[Focus on Marketing] Service with a Smile

Do you have an engaging personality? Are you approachable and friendly? Do you know your company’s products and services? Are you able to conquer your fear of — and even enjoy — approaching strangers?

If you answered yes to all of the above, you show great aptitude as a trade show booth staffer!

In most cases, pest management services require that the representative visit the prospect’s property to assess needs and conditions before pricing and selling a job, thus companies generally exhibit at trade shows to begin or build relationships, rather than to actually close a sale on the show floor. Because of this, the skills that make a top field salesperson do not always translate to success as a booth staffer.

ATTITUDE SELLS. Terminix International "hand picks" its booth staff for each show, said Brian Alexson, vice president of sales and service for commercial and national accounts. The key objective is to choose representatives who are approachable with engaging personalities. "Their attitude is the main issue," he said, explaining, "a smile is an engaging, inviting thing to walk toward." It’s also important that staffers have full knowledge of the company’s products and services and be able to clearly relay this message. An attendee may need to pass your information along to several people before a buying decision can be made. If all they take back is "nice booth, good giveaways," you’ve missed a major prospecting opportunity and, perhaps, your chance for this business.

Ted Bilicki works a number of shows for Terminix, at least in part because of his attitude. "Have a smile on your face. Show that you’re enthused and excited to be there," he tells new booth staffers, then adds, "If you’ve had a bad couple of days, you want to check that at the door."

For Bilicki it seems to come almost naturally — even people on the phone have told him that they can hear the smile in his voice. But he will also be the first to admit that trade shows can be an uncomfortable experience for everyone, but one that can be overcome. "It’s all about overcoming the fear," he said. "There’s nothing hard about sticking out your hand and introducing yourself."

Attitude is also important to the Copesan exhibit, said Jon Bain, director of marketing. To staff the booth, Copesan chooses representatives who are familiar with the industry or have a number of contacts and have a positive mindset. "We try to get people who enjoy doing shows and are effective," Bain said, "people who are excited to be there, willing and interested to talk to people."

This is not always the top performing salesperson — or a salesperson at all, Bain said. One of Copesan’s top staffers is Jim Sargent, director of technical support and regulatory compliance. An important consideration when staffing a booth should be to include technical experts as well as salespeople, Bain explained. Although all booth workers should be able to talk intelligently about the company’s products and services and have some field experience, there will be times that attendees will ask technical questions requiring a more in-depth response. Sargent is able to provide that technical depth, as well as exhibit a strong, engaging presence. "He is just phenomenal," Bain said. "He has those attitudes that make it a success, and will strike up a conversation with anyone who looks his direction."

"If you just say ‘Hello, how are you?’ and smile, people will talk to you," Sargent said. He adds, though, that all sorts of people will go by. Some will seek you out — such as current customers who want to relay a good or bad experience, but others will be suspicious of any booth, Sargent said. "They’ll go as far away from your booth as possible if you have eye contact." Particularly in such cases, he said, it is good to have a conversation piece, such as insect samples or a premium, with which to start a discussion.

TRAINING FOR SUCCESS. Because the trade show environment is so different from that of field sales, discomfort is typical for both exhibitors and attendees at trade shows, said Marketing Consultant Pat Friedlander. But it is an aspect on which staffers can be trained — to overcome in themselves and to build the comfort level in attendees as well. "Trade shows are a classic case of role reversal," Friedlander said. "You have people, who are used to being mobile, standing still and waiting for people to come to them; then you have people who are mobile who are used to sitting in an environment. On both sides you have discomfort."

"The biggest challenge is getting past that initial eye contact encounter," she said. One of the most important things on which to train booth staffers is knowing what to say and do in the first few seconds. Asking "Can I help you?" will too often elicit the conditioned response, "No, I’m just looking." Instead, staffers should initiate conversation with an open-ended question to get visitors talking about themselves. "What brings you to the show?" "Whose service do you currently use? What do you like about them?" Notice and comment on their badge: "Good morning Joe. What do you do at XYZ?" Or, they could say something like, "I see you’re from Dallas. Our Dallas representative is here..."

