There is definitely excitement here in Boston.  The kind of excitement you can feel.  And I am so pleased to be a part of it.  Today the show floor opens and the IN Zone is where the action will take place.

Dana Doody from The Expo Group has worked to create this social media hub for the on site and off site attendees.  Many sponsors have come together for this moment.  One of the sponsors is 3 D Media Group.  They have been walking around filming “AHA” moments. and will continue that in the IN Zone.  You can check out what they have captured – thus far here.

This afternoon at 1:15 PM  Emilie Barta will be interviewing me on Event Apps.  In the IN Zone she will be “Continuing the Conversations” with eight of us.  The schedule is as follows:

Now for those of you not in Boston, register here be a part of the conversation.

Oh my goodness, TS2 is fast approaching and I hope to see you there!!  One of the new “hot” activities at TS2 is the IN Zone.  Dana Doody from The Expo Group and her team have created this fun, social area on the show floor.

The four areas of the IN Zone are outlined below with a few notes about what actually will occur.

Social Media Lounge—space for tweetups and meetings of social media groups including plasma screens with Twitter and Facebook feeds streamed live throughout the event. Use the Twitter Handle #inzone to discuss what’s going on directly from the hottest spot on the show floor!

TS2 and IAEE social media groups will meet here at 11:45: TS2 groups on Day 1; IAEE on Day 2. Throughout this area, Cort Furniture will create a welcoming atmosphere with furniture. Innovative Event Production is supplying the large plasma monitors linked to social media sites.

Cyber Café—computer stations allowing attendees to hop on the Internet quickly to update their status, blog and check on other social networks.

TS2 has incorporated the standard computer terminals into this space. MCCA and the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center is providing all electric and Internet needs for the entire 40×50 space.

Video Connect Studio—on-site studio conducting interviews with speakers, exhibitors, partners and attendees to find out their AHA Moment of the week.

3D Media Group has brought this space into being. A video capture team will interview those coming by. All video will appear on the TS2 Video Connect website. Subjects of the video will be able to share it on Facebook and spread the word to their networks. A contest is being run by 3D Media to encourage sharing and viral marketing. I encourage each of you to also do a minute-interview in this area to promote your expertise. The website will go live July 6 at TS2.3D-Mediagroup.com.

Continuing the Conversation — industry thought-leaders provide tips and tricks live from the show floor.  Note: I am one of the eight.

Eight speakers will be welcomed into this space and interviewed talk show-style by Professional Tradeshow Presenter Emilie Barta. These conversations will be captured on video by The Expo Group and streamed to remote audiences, furthering the reach of the IN Zone. The video clips also will be made available to each of you if you desire.

All in all, this IN Zone is a place to Get INspired, which is the official slogan or marketing headline for the space. Those participating and those watching, as well as each of you I hope, will Get INspired in this space to take what they have learned and who they have met to improve their careers once they leave TS2.

Dana asks – “as the TS2 show approaches, I would like to encourage each of you to spread the word about the IN Zone and your efforts to your individual social networks. The time during the actual show will be especially important for promoting our joint efforts and the activities. You will see increased activity on the social networks, including live tweeting of activities, comments and goings-on via Twitter as well as Facebook posts.”

Soooo I am spreading the word!!!  I can feel the excitement building and hope you can too.

One of the agenda items from TSEA’s Red Diamond Congress was a discussion of trade show audits.  Applause! Applause!  Shows that audit themselves send a significant message to the entire industry that their numbers are verified.

Going Beyond the Audit

In my opinion audits are important.  However, I want to suggest another very critical element an exhibitor should request from any show organizer.  The audit shows the history for last year.  What marketing strategies and tactics are they deploying this year to create an audience?  Everything changes from year-to-year.  What worked last year may or may not be effective this year.

As an exhibitor you should know what your prospect audience segments are.  And you are relying on a show to draw those types of prospects into their event.  But how are they going about it?  Does the marketing plan have a sound footing and can it be achieved?

Normally they share their marketing plan in their Exhibitor Prospectus.  It provides a high level view of their marketing efforts.  I would suggest having a discussion and drilling down a bit.  Get to know their marketing person and ask some of the following questions.  This is not an inquisition but a meeting of two marketing minds where you are going to walk away and know that they are the right track or not.

