Tag: strategy

  • Trade Show Booth Presenter FAQ

    Trade Show Booth Presenter FAQ

    Free iPads, prize wheels, and branded t-shirts can’t compete with a professional in-booth presenter in their ability to build a crowd, hold their attention, deliver your company’s marketing message, and smoothly transitioning that crowd to the sales team to close the deal.

    And people never think of booking one!

    We think that’s because most people don’t even know booth presenters are a thing. Seriously.

    Most exhibit managers make the assumption that Company X is lucky to have a sales person who is such a “natural” at “this stuff.”

    Turns out “this stuff” is the single most important factor between your company’s success or failure at the next show.

    That’s why we wanted to make this list of common questions or comments about what a presenter is, what they do, how they do it, and why you should consider booking one.


    Why Would You Use A Presenter?

    More. Business.

    It’s that simple.

    Expert presenters are incredibly good at delivering your message to 10x or 15x the number of people that salespeople can do in a one to one, or one to two dynamic. A do it 2x an hour for hours at a time. They deliver the last presentation with the same energy and gusto as they had at the first presentation.

    How? They love the work. Being in front of a crowd is like a shot of espresso every time.

    What, Exactly, Is A Trade Show Presenter?

    Someone highly skilled at getting attention, building a crowd, and holding their interest while they deliver an interesting experience that entertains as well as educates the audience.

    They can be found standing in a booth talking with a crowd of people gathered around or speaking in a theater-style environment on a stage with a slideshow discussing the benefits & features of the company’s most recent offerings.

    And they often do it two times an hour, every hour that the exhibit floor is open.

    When done well, a trade show presenter is a seamless part of a company’s marketing strategy, and appears as though they are an employee of the company they’re representing.

    This is rarely the case. They are most often an independent contractor or “mascot for hire” who has a long list of clients that they work with hopping from one trade show to the next representing a wide array of companies in many industries.

    How Do Presenters Get Into This?

    Most have a background in performance or public speaking of some sort.

    They are used to being in front of a crowd, and are comfortable being the focus of attention for hundreds of people at a time.

    They might already be a public speaker, corporate trainer, stage actor, celebrity* or on-stage personality of some sort who recognized their talents could be put to work helping companies communicate their marketing messages more effectively.

    *We’ve seen Jack Hannah at a trade show. He had a pen with 3 baby cheetahs, and they were adorable.

    What Does A Presentation Look Like?

    Whether the presenter is a juggler, world class yo-yo expert, magician, or comedian, their presentations all follow the same fundamental pattern.

    STEP 1: Build the audience.
    A presenter needs people to present to, right? So the presenter will connect with one or two people who are walking past with an interesting question or low-pressure conversation starter.

    Once two people stop, it’s easier to get two more. With four gathered, other attendees start to wonder “what’s going on over there?” and the presenter will invite them to gather closer to watch what’s about to happen.

    Soon, there’s a crowd of 15 or 20 people, and now the presentation can begin.

    STEP 2: Keep the audience.
    Now the “show” begins. The presenter smoothly transitions from “audience gathering” mode into “marketing” mode.

    When done right, this is a tightly scripted 10 or 12 minute presentation that will wow the attendees, make them laugh, and leave them “where did they find this guy?!”

    Key marketing messages are woven into the presentation without being too obvious or “salesy” about it. Attendees will notice & remember the messaging without it being distracting or heavy handed.

    There’s a strategic balance between messaging and entertainment that the presenter is a master at using to prequalify leads by explaining who this product or service is best suited to help.

    STEP 3: Move the audience.
    At the conclusion of the presentation, the attendees who are an ideal fit for the company is directed to the sales team who is ready to schedule follow up calls, scan badges, or whatever the proper “next step” in the sales process is.

    The rest are thanked for their time and invited to pick up their free giveaway, or to grab some kind of promotional material on their way out.