"Everything you do has to focus on making the interaction more comfortable," Friedlander said. But the show floor is not the place for staffers to try to think up new, engaging openers, or practice their trade show skills. Rather pre-show training is important to build such skills prior to the start of the show.

"A lot of very, very professional salespeople have difficulty on the show floor because of the difference in dynamics," said Jerry Gerson, corporate training, Marketech Inc. It is these dynamics and the basic principles of trade show interaction on which salespeople should be trained. The role of a booth staffer is to engage the attendee, qualify the prospect, communicate based on the need, then record information for follow up, Gerson says in his workshops. "Your role becomes being a detective in a way. Looking for the right prospects, the right sets of information."

"There is so much business walking the floor," Gerson said. "It’s a target-rich environment in which you’re operating — which is much better than door to door, much better than cold calling." Because of this, it is critical that an exhibit team be prepared to engage passersby, identify key prospects, find the need and take good notes. "Such a small percent of exhibitors bother to train their staff that whether you do it yourself or have a professional trainer — doing it is much more important than not doing it."

In addition to helping staffers understand and practice their roles in this unique environment, Gerson said, training should focus on the company’s objectives for the show, answering the following questions:

1. Why are you exhibiting?

2. Who is your target?

3. What do you need to communicate that is memorable and meaningful?

4. What is a good lead and how many are needed?

5. How will you measure success?

Before each of its shows, Alexson said, Terminix holds a training session for and distributes a set of show guidelines to all representatives who will be staffing that exhibit. Staffers are trained on show specifics such as key contacts expected at the show, show objectives, role playing, booth schedule and booth attire; and general instruction, such as face-to-face marketing facts, company product/service review, why Terminix participates in shows, how to engage prospects and common show mistakes.

AT THE SHOW. The show, itself, is then the culmination of preparation and training which makes the exhibit team successful. The factors most important to Steritech, said Keith Southwick, regional vice president of national accounts, are:

• knowing your company, products and services

• communicating your key differentiators

• having an organized, well-groomed appearance

• presenting the four Ps: "polite, pleasant, professional, personable."

The fundamental goal, he explained, is to portray to visitors the feeling that "If you don’t have our service, you’re missing something."

Professionalism on the show floor is extremely important to a visitor’s perception of a company. And those who do it really well are noticed not only by attendees but also by other exhibitors. Alexson points to Ecolab Inc., as prime example of professionalism. "Ecolab does a great job at trade shows," he said. Presenting themselves in business attire or lab coats, projecting an upbeat attitude and displaying a professional exhibit in a great location, he cites as examples, then adds, "You always use Ecolab as the perfect example."

Once your exhibit is in place, and your staff is trained and ready to go, trade shows become an incomparable place to do business. It is the amount of business walking the floor that makes it such a strong sales arena, but also a challenge. The attendees are all there for a reason, Bilicki said, but "that doesn’t mean that pest control is the reason." It’s the job of the exhibit staffer to provide a cause for visitors to take an interest in your service, even if they are not currently in need. If he were a decision maker visiting exhibits, Bilicki said, he would take an interest in everything, because "you don’t want to wait until the last minute to have a back-up plan," he said. "It is just smart business sense to go out and look at other opportunities."

To connect with decision makers and work toward setting an appointment, Bilicki said Terminix incorporates three distinct roles: greeters, roamers and closers. The greeter’s job, he explained, is to engage the visitor ("stick out your hand and introduce yourself") and begin the interaction. The roamer’s role is to keep an eye on the greeters, joining in a discussion as it gets underway, then relieving the greeter to return to his/her primary job. As the roamer begins to wind up the discussion, the closer then takes over to set the appointment. Of course, Bilicki said, each situation is unique, and a greeter may stay with a prospect throughout or a roamer may become a first contact point.

With industry averages showing that an exhibitor — greeter or otherwise — has only three seconds to capture an attendee’s attention, premiums can provide just the opening attraction that an exhibitor needs. However, both consultants and exhibit managers advise caution with giveaways. It can be a great attractant to have a premium that everyone wants, however such premiums often attract not only the buyers, but also visitors who have no need for your services — or even other exhibitors. "Incentives can blow a trade show budget really quick," Bain said.

