MBR_Issue_28 -February 2017 (1)

Malta Business Review
MICE
4 Sales Strategies To Maximize
Your Trade Show Investment
Bethany Fagan
Trade shows - you either love them or you
hate them. Marketing spends a lot of time
and effort (not to mention a huge chunk
of their budget) to put on these events as
a way to generate leads and opportunities
for sales. Often times though, these huge
events don’t even bring in one closed deal
for an organization.
As the head of sales, you are responsible
for your team’s sales strategy to bring in
revenue post event. In order to make
that happen and make marketing happy,
you need to build a bulletproof plan with
attainable goals.
Here are four steps to building a solid
sales and marketing strategy that would
yield the highest ROI on your trade show
investment.
1. Determine your account and sales
pipeline strategy.
If you attended the event last year, run
the numbers for average sales metrics
achieved after the event. Consider these
figures as a baseline for your sales team
for this year’s event.
How can you ensure you achieve similar
results? Start by asking the right questions
to define your plan:
For Sales Leaders
• Who are you targeting at the event?
Have your sales team create a short list
of target accounts that they are actively
engaging with to schedule time to meet
at the event.
• Who are you best customers?
Determine if your evangelists are
attending and get them in front of
prospects to collaborate.
• Empower the team to be part of the
decision making process. Define your
objectives together and be transparent
about why the team needs to execute
flawlessly at the event.
8
For Sales Reps
• Analyze your customer base. Knowledge
is power, and knowing your customer is
one of the most powerful ways to sell
more. What do you know about the
people to whom you’re trying to sell?
Make a list (personas can help), and
develop a deep and nuanced view of
your customers’ needs and how your
solution can contribute to their goals.
• Set your goals. It’s impossible to meet
goals if you don’t know exactly what
you’re driving towards. Write down
what you want to achieve and commit
to it. Visibility drives accountability, so
share that with your manager too. How
many meetings are you committed to
scheduling? How much pipeline do you
expect to generate? How many deals
do you want to close?
• Have powerful stats and customer
success stories in your back pocket to
call upon when you’re engaged with
a prospect at the event. You have a
limited window, so get to the point in
30 seconds or less. Rehearse with peers
before you step onto the showfloor.
2. Determine your engagement
strategy pre-event, onsite and postevent.
Engage marketing early in the planning
process. Determine the focus on key
messages that marketing will create and
share on the company website, blog, social
channels and email. Establish campaign
cadence, pre-event, during the event and
after. Empower your sales reps to be social
by equipping them with content they can
post throughout the event.
Determine your “Why.” Why does your
company exist? What are you solving for
and how do you deliver tangible solutions?
Once you know your why, your team can
confidently talk about what you do and
how you make a difference.
3. Engage marketing to publish relevant
content across social channels.
Listen, engage and publish content on
Slack, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. Enlist your
social media specialist or member of the
marketing team to monitor the social
buzz at the event. Look for opportunities
to promote your brand using the event
hashtag if one exists. If not, create one to
get foot traffic to the booth. This is your
chance to be creative!
Once you register for the event, find out
if there is an app specific to the event
with agenda details and potentially other
attendee contact information. Engage
with prospects or network with attendees
prior to the event. Apps like these allow
you to contact prospects and attendees
via in-app messaging. This is a great way
to set appointments for the booth ahead
of time.
If you are throwing a private party the week
of the event, or your C-level executive is
speaking at the event, the event app is
also a great way to invite attendees and
prospects or spread the word about your
presence.
4. Divide and conquer.
Networking is imperative at the event. If
you don’t have a plan, your team will get
lost in the sea of potentially thousands
upon thousands of attendees. Develop a
plan to divide and conquer.
Encourage your executive team to be
involved in the planning process. They
should be leveraged on all fronts, from
attending, discovery, to closing meetings
with prospects and customers. Register
your executive team to attend sessions.
They will gain valuable insights and
connect with other leaders.
It is also a good idea to set up a shared
calendar in order for the entire attending
team to have visibility into everyone’s
schedules.
In summary, if you build a rock solid, foolproof
plan, your team will see great ROI
from attending a trade show. Whether
you’re an attendee or sponsor, you can
utilize all of these strategies for success.
To learn more ways sales and marketing
can work together to achieve their goals,
download PanaDoc latest eBook: “The
Smarketing Library: Content Assets
Every Sales & Marketing Team Need to
Collaborate On” today. MBR
EDITOR’S
Note
Bethany Fagan is Partner
Marketing Manager at
PandaDoc
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