t many other opportunities where you will be hand delivered a large number of prospects that are qualified in regard to industry, decision making ability and more. It is your job to make the most of the opportunity. Good luck and enjoy the show!

Getting full value from the shows you attend is a deliberate and ongoing process. We all need to spend our marketing dollars where it makes the most sense. Here are six tips that should help you marry up the many logistical and moving parts with a solid revenue-driven strategy.

1. Carefully Target Shows. As with all strategic marketing, targeting is a necessary first step. Make sure each show offers the right demographics and the right level of decision maker. Whether you’re selling to government or business [or both], the size of the event is less important than the target. Regardless of whether you exhibit at agency tabletop shows or massive shows, you must determine if attendees are influential in making the purchase for what you’re selling. If you’re not sure about a show, send reps to check it out and walk the floor first, then report back on pros and cons for next year.

Have a clear set of criteria for measuring the value of shows. Here are some criteria categories:

• Who is there: prospects, competitors, clients, partners, decision makers?
• Visibility: is it a good venue for major announcements, branding efforts, awareness? Use all this data and past history to help ensure you’re using the right shows to make major announcements, launch products, etc.
• Is the show a good value for price? Some high end, and high price, industry analyst events may include your buyers, for example, but if they’re outside your budget threshold, it won’t make sense.

2. Set Clear Objectives. What do you want to do at each show? Is it basic brand awareness? Are you looking to demo a product to as many qualified people as makes sense? Do you want to schedule meetings with partners, vendors, clients, etc? Do you want to capture market share from an industry leader? Is lead generation the name of the game? Make sure you know the relative value of each show so you can maximize your time there, and achieve your objectives.

3. All Hands On Message. Everyone who staffs the booth should be completely familiar with your company position, your key benefits and your value proposition. It’s essential to have all hands at the ready with your elevator pitch, as well as the right answers to questions.

4. Qualify! Come armed with good qualification questions for everyone who comes to your booth. This will help your sales team to spend their time with more likely purchasers. A key here is having good qualifications questions. People who don’t fit your prospect profile shouldn’t make it to your leads database. And they won’t, if you ask the right questions.

5. Post Show Evaluation. It goes without saying that leads must be followed up in a timely manner. But there are other post-show activities. Consider providing a survey for each staff member to respond to for each event you attend. This will generate feedback from your team and qualitative data that can be essential as you plan your event calendar for next year. This feedback can also be helpful as you negotiate exhibiting and sponsoring packages.

6. Leverage PR. Chances are, there are media coming to the shows you attend. Coordinate around some of your best events to maximize your opportunity of getting coverage as a result of new and exciting things you’re doing in the industry. Don’t miss out on opportunities to meet with reporters looking for good stories. That’s why they’re at the shows! And, of course, investigate advertising in show dailies for promotion.