    This is all planned in advance and orchestrated between the presenter and the exhibit manager. When done right it’s a well-oiled machine that works 2x an hour all day long!

    Who Uses Presenters?

    The best.

    DHL, the United States Postal Service, and thousands of other companies who recognize they need help bridging the gap between attendees and the messages they want to deliver.

    They don’t “hope” people will stop by. They adopt a proactive strategy for connecting with attendees who they can help. A passive approach will lose every time.

    They usually have a booth that’s big enough to accommodate large attendee flow. A 10×10 booth simply isn’t large enough to handle the kinds of crowds that an effective presenter can generate for their clients.

    Service companies are an ideal fit for presenters. Without a product to demo, it can be difficult to generate interest with people who are walking by. A presenter, however, can be the human touch for the service you can’t see.

    What Kind Of Value Is The Presenter Creating?

    Start with the lifetime value of a new customer or client. Multiply that by the number of clients your company acquired at the last trade show.

    Now multiply that number by 3.

    That is the value that a presenter is creating for your company.

    What Does A Presenter Cost?

    You can expect to book an effective presenter for anywhere between $2,000 to $10,000 per day.

    Presenters are essentially selling dates on their calendar, so it’s not really a service they’re selling by the hour. Also, they spend the weeks & months leading up to the show on lots of conference calls, writing scripts, designing custom presentation materials, and more. That time adds up.

    Keep in mind, they work for themselves. They’re paying taxes, and all their expenses come straight out of their pocket.

    While at first blush it might look like they’re charging too much, but weighed against the value the create for their clients, it’s a steal.

    Can’t We Get Carl From Sales To Do This? He’s Funny.

    This might be the most common question that we get in one form or another.

    We get it. It makes sense to think your sales team is the best option for your trade show.

    They’re not. Here’s why.

    Think about how much money the company is investing in exhibiting at this trade show. 10,000’s of thousands of dollars in securing the booth space, the booth decoration, print materials, flying out the crew, and all the other million details that have to be managed.

    That’s all on the line, and the three days of the show have to be worth it.

    With all that on the line, nothing can be left up to chance.

    Let’s run the numbers.

    That team might, at most, do this 5x a year. A professional presenter? They are, easily, doing one show a week. That’s 52x a year.

    A presenter has 10x more experience than the sales team does, and that difference gets bigger every year.

    Your sales team won’t have the same presentation skills, confidence in front of an audience, familiarity with managing all the technology involved in a live presentation, calm under pressure when something (inevitably) goes wrong, and on down the list it goes.

    Generating interest, gathering a crowd, entertaining them with just the right blend of humor and information delivery is not an easy skill to learn. It takes years of hard work and practice which your sales team will not have.

    We can’t tell you how many times we’ve seen a salesperson spiral out of control due to tech failure, poor speaking skills, nerves, etc. and it can all be avoided by booking a professional presenter.

    But the most convincing reason not to use the sales team? That’s not where they’re going to bring the company the most value.

    The presenter starts the momentum, and the sales team will be right there to turn that into a meaningful 1:1 relationship with a high value prospect.

    Also, the team can divide and conquer while the presenter continues to generate interest. They can listen to the keynote speakers who are experts in their industry.

    (The presenter wouldn’t get anything out of listening to that speech; they’re not in that industry!)

    But, a salesperson who is in the industry, might hear something that they can bring back to the team and make a huge impact on the company in the long run. If they were trapped in the booth, they wouldn’t be able to do that.

    In short, the sales team is best served by doing everything but the presentation.

    Takeaway

    When you’re competing against the best of the best for the same opportunities, and there’s so much invested in these few days, it becomes more and more important for you to leave nothing up to chance, and team up with the best.

  • Getting Specific

    Getting Specific

    I’ve traveled all over the world for work.

    Sometimes I rely on my client to arrange my ride to/from the airport which can be a nightmare.

    Too often the person giving me a ride would show up late, full of apologies.

    Years ago I was sharing my frustration with an old timer, and he gave me a genius tip.


