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Steven R. Covey has helped millions
of people in their business and professional lives
with his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective
People. The Seven Habits, first written 17 years ago,
has proven to be an effective guide for personal and
professional development. And these principles, when
applied to your trade show experience, can dramatically
improve your experience at the event and your results.
Treating your portable trade show
display like your portable office is the key to maximizing
your effectiveness at each and every event. The purpose
of a trade show is connecting with people, and portable
trade show displays enable you to create a space for
educating prospects about what your company has to
offer and qualifying leads to pitch them for a sale
or follow up with them later.
Here’s how to apply Covey’s “7
Habits.”
Habit 1: Be Proactive
Planning is the key to maximizing your trade show experience. Weeks preceding
the show, you should exercise your marketing muscles. Let your existing customers
and prospects know you will be in attendance. If you have a new product on the
horizon, this may be an opportunity to generate some buzz by talking about an
unveiling or first-time demonstration at the show.
Habit 2: Begin
with the End in Mind
What type of ROI are
you shooting for? Do you want to inform prospects
about your industry and how your product will help
them, or will your prospect likely be familiar with
your industry already? What are your leads and sales
goals for the event? What is your follow-up strategy,
and how soon will you be following up with your prospects?
Habit 3: Put First
Things First
Before you even get to the show,
how is the morale of your sales team who will be face-to-face
with prospects? Your sales team is a reflection of
the company – if they aren’t enthused
about the show, you’re wasting their time and
the company’s money by sending them.
If you sense that your trade show staff is dreading the event, try something
spontaneous to get them hyped about the company and your products. Ideas as simple
as attending a sporting event, a concert or a day at the amusement park on the
company’s dime could boost morale.
And when it’s time for the
show to begin, what is your plan of action to best
utilize everyone’s strengths? How will you most
efficiently distribute use of their time?
Habit 4: Think Win/Win
It’s a very, very old marketing
principle that is too often overlooked. Very fundamental
to any marketing effort is finding a win/win balance
where the customer gets what they need and you get
what you need.
Because time is of the essence at a trade show, you must figure out how to get
the customer to stop at your portable trade show display, quickly qualify them,
and assess: whether or not they are your target market, whether they are immediately
ready to buy or need more information before they buy or, if they are not a prospect
now, could they be one in the future?
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand,
Then to be Understood
What is the customer’s need? How can you fulfill that need/solve their
problem? Clearly, if the customer has stopped at your portable trade show display,
they are interested in your product. But the first step in qualifying is figuring
out what need attracted them to your portable trade show display. Phrases such
as “What brings you by here today,” or “What may I do to help
you?” are good ice breakers to ease the conversation from generalities
and politely get to the point.
Habit 6: Synergize Principles of Creative Communication
The saying goes, “You
were given two ears and one mouth,” and this
was done for a reason. Listen more than you speak
and you will learn a lot more about what the customer
is telling you. Listen to their words, translate their
body language. When you think you’ve figured
it out, feed the information back to the customer
in their own words and language. From there, use qualifying
questions to build mutual trust and understanding
to overcome any objections.
Habit 7: Sharpen the
Saw
Now this is where it gets personal. A day or a few
at a trade show requires peak performance and lots
of energy – it can be quite grueling if you’re
not prepared. What are you doing to make sure you’re
able to give your best before the trade show, and
recharge after? In addition, a post-mortem after the
show is a great way to identify mistakes, holes in
planning and preparation and efficiency drains – not
to browbeat you and your team so you can feel sorry
for yourselves, but so you can brainstorm and discuss
a better strategy for next time.
The Seven Habits of Highly
Effective People turned the tide of the American
mindset about work and life – empowering professionals
everywhere to expect more of themselves at work and
at home. The “principles” of this extraordinary
work have been duplicated all over the world. Apply
them not only to your prospects’ experience
in your portable trade show displays, but at every
level of your marketing strategy, and you will leap
ahead of the competition and create the potential
to dramatically improve the results at your next
trade show event.
About the Author
Mat Kelly
is the president of ExhibitDEAL, the Original Exhibit
Wholesaler specializing in portable
trade show displays and accessories. The company
has options to fit every budget, and accessories
to enhance your portable trade show exhibit space.
For info, visit: http://www.exhibitdeal.com
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