Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / How to ROCK Your Next Trade Show with Dianna Geairn

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How to ROCK Your Next Trade Show with Dianna Geairn · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

• 0:00
  Hi, everybody.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady, and I wanna invite you to enter the small biz check
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• 0:39
  3, 2, 1, 0, ignition Left off.
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with a number 1 small business expert Melinda Emerson.
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  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  you need to succeed and live the life you dream of.
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  Now here's the small biz lady herself.
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  Melinda Emerson.
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  Hi, everybody.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson.
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  The small biz lady.
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  America's number one small business expert, and I would like to welcome you to small biz chat.
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  We're now gonna be talking with the lovely Diana Garrett, the irreverent sales girl, and
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  she's gonna be talking to us about how to really leverage live events and trade shows to
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  grow your business.
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  How about the last time you went to a trade show and came back with nothing but a bill that
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  you spent to go there?
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  We wanna stop the insanity on that So, Diana, you're welcome.
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  I'm so excited.
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  You have this great new business called trade show makeover.
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  Tell us a little bit about it.
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  Well, Melinda, first of all, thank you so much for having me here.
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  I am in fabulous company with this promoted, Alex, and I've already learned so much.
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  I I am now going to use my motion with my phone when I'm doing my videos.
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  That was really, really great information.
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  And, Alex, you know, that that being yourself on social media is so important.
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  But, Melinda, so you know that I've been a sales expert for many, many years now, a couple
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  decades.
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  It's recently, yeah, I've been working a lot with companies about what they're calling lead
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  generation these days, which in my past days was cold calling prospecting.
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  Today is called lead generation.
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  But what I found is the dirty little secret is a lot of companies are going to live events and
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  they're called a number of things trade shows.
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  I those summits, conferences, they're sponsoring these shows, they're exhibiting at
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  these shows, and they're coming home, and all of these are going dark.
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  And so the way that they're justifying is that, well, we've gotten brand awareness, but one
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  thing I know as a small business is random awareness does not keep the lights on.
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  It's deals.
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  So trade show makeover was founded to bring not marketing techniques and skill sets, but sales,
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  proven sales techniques to create a winning sales strategy for your show to dominate at the
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  show by creating memorable experiences and to generate revenue by turning those leads into
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  deals So instead of a lead generation machine, we're talking about making those live events a
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  deal generation machine.
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  I love it.
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  I love it.
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  So how let's let's step back a second, though.
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  How should a small business make the decision?
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  Whether or not to even vent at a trade show because it's very expensive to do.
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  Well, it is.
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  And this is why I'm extremely happy that you had me here today because I hear from small
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  businesses all the time.
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  You know, small business owners are time starved, their attention starved, and their
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  time is incredibly precious.
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  So is their money.
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  And so finding the right places where you're gonna be meeting with your ideal customers is
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  absolutely critical for them because not only does it cost money to attend, but it also costs
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  your time away from the office.
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  You spend a lot of money traveling, you spend a lot of money on food most companies that I work
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  with haven't even figured out how to how to understand a return on investment.
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  So this is a really expensive thing to do but done well, there's some huge benefits.
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  So how they decide is they talk to their ideal customers the people that are already their
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  clients, the people that they want to be their clients, they ask them, what events are you
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  attending this year?
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  What are the trends?
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  What are the topics that you're going to get live information about?
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  That is your best resource and hardly anybody thinks of that The other one is talk to your,
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  you know, find out what your competition is doing.
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  Find out where they're going.
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  Yeah.
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  And then if there are people that are thought leaders that are gonna be speakers that you
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  know that if they knew about you that you could capture the attention of their audience, that's
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  the 3rd way find out what are the what are the conferences where the live events that I should
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  be attending?
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  Now what are business opportunities are available at trade shows and live events that
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  can't get anywhere else.
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  Yeah.
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  It's a really great question, Melinda, because live event marketing is so live event sales is
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  so different from any other kind of sales activity.
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  So I'm gonna give you a few statistics throughout this conversation from the center
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  for exhibited x that I can never get it right.
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  The center for exhibition industry research, which most people just call the CEIR.
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  For obvious reasons.
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  But one of the things that's really powerful is if you're a marketer and you're keeping track
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  of what your cost for appointment is, what it caused to have a face to face appointment,
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  which we all know is still besides video.
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  Video is really good, but the face to face appointment builds rapport, builds trust, gives
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  you opportunities that you would never have otherwise.
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  So done well.
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  If you go to the right shows, and you're having the right activities before, during, and after,
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  you can reduce your cost for appointment for your business by 40%.
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  So that's one of the biggest numbers, and I think face to face meetings are still the way
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  to close most of your business.
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  Talk to me.
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  What can I ask that you have when you go to a trade show?
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  How many people do you need to have in your boot?
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  Like, you know, Can two people handle it all, or do you need a third man to kinda be watching
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  and chasing people down that are trying to walk by it?
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  Well, fabulous question.
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  So when I'm working with larger companies, you know, it's always who should we send to the
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  show?
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  Because a lot of a lot of companies are just sending their sales development reps, but we're
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  talking about small business here.
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  And small businesses usually only have 1 or 2 people to spare.
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  So the I say if you're the owner, You should go.
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  You people want to talk to the person who can make the decisions, but here's the thing.
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  If you're exhibiting at the show, It is a good idea to have somebody else with you and that
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  somebody else should be somebody either in your company or a subject matter expert.