• What had worked last year to draw the audience?
• What did they try and it may not have been totally effective?  How will they adjust or abandon that tactic?
• What new tactics are being considered for this year?
• What type social media efforts are they using?  And how deep are they into it?
• What type of money are they spending to generate their audience?
• What are their time lines for their marketing?

Use your own knowledge of general marketing to assess if they have a good plan put together.  You might be able to make a suggestion or two since you both are going after the same audiences, what has worked for you?

What is the Exhibitor’s responsibility to draw an audience?

It is my firm convection that exhibitors are equally yoked with show management to draw an audience to the show.  It is as much YOUR responsibility to bring the audience as it is the show’s.  So what are your plans?

Here are my questions for you:

• Are you taking advantage of free invitations the show offers and sending them to your target market?
• What direct mail or email campaigns have you designed to solicit the appropriate audiences?  Normally this is more than a one time occurrence.
• In your campaigns have you given the prospect a compelling message to have them be destination bound to your booth?  Please go beyond a post card that says – see us in Booth 123.  Put your mindset into the prospects mind and answer – what’s in it for me?
• Are you using this event to schedule meetings with customers and prospects?
• What social media platforms are you using to draw an audience to your booth?

Trade show success is the combined effort of the show and its exhibitors.  Each must pull their own weight to determine ultimate success.

Rich Erschik has a slogan he uses: Trade Shows Don’t Cost – They Pay!  As an exhibitor if you truly get this concept, then you understand how the show effort can pay off handsomely for your firm and your career if executed correctly.

The topic of exhibitor education is near and dear to me.  An educated exhibitor can leverage the trade show function to meet and exceed his/her company’s expectations.  Sales cycles can be shortened, brands can be enhanced – the list could go on and on.

In a previous post I talked about going to Orlando for exhibitor education for the PRSM conference and trade show.  Remember, I used a scooter to navigate the show floor?  Well one of the participants at that conference shared with me this testimonial:

“The information that I received from attending just one session with Joyce McKee was instrumental to the success of our company at a recent trade show. I can’t recall any other trade show session in my 24 years in the facilities maintenance industry, where I have received so much information in less than one hour. I was able to implement all the information immediately and see results within 48 hours. Fantastic! I can’t wait to attend another session.”

Peggy Bates – Retail Service Inc

Soooo I have decided to offer a webinar on May 18th at 1 PM Central time.  But this is going to be a different webinar in that YOU tell me what you want to learn.  You dedicate (request, suggest, etc.) the content I will be delivering.  Sounds interesting?  Listen in to this short video as I describe the webinar – Avoid Trade Show Heartburn:

The Avoid Trade Show Heartburn page has the link for you to sign up and pay for this webinar.

Now if you do not want this custom education, I do have four other general webinars which were conducted for National Business Media and they are free.  They are 30 minutes in length.  We created them for their exhibitors and they can found here.

If you have any questions about the May 18th webinar, email me at joycemckee [at] letstalktradeshows [ dot]com.

Last week I was in Orlando giving an exhibitor education session for PRSM.  A great group of folks.  BTW – here I am with Kip Eads, Director of Learning:

This week I received a follow up email from an exhibitor.  Now here is the good news:

• a follow up email was sent
• pricing with my company name was included
• they let me know it was a woman owned business

Bad News – I am not a prospect!!!

This generic email left me with the impression - you do not know me.

Now is that what you want to convey to the people you met in your booth at the last trade show?  I would hope not.

Let me say this one more time – segment your leads and have a unique message for each category.

Rick McPartlin and his co-founder Jane Adamson of The Revenue Game produce a monthly newsletters for executives.  The newsletter is called the CEO Challenge.  I want to share almost all of the newsletter since there is a trade show case study.  This should cause some conversation around the water cooler in your office!

Assumption testing has always been important in organizations. Right now, however, it’s more critical than ever. Markets are evolving so fast that the wrong assumptions can be fatal.

