Trade Show Display Advice

By: Barry Siskind

My kids think I’m a Luddite. I am from the world where the value of face-to-face marketing was one I understood. Now I live in a world where people communicate with their thumbs. However lately I’ve seen that faces and thumbs can live in harmony.

I will admit that thumbs can connect to the world instantly. They can communicate to large numbers of people in real time, even at the cost of good grammar and spelling. Faces still have the advantage of being able to stare eyeball to eyeball with a client even if it is only one at a time. So in a world where it is faster and considerably less expensive to connect with a text, can one justify the cost of face-to-face?

A report I read recently prepared by the Harvard Business Review called, “Managing Across Distance in Today’s Economic Climate” focused on the issue of the high cost of business value versus the benefits.

The report described four key areas where face to face trumps technology:

• Developing new clients. 95% of respondents said that face-to-face was crucial for building strong and long-term client relationships.

• Negotiating: When negotiating major contracts and agreements, 82% said that face-to-face meetings are the most effective tool in their arsenal.

• Maintaining relationships:  It’s relatively easy to hide feelings, concerns and priorities behind technology. Any one who deals with people face-to- face on a regular basis will attest to their ability to pick up on signals that often reveal the real story behind the words.

• Cultural barriers: Try texting a partner on the other side of the world and see if the real message was understood the first time. I am not just talking about language but the nuances of your message which may or may not be recognized. The value of face-to-face is to be able to read the non-verbal acceptance of what you are saying and be able to clarify if necessary.

So there are advantages to face-to-face. However, with the high cost of business travel in a shaky economy do these advantages justify the cost?

In this same report 60% of sales and marketing people said that cutbacks in their business travel would hurt business, while 36% of finance people said cutbacks  would have no impact on the business.  So now we have the age old conflict between those who solicit business and those who pay for it.

The solution is to make a strong enough case for face-to-face and to provide new metrics for measuring return. Here are three things to consider:

• Combine business travel with other activities.  A major event like a trade show or conference is a magnet for buyers and sellers. By combining your exhibit investment to include time for individual sales calls, meetings and presentations, you can amortize the cost and increase the value of the investment to your corporation.

• Establish a singular budget. Often the exhibition budget is a marketing activity while sales calls are sales. When you combine both activities under one budget line you create a corporate expenditure that has a higher probability of measurable success.

• Establish multiple metrics. In the past, corporations measured success by focusing on one or two metrics. In our new world this list of metrics should be expanded. For example you may use your trade show to gather quality leads, a sales meeting to close a sale and an on-site presentation to advance the sales cycle. Three activities needing three individual metrics with the results of the three being attributed to the overall success of the exhibition program.

The battle of thumbs and faces has only just begun.  Perhaps in the future one will totally replace the other – but that’s not the case now.  Before you let the finance people decimate your face-to-face budget perhaps its time to sit down with them and have a serious conversation.

Reference: . http://hkg.grants.ba.com/harvard-business-review.pdf

By: Barry Siskind

In a recent issue of Trade Show Executive, I read an interesting article about Magic Stick, the winner of the TSE 2009 Innovation Award. Magic Stick is a small gadget, about the size of a computer memory stick that you carry with you. When you see someone also carrying a Magic Stick you can electronically exchange contact information. You each aim, push a button and voila you are networked.

Welcome to the age of High-Tec social networking whose first victims may very well be the handshake and a business card.

Twitter, Facebook, Web 2.0, SecondLife, LinkedIn, Flickr, LibraryThing, Ning, Jaiku, EventPeeps, are here to stay. There is nothing we can do about it nor should we for fear of being labeled Luddites. We should embrace social networking as a positive technology to help us build our personal networks.

This discussion is reminiscent of a time – a decade ago – when the world was a twitter (oops) about something called a virtual trade show and how this heralded the death of face-to-face marketing as we knew it. What happened to virtual exhibitions was that they became an integral part of larger face-to-face events providing year round exposure to products, services and education. What was feared to be an enemy became a powerful ally. The same, I am guessing, will happen to social networking sites.

Face to face marketing needs all the help it can get to maximize its potential and if technology can help, then all the better. But technology cannot replace the power of meeting a vendor or customer and talking about issues eye-ball to eye-ball. Meeting face to face is how we form opinions of people and the institutions that employ them. When we can integrate the technology to enhance our interpersonal contacts then we become winners in this brand new – very old game of networking. Here are a few thoughts as you go about building a productive and profitable network.

• Networks are not mailing lists – Social scientists tell us that each of us has approximately 200 people in our network. When you misuse the technology and build lists that include thousands of contacts you are clearly misusing the tool.

• Find your six degrees of separation – Each of your 200 people also has a network of two hundred, each of their two hundred has two hundred as well. If you take 200 to the sixth power the number is slightly more than six billion which coincidentally includes everyone on the planet. Learning how to tap into these sub-networks opens you to unlimited potential. If you look carefully you can find anyone you want to contact through your six degrees of separation.