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  They should not be somebody that can just have a high level conversation.
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  They need to be somebody who can go deep and give really valuable information You want 2
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  people at least at your booth for one reason.
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  The first one is you want somebody who can talk to people as they come by, but you need to be
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  out there talking to other people.
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  Do not hide behind your booth.
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  Be it as many sessions as you can.
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  Be as as many networking events as you can and keep funneling people to your booth.
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  Alright.
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  So what are the top 3 mistakes people make when it comes to live events and trade shows?
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  Well, some of the favorite things to tell people is the most important four things to do
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  when you're going to a show are prepare prepare prepare and then execute flawlessly.
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  So I would say to answer your question, people fail to prepare properly.
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  I know that we I know we're time starved, but if you do your research ahead of time, You use
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  Alex's excellent ideas about how to connect with people on social before you go.
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  Connect with the people that are the speakers connect with other exhibitors.
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  A lot of times other exhibitors could also be your clients.
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  Connect with people who have attended in the past.
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  Use the hashtag from the show to follow to see who's talking, make sure that you're meeting up
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  with those people.
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  Make it and I had I had a really good business piece of advice If you don't go to the show
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  with 2 thirds of the meetings already set up that you need to have at the show for it to be
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  successful, you should consider not going because you're only gonna meet about a third
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  out of opportunities.
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  If you are intentional and diligent about setting up those meetings ahead of time, you're
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  gonna be more successful.
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  The second one is if you pitch people in your booth, or you're constantly pitching when
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  you're talking with Ramon as a sales expert too.
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  He can tell you this.
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  The first thing that people don't wanna hear from you is your pitch.
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  Right.
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  So people go and they pitch because they feel like this, I've gotta close some business.
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  This is the time to discover things about each other And the third thing is they failed to ask
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  for the appointment when they have somebody who's interested and you've had a great
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  conversation You gracefully say, I know you're very busy.
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  I know there are other things you'd like to do while you're here.
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  Why don't you and I continue this conversation?
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  After the show, pull out your smartphone.
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  Now, I know your heart's pounding like this while you're doing this, but pull out your
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  smartphone and have them pull out theirs and just end the conversation by setting an
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  appointment.
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  I love it, and that is really, really good advice.
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  Now what are what how do we make someone have a memorable experience in our in our trade show
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  booth as we come across that meta show?
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  Well, this is one of the most difficult things to do because not because it's hard to do, but
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  because most people are so thinking about them selves that they forget to think about who
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  they're talking about.
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  So, Melinda, if I'm talking to you, Dale Carnegie, this is this is for 1936.
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  Right?
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  Dale Carnegie.
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  If you're interested in them, they'll be interested.
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  And I promise you if you're the one person that's sud and the person that you're talking
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  to, really listening to them, that alone will be memorable to them.
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  But to say, you know, one really great way.
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  I'm gonna kind of work off of what taking back off of what Moe said, but take a picture take a
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  video of you with your prospects in your booth and share it on social and say, I just had the
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  most incredible opportunity To meet Alex, I learned so many social skills you've got to
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  meet them to share it on social then send it to them in an email afterwards their video so they
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  can have it and say, I had such a great conversation with you.
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  That's a memorable experience.
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  It doesn't have to be this ginormous thing.
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  Just make somebody feel special and they'll remember you.
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  I love that.
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  I love that.
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  Alright, Diana.
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  You gotta tell me What is the best business advice you have ever been given?
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  The best business advice I was ever given was give before you ask.
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  Always give something before you ask.
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  Alright.
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  I think that's good.
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  So so if I recap what you're saying, you said this.
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  Look, if you don't have 2 thirds of your appointment set up before you go to the
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  Craigslist, Don't go because you are not gonna meet all the people you wanna meet when you go.
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  I love it.
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  I love it.
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  I love it.
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  The next thing you said was be more interesting than interested.
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  Right?
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  You you gotta be more be more interested than interesting.
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  Exactly.
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  Exactly.
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  Right.
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  Interesting.
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  Like, act like you care about what this person is talking about and who they are as a person
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  first.
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  And then don't forget, take a picture of them.
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  Take a quick video of them in your booth.
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  Send it to them.
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  Keep the report going, and that's how you build a relationship that will eventually turn into
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  pesos.
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  Right?
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  That's what we want.
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  We need money.
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  Right.
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  It's all about the deals.
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  Right.
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  Because trade shows are expensive.
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  So you better be really clear.
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  And if I could just add one thing too, I don't go to any trade shows that 90% of my target
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  audience isn't the people attending the trade show.
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  So that is a rule that I have.
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  And usually the 1st year of a trade show, I walk the show before I buy a boot.
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  I walk the show And I talked to the other people who have boobs at the show that are
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  small businesses and find out if they felt like it was worth it.
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  And that is something that I do to make trade shows really, really, really valuable.
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  So listen, Diana.
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  You are so awesome.
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  I'm so glad to have you here with us.
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  And if anybody else wants some more information, go to trade show makeover.com, and
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  you can get all the information about how to rock your next trade show.
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  That's right.
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  Thank you so much we we really learned a lot.
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  The mission of small business chat is to end small business failure.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, the small business lady, and we are over and out.
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  I'll see y'all next week.
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  Thank you for listening to the small biz chat podcast.
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  With Melinda Emerson.
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  For more resources and small business success strategies, visit succeed as your own boss.com.
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  After this podcast, wherever you listen to podcasts, and join us next Wednesday.