How to prepare for a trade show

Posted on by
Reply

You paid your dues. You worked hard in the inside sales department. Now it’s your turn to join some of the senior sales reps to your first trade show with the company. Great! But wait – how do you prepare for a trade show?

Besides making a list of what to pack and places to see while attending the show, you need to come up with a game plan. Hopefully, your company has attended enough trade shows that they have a good sales and marketing plan in place. But what about you – the first-timer? How are you going to be successful? How are you going to obtain good leads and shine in front of your colleagues? How are you going to look good in front of your prospects and clients?

Here are some tips –

1). Research the show – study the agenda, workshops, and speakers. Get a clear sense of the type of prospects who will be attending the show. Also, review YouTube clips or videos of previous shows. These days, most show organizers post videos of past shows to promote the event, and to encourage more attendance and exhibitors for future shows.

2). Talk to your colleagues – get their advice on how to do well at the show.

3). Notify your clients and prospects that you are attending the show – yes, you expect your employer to announce that your company will exhibit at the show, but you need to take a more “hands-on” approach. You could send out a short email to your clients and prospects announcing that you will be attending the event, and encourage them to stop by. You could casually trade show exhibit boothbring it up in conversations.

4). Schedule important meetings – if you have major clients or prospects that you know will be attending the event, schedule a meeting with them while at the show. Or better yet, invite them out to dinner.

5). Ask your prospects and clients for advice – if you know that some of your prospects and clients will be attending the show, ask them for their advice. What do they hope to get out of the show? Why are they attending the event? And more importantly, is there anything you can do to help them while they are at the show?

6). Find out if your competitors are attending the show – for the record, I really don’t worry about competitors – I worry about making sure I’m doing a good job for my clients. With that said, it doesn’t hurt to know if your competitors are attending or not. This way you can be prepared if someone comes up to you during a show and says “your competitor at the booth two rows down claims your product isn’t any good, what do you have to say about that?” Hopefully, you have been in sales long enough to know how to handle this question.

You also need to be prepared if your competitors come to your booth. Now, hopefully, your competitors will be professional and polite. I’ve attended trade shows will competitors will stop by briefly at our booth, shake hands, and wish us well. In short, we exchange some pleasantries, and then we go about our business. On the other hand, I’ve attended a couple of events where competitors will act like total jerks. In that situation, you need to remain cool, be polite, but assertive enough to ask them to leave. After all, you have a limited time to gather leads, so wasting it with competitors is not good time management nor good business.

I hope my tips are helpful.  Please let me know if you have any tips that you would like to share.
photo credit: MedicalTourismAssociation via photopin cc

Are you listening? Part 3

Posted on by
2

listening skills in salesI hope you enjoyed the videos in parts 1 and 2 of this post on listening. We know that listening can be hard – but losing a sale is even harder.

Sometimes we get so excited about our products and services that we just can’t stop talking. I know. It’s difficult. Been there, done that. We are eager to jump in when a client mentions a problem before we give him a chance to finish.

The key takeaways from the videos are you must be patient. Relax. Take your time. You are not a snake oil salesman trying to make a quick buck before running out of town. The good news is that listening is a skill you can learn.

Below are some great books to help you further in developing your listening skills –

Power Listening: Mastering the Most Critical Business Skill of All, by Bernard T. Ferrari

Listening: The Forgotten Skill: A Self-Teaching Guide, by Madelyn Burley-Allen

Active Listening 101: How to Turn down your Volume to Turn up your Communication Skills, by Emilia Hardman

Everyone Communicates, Few Connect: What the Most Effective People do Differently, by John C. Maxwell

Please let me know if you have any recommendations.

Are you listening? Part 2

Posted on by
Reply

In part 1 of my post, I shared with you two videos from sales experts on the importance of having good listening skills. Below are two more videos to help you.

Victor Antonio, a sales expert, and speaker says the key to successful selling is listening. By listening, you make the prospect feel good about him, and in turn, he wants to be around you more.

Here is his video –

Michael Kies, Real Estate Sales, Trainer, and Sales Coach, outlines 12 steps below on how to be a better listener.

Here is his video –

Are you listening? Part 1

Posted on by
Reply

The greatest skill in selling isn’t talking – it’s listening.

Think about it. What do your prospects and clients like to do? Talk. They want to talk about their problems. You, on the other hand, would like to talk about your products and services. Well, that’s OK. But before you start talking, shouldn’t you listen first? I mean, rather than do a product dump, and tell everyone how great your products are, shouldn’t you first find out what the prospect actually wants? How are you going to do that?

By listening.

Below and in the next couple of posts are YouTube videos from experts on their take on how to be better listeners.

Gerry Layo, speaker, and sales coach argues that listening is a skill that you can learn. He makes the point that it’s the dialogue not monologue that will help you get sales.

Here is his video –

Dan Caramanico, author, and sales coach advises salespeople not to jump the gun when speaking to prospects.

