Ever go to a trade show and come back with a million leads and you don’t know where to start, so you don’t? Worse, you come back with no leads at all? We’ll help you avoid that trap.

Pick your trade show

First, pick your show. Are these prospects your kind of prospects? Is this a new market that you can expand into? If you sell custom-made cakes going to a golf trade show is most likely the wrong pick for you. I’m not saying that you couldn’t specialize in making golf themed cakes, but really, how much market is there for that in your town. Heating and cooling company, you don’t belong at a wedding expo. I’m sorry. You don’t. So first step, pick your show. To find a show check with industry associations, see where your competitors go, ask your customers what shows they’ve been to. Really, ask them, they’ll tell you.

Pick your target

Now that you’ve picked your show, identify your target. Who could realistically come to this show? Who might stop by your booth? If you could talk to 5 people who would they be? Are they new home buyers? are they renovating, are they heads of companies or are they working in a specific department. Basically, if you could build a customer, who would they be?

Set up qualifications

Now that you have your target or targets for the show we need to do some work to save you time later. Draw a grid, Label it A B C D. Write these under each grid item.

• A people are those that are a “sure thing.” They want to buy right now.
• B people are those that can and should buy from you.
• C people are those that might someday be able to buy from you, or have influence on those that do.
• D people are those that shouldn’t use services that you offer or don’t have influence over those that do.

Now write down the qualities that one has to have to obtain your attention to be put in that category. Examples:

• All human resource people get put in A or B, while the CEO get placed in C.
• A people have a budget but B people don’t.
• Maybe A and B have an old house while C people have a new home and D people are renters.

Now memorize your list, create four sorting boxes and put the lists in the boxes. Take them to your show.

Create your qualification question

Create a questions or two that instantly qualifies a person for A B C or D. Examples:

• Are you in human resources?
• Do you have a budget?
• Do you own or rent (service or product)?
• Have you ever (action)?
• Are you afraid that (action) might ever happen?

Generate your leads at the show

You remembered to bring those boxes right? You’ve got your questions memorized right? Fire away! Start asking your booth traffic your questions. Engage them in conversation and get them put in a box as fast as you can. In my opinion 95% of all businesses should be able to qualify these prospects in under 2 minutes, with D prospects being identified the fastest in about 10-30 seconds. Take their card, write notes on the back and throw them in the appropriate box.

Stick to your guns

Don’t be bullied. They don’t know what you are up to. They don’t know about the boxes or what you are going to do with them. When I said A people are a sure thing I meant it. I don’t mean, “hope so”, I don’t mean “gee they were really nice.” A people are going to buy when you call.

Follow up, follow up, follow up

Now when you get back from your show you should have the most of B C & D leads with very few As. Follow up with the A prospects first. I mean really, they want to buy from you right? Call them within a day or two, get the sale, or an appointment. Next the B prospects, try for an appointment (or sale). Last the C prospects, put them on your contact list, if you have time after the A and B prospects send a request, via phone, letter, or e-mail asking for a referral to the A and B prospects at that company you didn’t meet. D prospects? Forget about them.  You’ve weeded our the time wasters.

All A B and C prospects should be put on your mailing list, phone tree or e-mail campaign. It’s pure stupidity to not do this.

Have a show coming up?

If you want help with this process, give me a call at 616-842-0730. I’ll be happy to work with you on how to qualify prospects, what can drive booth traffic, and how much (and what kind of) stuff you should bring to your show.

We also suggested to get the seller and buyer of the home to work together and offer a discount to both if they used the service.Finally, we suggested to drive neighborhoods and place door hangers on the doors of all homes with a “for sale” or “for rent” sign(renters need movers too!). They were overwhelmed, what came second nature to me, they had simply overlooked, they were to close to their own business to see it clearly.

Looking for new sales leads? Take a moment and ask yourself who has the same client base as you that isn’t in direct competition to you. If you are a retail outlet in a tourist town, partner with hotels and B & Bs. An oil change place might partner with a car wash. A shoe store might partner with a clothing shop. Whoever your customers might be, they are using similar services as yours. Look for that common thread and start your own referral network. All it takes is a phone call and an offer to help, most likely they’ve never thought of partnering either.

