If you see salespeople sitting in chairs and talking to eachother at trade shows and events, the five errors we discuss in this article are being made. Take a look at 5 ways you can increase sales dramatically without spending a penny more at shows and events.
As shows approach, many sales staff members suddenly remember appointments and presentations that have to be made during the show. This leaves that show understaffed. Many times a company is forced to use non-professional sales staff to man the show and that can lead to failure. If you must use non-professional sales staff, show training becomes even more critical to success. Never man a show with untrained staff.
Before you book a show, you should decide the goal to be achieved from your investment. Are you there for “exposure”? Did you book the show to get actual appointments with clients or customers? If so how many should each staff member achieve? Are you there to sell? If so, what and how much? Just having goals and checking results will increase your show success.
Each staff member should have a set activity quota for the show. Not having one is what causes sales staff to sit in chairs and talk to one another. Checking results and holding staff to agreed levels of activities keeps staff working and digging. For example, if your goal is to set appointments for future follow up, you might set a goal of one appointment every 10 minutes or 6 per hour. Having a quota for activities like sales or new clients or actual appointments tells your staff what you expect. Best of all, these goals are measurable in numbers. You won’t need to rely on feelings like “It’s going well, Boss”.
Shows are different that regular sales situations. Each area of show selling is not what your team is used to in non-show situations. They need to qualify faster, They need to present better, they need special show reasons to act and more. It is extremely important to your success that your staff be well trained on tactics and scripts. Without this training only natural born show salespeople will succeed.
If you have assigned special activity quotas and scripts, managers need to work the show if you are serious about success. If managers cannot work the entire show, they should stop by unannounced to see what is happening and to measure results at random times. When they arrive, they should ask each member of the staff if they can see the results…customers and cintact data, number of mettings actualyy scheduledand orders signed. If these actual results meet or exceed the designated quota, the manager should praise the staff member. IF they have fallen short of quota, the manager should coach them on what they need to do to succeed. If the actual activities are checked several times a day during the show, each staff member can be coached to success and the entire show will succeed as well.
Take an inventory of these errors and see which ones you may be committing. We know from experience with hundreds of clients that a few changes in theses areas will make a huge difference to your show results without costing you any additional investment.