Allied Members' Products and Services: Improve Your 2012 Exhibiting Results
I recently interviewed two of our Allied Members who are also exhibit industry thought leaders about measurably improving results at industry shows. Keith Reznick is president of Creative Training Solutions and Ed Jones is president of Constellation Communication Corporation. They have each helped a wide variety of companies, large and small, in numerous industries, consistently improve show and event results and ROI.
Attendee Expectations
ABOUTFACE: You shared a video that documented attendee expectations. What were your findings?
Reznick: Access to the web enables attendees to hit the show floor with an agenda. They know who they want to see and the questions they’ll ask; exhibit staff need to be prepared for this. Unfortunately most are not. A few years ago a colleague and I interviewed attendees as they left the floor. One of the questions we asked was, “What do you expect of exhibit workers?” Here’s what they had to say.
Jones: Attendees must be engaged in a valuable and persuasive experience that results in a commitment to take the next step in the sales process. Exhibitors who recognize this make sure that their exhibit staff has the knowledge and skill required to meet or exceed attendees’ expectations. When exhibit staff lacks the requisite skills and knowledge, acceptable ROI is difficult to achieve.
ABOUTFACE: What is the most surefire way to consistently and measurably improve exhibiting results?
Jones: Improve exhibit staff performance with prospects and customers.
Reznick: 85% of an exhibitor’s success is determined by exhibit staff performance according to CEIR. Select, train and motivate your most important asset on the show floor – your exhibit staff – and you’ll generate better ROI.
Jones: Exhibit staff impact the success of almost everything exhibitors do to improve results. New exhibits, promotion, social media, these are all ultimately dependent on the dialogue between company personnel and the exhibitors’ target audience. The better the dialogue, the better the results.
Three Critical Factors for Event Marketing Success
ABOUTFACE: Meeting or exceeding attendees’ expectations is obviously important. What are other success factors?
Jones: There are three critical factors for event marketing success which are directly linked to exceeding attendees' expectations. Miss one and you are toast.
The first critical success factor is attracting the right people to your marketing event – you must attract enough people with the right levels of responsibility and a potential need for your products. They are the ones who matter the most. Without them, you are wasting precious time and resources. The second is having the right message, one that resonates with your target audience and is persuasive. The third is the right action. Your targeted visitors must become motivated to take the next step. The expected action must be specific, clear, supported and the prospects must be motivated to act.
Your staff must make all of this work together in a manner that results in committed leads, aka follow-up actions.
Reznick: Let’s talk a little about the right people. The right people obviously refers to the target market for a company. However, the right people also applies to your exhibit staff. Most exhibit workers were not hired to work shows and events, and most have never been trained to do the things successful exhibit staffing requires. They need to engage attendees, asking questions to both identify and pre-qualify sales opportunities. It's important to prepare them to present relevant, attendee specific information while weaving in key messages and differentiators. Finally, they capture attendee information and set the stage for post-show follow-up.
That’s a lot to ask of anyone, especially people who were hired for reasons totally unrelated to event marketing.
Jones: The second critical success factor – conveying the right message – is equally if not more daunting a challenge for most people staffing an exhibit.
Reznick: You're absolutely right, Ed. We recently completed a mystery shopper project for an association whose members are some of the best known brands in the world. Our six shoppers reported that only a third of the exhibit staff they interacted with conveyed the company’s key messages during their conversations. 67% did not – two thirds of the opportunities to update and enhance target audience perceptions were lost.
Jones: Criteria included in many ROI models relate to attendees’ pre- and post-show perceptions. To improve returns, exhibit staff need to know who the target audience is and what messages and content they will find most valuable.
Reznick: There's a very quick and easy way for an exhibit or event manager to test the waters with exhibit staff and the right message. In the weeks prior to a show or event, they should ask some of the people who will be staffing their exhibit the following commonly asked questions:
- What's new?
- What should I know about our company?
- How are we different or better than our competitors?
ABOUTFACE: How do clients respond when you make this suggestion?
Reznick: I think many of them are surprised at the suggestion because the questions are so fundamental. I think the answer to your question surfaces in our follow-up conversation. Once they’ve had a chance to ask a handful of people any or all of these questions, many realize that while the questions are fundamental, the answers are not. I’ve had a number of clients say, “I almost felt silly asking a few of our salespeople the questions you suggested. I’m so glad I did because it struck me that if they can’t answer these questions before the show, they’re certainly not going to be able to answer them when prospects and customers ask them on the show floor.”
ABOUTFACE: Ed, talk a little more about the right action.
Jones: When exhibit staff and attendees’ conversations are mutually beneficial, a higher percentage of attendees will agree to a follow-up contact.
We’ve seen dramatic improvement in clients’ ROI when they pay attention to this critical success element. When exhibit staff orient their engagements to result in a commitment for follow-up, your results improve.
ABOUTFACE: An industry stat that’s been around for years comes to mind: 80% of the leads generated at business-to-business shows receive no follow-up.
