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depends on how you have prepared and how your staff interacts with the prospects. In both cases, Friedmann said, you can’t throw your plan together at the last minute. For example, the best opportunity to position yourself as an expert is to present a forum or workshop, yet that will require coordination with organizers several months in advance. Even if that’s not something you’re up for, reaching out to leads, designing a booth and preparing your staff will take time, too. Prime the pump in the weeks before a show so prospects know you’re attending. Send letters or emails with specials you’re offering, such as AEA Show Specials, and invite each attendee to stop by the booth or set up meetings with sales staff. Follow up with phone invitations to your hottest leads. Add banners on your website, notes in signature lines of emails and stickers on outgoing brochures. In the last few weeks, post frequently to your social media sites. Offer a gift – something that’s relevant to buying avionics, such as a training video, white paper or a discount on services instead of a stress ball or hat – to prospects who bring medium-specific coupons or “prize numbers.” That will help you track what is most successful for future events. Use gifts as a thank you to new leads, as well. Put some strategic planning into your booth, too. Create signage that speaks directly to your target audience, and think of it as your first filter. “The signage needs to be benefit oriented,” Stevens said. “Explain to the passer-by why he or she should stop and have a conversation.” Just keep the message succinct; visitors will only focus on it for three to five seconds as they scan the aisle. Nevertheless, even the best booth doesn’t create leads. Only your people will, provided they’re capable of having “good conversations.” Choose the right
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crew, and know that salespeople may not be the best option to identify leads; let them do their thing with pre-qualified ones elsewhere. Rather, customer-service and marketing people may be better suited to engaging and disengaging visitors, asking smart questions and interacting at the networking mixer to qualify prospects. If possible, throw a technical person into the mix to answer questions, too, and bring enough hands to humanely schedule your staff. When they’re not in the booth or when traffic is low, give staff time to learn what’s new in the industry, do their own competitor intelligence and network with potential strategic allies. Regardless of whom you choose, train them for the task. They need to know the rules of trade shows, such as no sitting, cellphones, eating or chewing gum in the booth. They need to know how to identify good leads from bad ones, Friedmann said. They do that by asking questions: about the prospect’s situation, needs and concerns. “Look at how much information can you get from the prospect rather than stand there and do the used-car sales pitch,” she said. “Follow up after the show based on the information you collect.” How to Follow up? You need to follow up if you want to see any return on your efforts, yet, most exhibitors won’t. According to trade show research, 80 percent of leads are never followed up, Friedmann said. The shortfall results because exhibitors don’t know how to capture data, and, even if they do, they don’t have a system to deal with them. Solve that before the show. “You can’t just have a conversation and let the person leave,” Stevens said. “You have to capture their contact information so that you can follow up with them later.” She recommends having a process as simple as a business card stapled to a lead form that describes what the pros-

pect is interested in and what you have agreed to do to follow up. For example, send a brochure or magazine reprint. “The prospect’s name should be put into some kind of nurturing stream, where you have a process to stay in touch with them,” Stevens said. “It’s in the follow-up where people actually spend money.” Divide your leads into three groups depending on their stage of the buying process. For example, your “A” leads are qualified and ready to buy, while your “B” leads are starting the process, and your “C” leads are starting to gather information, Friedmann said. As soon as you get home, send them all an email, which you wrote before the show that thanks them for stopping by the booth. Offer a link to contact a sales person immediately. If they don’t, contact your “A” leads immediately – certainly within the first week after the show. At the same time, send your “B” leads what you promised, which, incidentally, is easier and cheaper than schlepping around a bunch of collateral material. Finally, put your “C” leads on your mailing list for newsletters, so your name is in front of them when they’re ready to talk, Friedmann said. While you’re at it, follow up with your sales people. If you have handed a lead to them, build accountability into the system so they actually make contact as you intended, Friedmann said. The lead represents a lot of work by the rest of your team, as well as the potential for a big payday. Ultimately, sales are the reward for weeks of effort, tuning and tracking. While other marketing efforts may be cheaper and easier, none offer the sort of face-to-face experience gained at a trade show that helps relationships grow. Five minutes may not seem like much. But, when it comes to growing your business, it may be all the time you need. q

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Avionics News April 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News April 2012