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A Weekend as a Trade Show Rep
By Robert Skrob | August 4, 2008
I dreaded the day when I’d have to stand in a trade show booth. Standing there, waiting for people to come to me so I could sell them something was as unappealing as cleaning the gutters around the house. However, when I tried it and put my creative energy into it, I turned it into a fun and successful way to acquire new customers.
I’ve generated a lot of new members for the Information Marketing Association through publicity and publishing books. However, it was time to begin more aggressive marketing media. Exhibiting at a trade show gives a business an opportunity to interact with a group of prospective customers.
Over the years I’ve found that professional speakers are often successful members of the Information Marketing Association. As speakers traveling around the country making presentations, they have a lot of content. They already have their markets as well as the content that they are providing customers. Many times, they even already have some products or coaching programs.
As a member of the Information Marketing Association, I can teach anyone how to package what they know into an info-product that allows them to do the work once and then get paid many times for it. Professional speakers have already packaged what they know into their presentations. For them, I only need to teach how to turn their speeches into products so they can do the work once to put their content into products that they can sell many times.
I approached the National Speakers Association’s trade show with a two-prong strategy. One I called my “air game,” and the other was my “ground game.”
The “ground game” was actually standing in the booth. It was speaking to attendees one at a time. This is the work that converts prospects into actual customers. The “air game” was my direct mail efforts before the trade show. My air game was to “soften the beach” so when I was at the show, there would be less resistance to my “ground game” and I’d get new members easily.
For the air game, I created three mailings timed so National Speakers Association members would receive a mailing each of the three weeks before the show. I rushed through all three of these as quickly as possible. First, I took the sales letter I had written for my website, www.SpeakerProfits.com, and turned it into an eight-page sales letter. Then, I took one of the bonuses that new members receive when they join the Information Marketing Association, a recording by Dan Kennedy, and created a post card that promoted the bonus as the primary benefit. Then, for the 3rd step, I created a small magalog that gave my sales story in short one-page presentations that each drove the reader to a buying decision.
Here is the front of the postcard so you can see what it looks like:
For the ground game, I did a lot of things. The most successful one was a basket of candy. I used premium candy bars, and with more than $100.00 worth of candy at my booth, it looked like Halloween on steroids. More than 20 people came up to the booth to grab a piece of candy, and then, because they felt guilty about just taking the candy, they asked, “So, what do you do?” After I gave them my prepared and rehearsed presentation, they joined the association. While it was nice having people walk up to the booth ready to join because they had read my mailings, I got a lot of satisfaction from signing up members who walked up to the booth without any intention of joining. The show was a huge success, and more than 114 new members joined the Information Marketing Association in one weekend. However, that candy basket was my most successful tool.
One large mistake I made was not doing any follow-up after the show. While I’ve put a postcard mailing into motion now, I should have scheduled a mailing to drop immediately after the trade show. At this point, it’ll be several weeks before I can get a mailing prepared and into the mail. With the number of people I spoke to, it’s obvious that there were a lot of people at the show who wanted to join, but didn’t get over to my booth. If I had created a mailing to arrive the week they returned home, I’m sure I’d have been able to mop up a bunch of new members.
I hope you picked up a couple of tips from this post. If you have a question or a comment, I invite you to post it below. I read each comment personally and reply as appropriate.
Topics: Information Marketing, Marketing | No Comments »