Time to split

We suggested both. We’ll be producing a set of rack cards and a set of door hangers. The rack card will be handed to the prospective customer if they are home and the salesperson will give their pitch. If no one answers the door then the salesperson will leave a door hanger with similar offers. The rack cards will be pushing the service, the door hangers will be pushing a service time, similar to “we’ll be in the area the week of such-and-such-a-date call to schedule now.”

The salesperson will keep track of how many people they talk to and how many door hangers they hang. The scheduler, who takes the phone calls will track how many people respond to each method of contact. Together they will determine if it was worth the time for the salesperson to talk to people directly or, if it is just as cost effective to have a lower paid employee walking door-to-door with the door hanger.

Are your salespeople using their time as effectively as they can?

Color Code

We will be printing several thousand rack cards for a customer of our that is in the food delivery business. They were concerned that if they handed out their rack cards with pricing and a special offer that they might not get the response they wanted. We needed to give them a way to track what the response is, and more importantly where the response came from.

Super simple solution

They will be splitting their advertising area into 4 sub areas of our town, then they will be marking the special offer cards with a highlighter. Just a simple mark on the edge of each piece. They will be distributing them by walking door to door. That way when they get the cards back they will know where they came from. Now, you might say, “but their Point of Sale System should tell them where the delivery went and what the amount of the order was.” Right, but we said simple. Why computerize something you can run out of a shoe box? By a quick glance they will know where their marketing worked and where it didn’t. They will also know if it didn’t come from the door to door campaign because it doesn’t have a mark. This simple technique should work for most all businesses without the fancy computer work.

At the end of the promotion they will be able to say how many they handed out in each sub area and how many they got back from each sub area. They can then re-promote inside those most profitable areas or they can refine their offer for the other areas and see if they get a better response.

Engage the prospect.

If you try and tell everyone what it is you do at a networking event you are choosing to let others make the decision to do business with you. You put the control in their hands to tell you no. I say engage the prospect. Ask them what they do. I wear a name badge that says my name in big letters to make it easy to read, along with the phrase “I’m buying what you’re selling.”

Far out you say? Hardly. Usually the badge draws attention. It’s a conversation starter. People say “Really?” and I say “maybe, what do you do?” Then I listen and ask questions. People love to talk about themselves and their jobs. Not because they are egocentric but because they feel comfortable with the topic. Also, they’ve been told to pass their business cards to everyone and you are giving them that chance.

What am I listening for?

You’re listening for potential problems that you can solve for them. If I think they would be a good prospect for my business, I tell them so. It takes me two – five minutes to decide if we are a possible fit. I schedule a follow-up right then and if they can’t do that, I’ll call or e-mail them, after all they gave me their business card.

Don’t wait for opportunity. This is your opportunity. Use it.

“I help businesses communicate their ideas, products or services more effectively to achieve a greater return on their investment.”

People balk at the idea that spending money on design will result in a cost savings. They already have a computer. They already have Publisher. They know the material. How could I do better then they could? Let me share a real world example:

The local public safety office wanted a map to direct people out of the town after fireworks. The office staff produced a tri-fold, full-color brochure. We are reducing it to a half-sheet, double-sided flyer, black ink, padded in groups of 100–200.

The design was more than the images on the page. It was the communication of the idea. Where did they want the drivers to go? It is the delivery method. How were they going to be handed out? For the cost of my time, I’m going to cut their production costs by two-thirds, and (if I do my job) be more effective at communicating the concepts to the driver and speeding up the process of getting drivers out of town. If we can save one hour of overtime for every member of the workforce that night, this entire project will more than pay for itself. The office staff knew the material. They knew the audience. They did not know how to convey the message. That is where my design will win out.

How are you using design in what you do? Are you designing something to “look pretty?” or are you enhancing the message, compelling the reader and creating responses? That is the purpose of design.