Worse yet, an organization’s inability to routinely identify and test assumptions is a cultural defect that can be very difficult to correct.

Case Study

Here’s a simple, true example of how one bad assumption leads to a myriad more. Let’s say that an organization is attending a trade show with the assumption that the best way to succeed is to attract as many people as possible into the booth and get their contact information.

Based on this master assumption – we must attract as many people as possible — the organization makes all of these secondary assumptions:

1. The booth needs to be huge and highly visible.
2. We need sensory devices, contests, premiums and actors.
3. We’d better be a show sponsor so our name is on the program, the walls and the big banners.
4. We’ll need plenty of power, labor and technology in our booth so we can electronically swipe contact information and download the data in order to follow-up with everyone.
5. We need a new booth because it can’t look the same as last year.
6. We need to increase our trade show  budget to X.
7. With this huge budget, the sales team must close $X million in new business from this effort.

This show will now require a significant effort from multiple departments – sales, marketing, finance, operations, and the executive team who banks on lofty results to propel the business toward its quarterly and annual goals.

WHAT IF SOMEONE HAD SPOKEN UP?

What if one person in the organization had been encouraged to challenge the initial master assumption? That person might have brought up these arguments:

Having a lot of traffic in the booth will mean we won’t have time to separate real prospects from tire kickers. We also won’t have time to work with the strategic clients and prospects we’ve invited to the show.

A massive effort to fill our database means lots of pre-show prep and post-show follow-up for a team of sales reps that doesn’t have the resources or budget to absorb an enormous influx of extra work hours.

90% of the names we put in the database won’t be prospective customers, so afterward we’ll need to talk to everyone and find the 10% who are real prospects. This effort will actually reduce sales time with qualified prospects.

We know that 10-20% of the 90% non-customers will ask us to quote or send us RFPs, which will further reduce sales team time to sell strategic prospects. At the same time these extra RFPs will add to the work burden of the various support teams, decreasing their ability to meet their budgets.

Since the post-show marketing program will require a big follow-up effort with limited staff, it will be a long time before we get to the 10% who are the qualified prospective buyers. By that time, many of them will have already bought from someone else. We will be lucky if we can get 33% of that 10% to buy, and we’ll never hit our revenue goals at that rate.

These challenges highlight the fact that “more people” wasn’t the right strategy for the show. And a challenger would have saved the organization many headaches and put millions back into the top and bottom lines. However, since nobody challenged the master assumption, the ramifications negatively affected the company and its strategy for a year.

SOLUTION

If your company’s culture isn’t proficient in identifying, challenging, and testing assumptions … you’re not alone. Therefore, you can gain considerable advantage by evolving into an organization that welcomes and benefits from this kind of consistent, strategic analysis.

ACTION PLAN

1. Make sure your organization supports assumption testing.

There are two tests that demonstrate whether your organization is good at identifying and testing assumptions.

First, when new employees join the organization, find out what they informally learn about the company and its culture. Preferred cultural norms pass from person to person. Listen carefully to what you hear. Are new employees inspired to challenge the status quo? To speak up in meetings? To drive new initiatives? Or are they encouraged to get along and keep their heads low? If there’s any semblance of the latter, you have a serious cultural problem.

Second, observe what gets rewarded and why. When team members question an assumption, what do they receive? A look of annoyance, an eye roll, or a pat on the back? If a company wants a culture that identifies and tests assumptions, it must reward that behavior openly and consistently.

2. Start listening for assumptions. You’ll be surprised by how many are being made.

There are two basic categories of assumptions – those made about the external marketplace and those made about and internal environment of the company. Here are just a few general examples of common assumptions companies make.

External Assumptions

• Who are our best prospects and clients
• What’s happening in markets, organizations, industries
• What our competitors are doing
• What will happen in the economy
• Who our best suppliers and partners are and why
• Which trends are real and the impact they’ll have

Internal Assumptions

• What our strategy is and where we want to be in X years
• How teams, individuals and businesses should be evaluated and rewarded measured
• The purpose for an existing policy, process, or metric
• How the organization and teams should work together
• Roles and impact of different teams and individuals

3. Identify the risks.

In the ideal world, you’d take all of the assumptions from #2 and test each and every one. Unfortunately, that’s not possible or practical. Instead, you can start by requiring that assumptions simply be labeled as such. Separate the known facts from assumptions being made.

