You never know which passer-by could be your next big customer!
Wander round any exhibition and you will often see stand staff with their head down in their laptop or their mobile phone, as their potential customers wander past.
If you want to make the most of the considerable investment you have made in the opportunity to talk to many prospects and customers in one place, your stand staff must pro-actively engage the visitors.
The successful encounter has four stages:
1. Approach
2. Engage
3. Secure
4. Follow up
Each of the stages has to be successfully executed in its own right and should lead smoothly to the next stage. If any one stage is poorly executed, it will negatively impact on the outcome. The whole encounter should be seamless as far as the visitor is concerned.
Visitors fall broadly into three main categories:
The Really Interested
They approach your stand. They stop at your stand. They have come to find you because they are interested in your products or services. They might even already be one of your customers.
The Curious
They pause a moment and look as they walk past. It may be that the stand or something on it has caught their eye. They are open and interested to find out more.
The Don’t Want to Knows
They walk past without breaking their pace or turning their heads. They often avert their eyes; look down or even away from the stand staff. They make every effort to avoid any contact with you. However, they are at the show, therefore, must be a potential customer.
1. Approach
Your stand staff have to be able to approach all three groups. Most people are comfortable with approaching the Really Interested and the Curious and are wary of the Don’t Want to Knows. A very simple good morning, good afternoon or hello invariably gets a courteous response and can lead swiftly to a question.
Some examples of conversation starters are:
• Do you use (product/service)?
• What do you know about (product/service)?
• What type of (product/service) are you using at the moment?
• Have you seen our new (product/service)?
• When do you use (product/service)?
• Are you planning to use a (product/service) in the future?
• When are you next planning to use (product/service)?
Do not use conversations starters that could provoke a negative reaction:
• Can I help you?
• What are you here for?
• Who are you?
It is the Don’t Want to Knows who represent great opportunity and potentially, a huge loss if you don’t get to talk to them. Emphasise to your staff:
• They must not make assumptions
• People who hurry past may still be interested in your product or service
• If they are visitors to the show they are potential customers
• They have to gain their attention in a couple of seconds
If you can build into your offering a ‘hook’ of some kind, you can use it in the approach. The more unusual the ‘hook’ the better it is. Your hook is your WIIFM (What’s in it for me). These include:
• Giveaways
• Competitions/Prize draws
• Demonstrations
• Refreshment on the Stand
If you are going to have a prize of any kind, make sure it is attractive and will be seen as an incentive for the visitor to stop and engage in conversation
Over time, you can build up and refine your own list of approaches that work, both by identifying the ones you have used and also the ones that have worked on you.
2. Engage
Once the hook has worked, you must engage in conversation and determine their needs by effective questioning.
If the visitor is not the person to talk to about your product or service, it is vital that the opportunity is not lost. Your staff must be alert and find out who would be the right person to talk to in their organisation. People will frequently give you a contact name.
At this stage open questions should be used to extract information but the depth of probing will depend upon your objectives and the type of information you require.
• Be succinct, energetic and enthusiastic. There is nothing more engaging than someone who really believes in their product/service
• Focus on the features and benefits of the product/service
• You could use demonstration, illustrate using graphics, dismantle and reassemble a product
• Utilise technical support to explain the intricacies
• If they ask for more information respond with a question, “What else would you like to know?” Invariably they will ask about only one facet, which enables you to move quickly to the secure stage
3. Secure
Having already established a rapport, identified needs and collected some of the information required it is essential to:
• Capture all the necessary details
• Record information correctly and legibly
• Secure agreement to a follow up action
Securing means the action is confirmed, understood and agreed by both parties and that there is a commitment to a time frame for:
• Visit (you to them)
• Visit (them to you)
• Telephone contact
• Email contact
• Send literature/quote/sample/testimonials etc.
It is important that the commitment is met so be sure to under promise and over deliver.
Your staff should always thank the visitor for taking the time to talk to them.
4. Follow-up
Finally you should follow through with the actions you agreed with each visitor.
This blog is an extract from a Nomadic whitepaper STAND STAFF TRAINING. For more tips on effectively working an exhibition stand download our full whitepaper.