Reznick: A major reason leads are not followed up is because their value is suspect. Good engagement, qualification, demonstration and commitment skills yield better, more valuable leads, and then improve follow-up.
How to Improve ROI
ABOUTFACE: How can exhibit and event managers address some of the exhibit staff challenges we’ve been discussing?
Reznick: One way is to work closely with their internal customers to define goals for a given show using the right people, message and action qualifiers. Once defined, select exhibit staff that have the required skills and knowledge. Unfortunately most exhibit and managers have little say in who is selected to staff a show.
Jones: Event managers who can’t select exhibit staff need to, at minimum, get everyone who is staffing on the same page. Some try to accomplish this by sending emails prior to the show but often don’t know who has read them and who hasn’t. Some will get everybody together in the exhibit for 15 minutes just before the show opens to review the exhibit layout and a few housekeeping items. A well planned and run pre-show meeting, via the web or in-person, is often the most effective way to prepare your exhibit staff. Information can be disseminated and best practices for interacting with attendees can be discussed and practiced.
ABOUTFACE: Despite the fact that many studies within the industry have identified a strong correlation between exhibit staff training and improved results, the vast majority of exhibit workers rarely receive any communication skills coaching or training. Why is that?
Jones: Most exhibit managers are expected to do more with less money and fewer people. They often don’t have the time to prepare a pre-show meeting. Lack of management support is another big challenge. And sometimes employees don’t recognize that they need skills training.
On the one hand, 74% of event managers believe that staff training is an important factor to ensure ROI at trade shows and events. On the other, most exhibit staff receive little or no training. It’s a real conundrum.
Exhibit staff training is often one of the first things cut from an event budget. After all, it’s easy to cut and not too many people will complain. Although harder to quantify, event managers might consider the cost of leads that were never captured, cross-selling opportunities that were not created, and the long-term impact of attendees’ negative brand experiences.
Reznick: When a client asks Ed or me, or any of the other professional trainers in the industry, to train their exhibit staff, it’s usually for our clients’ largest shows. To help our clients’ provide training online or in-person for any size show we created the Trade Show Advantage – two of the best tools available to exhibit and event managers to prepare their staff.
ABOUTFACE: What is the Trade Show Advantage?
Reznick: We created www.tradeshowadvantage.com to help exhibit and managers provide the experiences attendees want and get the results their companies expect. Guests to the site will find short videos full of tips on a variety of topics – how to select exhibit staff is the current video. We’ll add additional videos on topics including key messages and branding, pre- and at-show promotion, how to improve lead quality and quantity, and so on. The video tips are free.
They’ll also find valuable information about the Trade Show Advantage™ Pre-Event Staff Orientation and the Trade Show Advantage™ Pre-Show Meeting Kit.
Jones: Rapid engagement, precise visitor qualification, and providing visitors with the most valuable experiences are essential to achieving ROI in a marketing event. The Trade Show Advantage™ Pre-Event Staff Orientation is an on-line program that provides objective pre-show staff training.
Event managers email their exhibit staff a link. The program does everything else. It's designed to appeal to engineers, product specialists, sales people, and other event staffers at all levels of experience. The program helps staff understand the importance of their role while preparing to be effective at a show. Upon successful completion of the program a confirmation email is sent to the event manager and participants receive a certificate of completion. They can finish the module in less than fifteen minutes.
Reznick: The Trade Show Advantage™ Pre-Show Meeting Kit has everything an exhibit manager needs to prepare and facilitate an engaging and interactive pre-show meeting. A well run meeting will enhance exhibit staffs’ skills, attitude, motivation and ability to engage attendees and represent a company and brand to its best advantage. The kit includes planning checklists, a facilitator’s guide with step-by-step instructions and suggestions, a customizable PowerPoint presentation, and a reproducible handout for participants.
We created these programs to minimize event managers’ time and maximize exhibit staffs’ skills and confidence. Used independently or together, these programs will enhance your staffs’ capabilities and results.
ABOUTFACE: Keith and Ed…I’d like to ask each of you to sum it up in a sentence or two.
Reznick: To improve exhibit staff performance event managers should work with internal clients to select staff who have the skills and knowledge required to accomplish their goals. Whenever possible they should invest the time and money to get their people on the same page – a well planned and facilitated conference call, a web-based pre-show orientation, or an in-person pre-show meeting will help their exhibit staff understand the importance of their role while motivating them to represent your company to its best advantage.
Jones: From a measurement perspective, one of the most cost-effective ways to improve your 2012 exhibiting ROI is to improve exhibit staff performance. A carefully selected, prepared and motivated exhibit staff will provide the experiences attendees expect and the results their companies expect.
ABOUTFACE: This was a great interview. Thank you both for your time. You have set a new standard of excellence for our Allied Members' Products and Services series of articles.
If you are a TSEA Allied Member and want one of your products or services featured in an article in ABOUTFACE, please contact Gordon Nary at gnary@tsea.org.
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About the Author
Gordon Nary is Editor of ABOUTFACE
Trade Show Exhibitors Association