How do you implement this step? First, keep a list of assumptions during any important discussion. Then when someone draws on one of those assumptions, ask two important questions:

“What makes you believe that to be the case?” Listen for substantiation. If the answers are vague or hearsay or judgmental, then keep probing.

“If we’re wrong about this assumption, will it cause substantial harm?” If the answer is NO, then move forward, but look for ways to substantiate the assumption in the future. If the answer is YES, then testing is required.

4. Test the most costly, dangerous assumptions.

For those assumptions that will cause substantial harm, focus your team to identify the best and fastest way to uncover the truth and mitigate the risk. The investigation could take numerous forms such as talking to customers or prospects, formal market research, internal surveys, competitive research, “secret shopping,” or even simply asking someone who may have the true facts.

5. Encourage and reward the challengers.

Remember the old adage “Focus on what is right, not who is right.” When there’s a win, credit belongs to the whole team. When there’s a loss, it’s the leader’s fault for not identifying and validating assumptions.

Thus, an important way to encourage challenges is to publicly embrace them. That doesn’t mean you have to engage in long discussion every time someone asks a question, but it does mean that when someone challenges an assumption, it should be labeled, accepted, considered, and appreciated.

It’s also important to establish the difference between negativity and positive assumption testing. Negativity simply shuts down ideas. Positive assumption testing asks questions and forces to the surface thoughtful discussions: What evidence do we have that this is true right now? What will be the result if we’re wrong? What alternatives might we be exploring if this assumption proved false?

Finally, you can include assumption testing as a critical behavior that is expected and discussed during regular performance evaluations. That certainly elevates it from a “tolerated” status to a mandatory action.

6. Identify assumptions (and how you’ll test them) in your annual, quarterly and project-based plans.

Make sure each assumption is clearly identified, and understand how the company will test and react to the results. Then make sure teams are testing and reporting back in real time.

When an assumption is tested and proves to be faulty, don’t punish the team for the original assumption; instead, praise the team for identifying, testing, and preventing expensive mistakes that hinged from that assumption. Point out the importance of the new conclusion and the resulting benefit to the company. The team will now have a new direction based on facts, not assumptions, and that is worth celebrating.

CONCLUSION

Part of the benefit in testing assumptions is greater clarity, completeness and accuracy in cost considerations. Understand why there are different assumptions from different teams, or roles within the company, or from those that impact your success from outside the company (customers, partners and vendors). Understanding their assumptions will help us see gaps, inhibitors, time considerations and cost impacts for all the parties.

We assume you’re going to bring this principle of assumption testing back to your company and put it to work. Is that assumption valid? Let us know!

To get a hold of Rick McPartlin, contact him at rick.mcpartlin@therevenuegame.com.  If you want to subscribe to their blog click here.

Last week I conducted a brief webinar for National Business Media (NBM) on the ROI of Trade Shows.  It was a free event for their exhibitors.  But you can watch it, if you are interested!!

You can find the webinar on the Bright Talk site, here.

In the NBM webinar, I highlighted the ROI Tool Kit which was created by Exhibit Surveys.  It is a FREE tool that any exhibitor can use.  And I highly recommend that you check it out.  Not only does it calculate the ROI of a show, it has a Pre-Event module which helps an exhibitor determine booth size, personnel, etc.  The “what if” capabilities are tremendous!  As an example, if you are currently a 10 x 10, you can place in the variables to be a 10 x 20 and “see” what your outcome might be.

On this site are two webinars I conducted with Skip Cox on the Tool Kit.  The  webinars are 90 minutes long in total – so you have a through understanding.  On the Resources Tab above is where you will find those webinars.

Soooo, if you are a marketing do-it-yourself-er there is enough quality information on this site to get you and your calculator going.  However, if you need some help along the way, I have a service where I will gather your information about a show and produce a report showing the ROI on that show.  The Tab above ROI Analysis has all the pertinent information.

Let me know how I can help with this very important analysis.