Engaging in conversations at an event is the reason a company takes the time, money and effort to participate in an event. The point of such conversation is to ensure that prospects or customers can share their business requirements and have exhibitors respond with appropriate information. You may ask yourself how often this kind of quality dialogue actually occurs. An even more important question is what is happening in the entire sales process in terms of communication between your company with customers and prospects.
The communications with your customers and prospects, if it is judged effective, helps move a company towards a solution that is a win-win proposition for everyone.
Keith Resnick from Creative Training Solutions (www.creativetraining.com) and I were discussing this fact recently and took the time to capture our conversation for you. It is available below. Keith is an expert in the field of effective communication strategies, especially for staffing a booth on at a trade show.
The personnel who staff the booth must have the correct skills to engage and converse with the attendees as well as knowledge about their company. In our conversation he goes on to provide excellent pointers on how to initiate the conversation with the attendee. It is not with a generic opening line like “can I help you?” but rather one that elicits a thoughtful, informative response.
Keith reminds us that we all like to talk about ourselves. And in this important booth exchange staffers must draw out the pertinent information that is on the attendees mind by asking “open-ended” questions. Let the attendee tell you about why they are at the show and what they want to accomplish. Then you can respond with the offerings your company has that addresses and meets those requirements.
Later in the conversation we talk about how booth staff need to be constantly “ON” - you never know who you will meet and where you will meet them. It might be the booth, but it might as well be in the aisle, at a breakfast meeting, or cocktail reception. There are countless stories of chance meetings that have turned into the “biggest fish caught” stories - that million dollar deal.
I would like to hear more stories about such chance meeting at a show that turned into business. So please share your story with us.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I can not begin to tell you how true this post is!
Not to long ago, I learned about a fantastic product that I referred to somebody! That person is now making a handsome profit off the product!
To tell you the truth, I did not notice the product until the person exhibiting saw me and said “Hello, how often do you work with wires?”
It just went from there!
At another trade show I was working at, I had noticed one booth getting a high amount of traffic. Interested in their method, I hung around there to see what they were doing.
The people working at the booth simply greeted people that were passing by that is all! If they received a hello back, then the exhibitor went on to ask questions such as “What kind of store do you own?”
It worked like a charm!
The Tradeshow Mentor
http://tradeshow-mentor.blogspot.com/
Your article is true; asking open ended questions is important when exhibiting at trade shows. Our company puts on “Booth Camp” Trainings http://www.exhib-it.com/pages/booth_camp.html in our seminar room here in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We teach our clients the importance of relationship building at shows instead of just being at a show to sell a product or service. One of the most important things that has been covered by other great speakers and writers such as Bob Berg, in his book Endless Referrals, and Jim Collins, in his book Good to Great, is getting to know the prospect before going into your sales pitch. All too often I see sales people working on their elevator pitches versus just getting to know and listen to their prospects at a show. The first impression you have while exhibiting is the lasting impression for your prospect. Lead Generation is very important, but to do it correctly requires listening to your prospect.