To prevent this, it’s a good idea to have two levels of premiums at shows and to train staffers on how, when and to whom to give the items. A lower-value premium could be displayed on a counter and given to anyone who requests it. A higher-value premium would be kept out of sight, and retrieved for customers who have been qualified as potential or key customers. "Be strategic with giveaways," Friedlander said. You do want to keep your expenses under control, but "you don’t want people to go away unhappy."

If a non-qualified attendee requests the higher-value premium, the staffer would need to use discretion in deciding whether or not to give it. A good answer for those who do not seem to fit the qualifications, Friedlander said, is "We’re giving those to people who qualify as customers. Would you qualify?" Depending on a number of factors, not the least of which is how many of the items remain and how expensive they are, a staffer could redirect the visitor to the lower-value premium, or discretely — perhaps with a wink and a grin — give a higher-value item, making the visitor feel like a VIP.

But working a show to its full potential means more than manning a booth. "One of the most effective things you can do at a show is to get yourself on the agenda for one of the seminars," Bain said. As a presenter, you provide information in a non-commercial fashion. You don’t promote your company at the seminar, Bain explained, but attendees know which company you represent and view you as a knowledge expert. From such sessions, he said, "there is a good chance that over 50 percent of people will stop by (your booth) afterward."

Copesan also walks, and works, the floor during the show, Bain said. "One thing that we do at each show is divide the trade show hall up by aisle." Each aisle is assigned to a salesperson who talks with exhibitors who could use pest management services. Although the Copesan representatives generally end up talking with an exhibit salesperson who does not handle the pest management, they are often able to get the name of the proper person — information which can then be followed up through telemarketing.

Walking the show floor can also provide booth staff with needed breaks from the exhibit. If a show is more than four hours long on any given day, the booth schedule should be set so that no staffer is working more than four hours at a time. "Part of it is being humane," Friedlander said. "Part of it is that you want your stage to look fresh." And part of it is understanding sales people and their need to stay in contact with their clients and prospects. If the booth schedule does not allow for time to make these contacts and take breaks, the staffers will generally "arrange" such breaks themselves...without necessarily informing the booth captain or other workers.

FOLLOW UP AFTER THE SHOW. "Follow up is critical," Southwick said. "If you’re not going to follow up, why did you go to the show in the first place?" Lack of follow up can actually hurt a company, he adds. Say a prospect stops at a competitor’s booth and gets information, then stops at yours and talks. The competitor follows up after the show and you don’t. Who do you think makes the better impression; whose services will the customer buy? In such cases, Southwick said, you can actually do more harm than good by having spoken with the prospect at all.

Steritech tracks its leads after each tradeshow. "We expect that a call is made within a week or two of the show," Southwick said. The leads are then tracked on an Excel spreadsheet and updated every one to two months. "The objective is to get a proposal in front of the prospect," he said, adding that if an account is proposed but not closed, the goal is to discover why, then work toward alleviating that reason so that a contact can be made at the show the following year with reference to the solution.

Trade shows can be hard work before, during and after show day for both the marketing group and the salespeople — who are sometimes hesitant to work shows because they are being taken out of the field and losing that opportunity to close sales. But despite it all, the companies that participate feel that the shows are beneficial, and the staffers feel rewarded. Take it from Sargent: "It’s a lot of work. I’m worn out after a trade show. But I always feel good about it afterward. There’s always someone that just makes your day!"

Or listen to Bilicki, "Be prepared to work hard. Be prepared to deal with some negatives. Be prepared to hear a lot of nos. Don’t take it personally." But then he adds that shows are a great experience and an opportunity to build expertise. After working a show, cold calls become much easier he said. From talking with attendees, you learn when the good times are to call, and once you are there, you can engage in the same type conversation you’ve practiced on the show floor. "There’s nothing more satisfying than stopping someone who had no intention of talking to you."

Overall, Bilicki says, "The opportunity is endless."

The author is a frequent contributor to PCT magazine. She can be reached at via e-mail llupo@giemedia.com.