• Don’t abuse your network – this is so easy when you simply use your network for commercial purposes. The people in your network are folks you have made a personal contact with. They have families, worries and dreams. When you can treat your network as an extension of yourself and treat these people as individuals you cannot lose.

• Stay in touch – there’s not much point meeting someone at a trade fair, exchanging information and not staying in touch. Treat your network as a living breathing thing that needs attention or it will simply wilt and die.

• Make it a 24/7 habit – don’t just built your network in times of need. You should be constantly looking for opportunities to expand your sphere of influence.

• Give something back – If your network is a living entity then it needs food to survive. The food you provide is in your willingness to give back. This means being constantly on the lookout to offer advice, contacts or a friendly word to your 200 people.

Social networking is quickly finding its place in the face-to-face marketing world. When you combine the power of your interpersonal skills to build your network and then integrate technology to record the experience and maintain contact you have a winning combination.

By: Barry Siskind

The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people” —Theodore Roosevelt

Think back to the people you feel comfortable with. It could be your spouse, other members of your family, colleagues, business associates, customers, and even the mail carrier. What is it about these people that make you feel comfortable?  Where does this comfort come from?

It may have been a common experience you had with a particular person—a movie you both appreciated, mutual friends and acquaintances, or a similar outlook on life. If you have the same experience with the people you do business with, the results can be the same. The people we like to do business with are people we like, respect, and trust – people we feel comfortable with. But where does this comfort come from?

In the 1960s, psychologist Albert Mehrabrian conducted a groundbreaking experiment. He found that people judge other people based on three observable clues: words, the para-verbal, and the nonverbal.

Words

Think about someone you met for the first time. You may have thought to your self, “What an interesting person. I really liked the way he or she answered that question. That is exactly what I would have said.” Or you may have thought, “This person is a real jerk. I never would have said that.” Either reaction would have been based on what the person said—the words—but words are only one part of the equation.

Para-verbal

Para-verbal is not what you say but how you say it. It is the tone, pace, tempo, speed, or volume of your voice. We all listen to people and create impressions of them based on how they use their voices. This is the second part of the equation. But there is one more element.

Nonverbal

Yes, we do judge a book by its cover. We are all guilty of judging people by how they present themselves.  We might say, “There is a successful person—she has that look of confidence in her eyes” or “He’s a loser—look at the way he is dressed.”

What do para-verbal and nonverbal clues have to do with face to face marketing – everything? Mehrabrian discovered that the relative importance of each in the equation is as follows:

These numbers tell us that 93 percent of a person’s impressions of another is not directly related to what they say but how they say it; an important lesson for anyone in business. Customers do not just look for the best price; they also need a comfort level with the people they plan to do business with and they can only achieve this goal through a face-to-face marketing experience.  Rapport will develop faster and last longer if you show your customer how much their business means to you rather than tell them.  Build rapport with actions rather than words.

Rapport during the Ice Breaker

When you greet someone for the first time, it’s difficult to know how this person will react. If the person is timid and you greet them with a loud and boisterous “Hello!” there is a good chance this person will quickly move on. The best way to approach and begin to make someone feel comfortable is in a manner that is most compatible with the way they normally act. Rapport building starts the minute the conversation begins. Listen and watch how this person answers questions. Don’t just listen to the words; also study the para-verbal and nonverbal.

Para-verbal clues will reveal that some people speak loudly and others are soft-spoken, some will talk fast and others slowly, some have lots of inflection in their voice and others are monotone.

Nonverbal clues reveal that some people are demonstrative and others are standoffish, some will stand tall with perfect posture and others will slouch, some will come inside your personal space and others will keep their distance.

While many of the differences may be cultural, they all give strong clues on how you should proceed. By reading the clues properly, you are taking the first important step toward building rapport.

Let’s assume you approached by a potential customer and asked a well thought-out question. Let’s suppose that this person replies in a soft voice as in our previous example. If you normally speak in a loud voice and don’t adjust the volume this person will feel alienated and uncomfortable and a wall of indifference will develop. When you lower your voice to match theirs, the chance of creating comfort is greatly enhanced. There are many clues to look for such as posture, gestures, personal space, personal greetings, speed, pace, and tone of voice, to name a few.

By matching the para-verbal and nonverbal, you two now have something in common. As you proceed, look for additional clues that tell you how to act.

One word of clarification: Even though para-verbal and non-verbal are adjusted to match the person you are with, you never change your level of enthusiasm for your product or service. If a prospect approaches and the person’s body language says he or she is tired and irritable, you adjust your para-verbal and nonverbal to closely reflect theirs, but on the inside you always remain as passionate and enthusiastic as ever.

Conclusion

While e-commerce is growing by leaps and bounds, there are still many situations where customers want to know the people they are going to do business with. The best tool in your marketing arsenal is face-to-face opportunities like special events and trade shows. When you add well honed rapport building skills to your approach, you can expect a definite increase in your results.