Here is his video –

Good questions to ask during Trade Shows

Posted on by
Reply

What is the best way to find good prospects during a trade show?

It all begins on the exhibit floor. When a prospect arrives at your booth, don’t treat him like a side of beef ready to be cooked.

Don’t treat attendees like they are a side of beef.

Instead, treat him like a human being. Your goal is to engage in a conversation with the prospect and determine his needs and interests. Remember, the prospect doesn’t care about your products, he only cares about his problems and how you can help him.

Some good opening questions are –

1). Why are you attending this trade show?

2). What do you hope to gain from attending this show?

3). Is there anything that catches your eye in our booth?

4). Can you tell me a little about what you do and some of the problems are you trying to solve at your company?

5). How is the show?

By asking some open-ended questions like the above, you can determine fairly quickly if you are dealing with a serious prospect, or just a sovereign hunter looking for swag. It also helps you create rapport.

Time is very critical at a show. You have to look at a trade show from the prospect’s point of view. There may be literary hundreds of booths for him to visit. He is spending most of his day walking from booth to booth listening to sales pitches and watching presentations. So you have to determine his needs and problems quickly, gain his interest, and most important of all, try to arrange a phone conference or meeting with him after the show. This is not the time to try to hard-sell the prospect. It is extremely rare that a prospect will make a buying decision on the spot. This is especially true if you are selling services or products with a long sales cycle.

As a general rule, the longer you speak to a prospect at a show, the better chance you will have to continue the conversation after the event. And if the prospect is asking you a lot of questions and showing interest, that’s definitely a good sign.

From your point of view, you will only work at your exhibit booth for two or three days max. On top of that, you will be taking some breaks or going to lunch. So you need to use your time wisely and try to engage with as many serious prospects as you can.

Finding good prospects at a trade show isn’t difficult. You just need to be patient, ask good qualifying questions, quickly establish rapport, and arrange an appointment after the show.

How to handle Price Objections, Part 3

Posted on by
Reply

I hope you enjoyed the videos on how to overcome price objections in parts 1 and 2. What can we learn from the sales experts in those videos?

1). Price objections will always occur. It’s only natural that prospects will raise price concerns. We all do it. When you buy a car, a house, a computer, you always want to negotiate to obtain the lowest price possible or shop around for a better deal. As we all know, the internet has become a game-changer for many industries. It’s extremely easy for prospects to do their own research and find better offers. I’ve worked in industries where some competitors will cut their prices in half just to win over customers.

2). Sometimes they don’t tell you its the price. Prospects may not want to directly raise price concerns because they are embarrassed to tell you that. They may think that “hey, you’re a nice salesperson, so I’m going to be polite and give you another excuse.” The excuses could be “I have to think about it”, “I have to talk to my partner,” or “I need to review the information more.” Whatever the excuse, you need to dig deeper to find out what it is. Frankly, my experience has been that no matter what objection is raised, 99% of the time, it is the price.

money, and price objections3). Don’t get so defensive. When someone raises the price objection, don’t quickly jump to defend your price. Shut up and listen. Hear them out. As mentioned in some of the videos, it’s critical that you ask good questions and dig deeper. Sometimes prospects are just testing you to see how you would react if they raise the price objection. They may have already decided to buy from you, but they just want to see if you can offer them a slight discount or price break. Or maybe they want better terms or get a payment plan and pay a small interest on the payments.

4). Be prepared. As mentioned in some of the videos, be prepared for the price objection. Have some good answers ready. In fact, with price or any objections, you may want to start keeping index cards of all possible objections and have answers prepared when needed. If you are a newly hired salesperson, ask your colleagues or sales manager for advice on the best way to handle objections in your industry.

5). How to handle price objections. There is no right or wrong way to handle price objections. You have to deal with the objection on a case-by-case basis because you know your prospect better than anyone else. When I deal with price objections, I will sometimes ask “putting price aside for a minute, do you think our product or service is good and will meet your needs (or solve your problems)?” If the answer is yes, then I will remind them of the value that we offer, and point out the long-term cost savings in using the product or service.

For example, when I was selling tax research software, some of my clients would argue that they could get most of the information for free other websites. My answer – “Yes, that’s true. You could get a lot of free information from other places. However, as a tax preparer, you mentioned that time is critical for you, especially during tax season. With our tool, you could save yourself an enormous amount of time rather than jumping from one website to another. Don’t you agree?”

Another example – “You also mentioned Mr. Prospect that getting accurate and timely information was critical to you. When you go to free sites you get what you pay for. However, with a paid subscription from us, we have paid experts on staff whose sole purpose is to ensure that you receive the most accurate and up-to-date information possible. Is that important to you?”

Do you see my point? As mentioned in the videos, always remind the prospect of the value he’s receiving from you and his problems or pain points. Price is usually a smokescreen. The prospect wants to buy – he just needs you to convince him.