    Him: Are you telling them to be there at 2:15, or 3:30, or some other kind of whole number time?

    Me: Yeah.

    Him: That’s your problem. It’s not specific enough. When it’s 2:15, the person picking you up can talk themselves into believing it’s an arbitrary time and not feel the obligation to get there on time.

    Here’s what you do instead.

    Tell them to meet you at 2:17pm. Not 2:15. Not 2:20.

    2:17

    Here’s why.

    It’s specific. When you tell them the precise time, that’s weirdly specific here’s what they think:

    “Ok, there’s gotta be a reason it’s 2:17. I don’t know why, but I better not miss it. I have to be there by then, for sure.”


    Once I started the “overly specific” approach to scheduling, it greatly reduced the number of late encounters.

    Booth Invitation

    Here’s how it applies to your exhibition.

    Almost everyone who is exhibiting at a trade show will send out an email that says something along the lines of:

    “Come see us at the booth!”

    But it has the same problem as 2:30. It’s too general. Feels like it’s a standard invitation that gets sent out to everyone.

    Instead, try inviting people to the booth at an exact time.

    “We would love to see you at the booth. I’m reserving time to speak with you at 2:17pm on day 2 of the conference. Please RSVP to let me know to expect you.”

    It’s seems silly until you try it, and see how effective it can be towards driving interest from potential clients.

  • Biggest Trade Show Misconception

    Biggest Trade Show Misconception

    “We don’t do that kind of ‘barking.’ We’re a respectable business, and people know we make a high quality product, and we don’t need it. It’s not for us, bye.”

    And then he hung up.

    If it hadn’t just happened to me, I wouldn’t have believed it.

    That was the founder of a company that exhibits at trade shows, and we had connected to talk about his lead generation strategies for the booth.

    When I told him about how I create custom designed interactive presentations to engage attendees, make them laugh, and weave the marketing message into the fun that’s when he snapped, and hung up.

    And I get it.

    There are so many wacky unprofessional strategies that people use, that I can understand where he was coming from.

    But it was his assertion that they were a respectable company and therefor didn’t need to improve awareness that struck me as the weirdest part of the exchange.

    Counterpoint

    A friend of mine attended CES (a huge electronics trade show) earlier this year.

    He recently told me about a video he took while he was there. He explained what it was, and I immediately asked him to send it over to me.

    Let me set it up for you before you watch it.

    It’s the United States Postal Service’s booth. It’s huge. Gigantic even!

    You already know who the post office is. You know what they’re about. They’re a respectable business.

    You wouldn’t think they need any help in the brand recognition category, would you?

    And, yet, they still have an in-booth presenter whose sole job is to engage attendees!

    He’s the guy in the white shirt holding a microphone, and he’s in the lower right corner of the video to start.

    Give it a watch and I’ll meet you back under the video.

    Pretty cool, right?

    There are a lot of details to cover, and I might cover them in a future post but the main thing I wanted to draw your attention to is even the USPS recognizes the need to have a proactive exhibiting marketing strategy.

    You’re never too big, or too small to escape that detail. Never.

    The Takeaway

    So if you recognize that successful exhibitors take proactive steps to make the most out of their trade show opportunity, then let’s talk.

    We’re at the forefront of the most cutting edge experiential marketing strategies that leverage high impact interactive experiences, so let’s have a chat about how we can make your next show unbelievable.

  • A Brief History of Magic Consulting

    A Brief History of Magic Consulting

    Since the dawn of time, man has struggled to control the dark forces of nature and they’ve often turned to magicians for help. Magicians think about problems in novel ways, and they can often see solutions where others see impossible difficulties.

    Remember, impossible is just another day at the office for a magician.

    Not many people know about the incredible contributions magicians have made to people, society, and governments through history so I wanted to introduce you to a couple magicians and explain the contributions they made so you can appreciate how “thinking like a mind reader” can help you in your life & business.

    (more…)