Dianna Huff's article, Five Tips for Getting to Know Your Prospects provides that whack on the side of the head we sometimes need to bring out the best of our success stories and sure-fire tips for getting all the business you can handle.
All five of her tips are worth remembering and doing:
1. Attend trade association meetings.
2. Become good friends with editors/sales reps of trade publications.
3. Scour the Internet for relevant information.
4. Monitor blogs and discussion forums.
5. Go on sales calls with your sales reps.
Let's focus just on the first one and share some stories. Okay, if you insist, I'll go first and then you add your comments (below). If your story is longer than blog size, send it to me in email and we'll showcase it in the next blog on this topic.
Three clients reminded me recently that they never worked so hard, did so much or achieved so much as when they signed on for the Extreme Trade Show Workout created by my firm. Without getting granular with details, let's talk outcomes and what this feels like.
There is a big difference between attending a trade show -- sort of lost among a mass of 5,000 to 20,000 people with name badges, and being a "go-to person" at the event, where 50 to 100 specific, prequalified prospects and customers are actively looking for you. This means one of the reasons they are coming to this trade show is to meet with you. In this story, you are not an exhibitor. You are the owner of your small business with revenue goals for the whole year. Work this show well and we can sell 80 percent of your inventory or available hours for the year in a matter of five days or less.
In our Extreme Workout, advance work and communication identifies, differentiates and interacts with the movers and shakers of the industry show you chose to attend. There is a big difference between picking up the program book at the registration area and wandering around five days and, instead, arriving in town with a list of appointments, pre-arranged, with the people who will do you the most good for the next 12 months, or more. Plus, you have everything mapped out, like Mission Impossible or Ocean's Eleven, to be at exactly the right place at the right time.
The feeling is one of complete exhaustion and delight, much like you would feel at the end of a marathon race and you came in first. Accomplishment, plus checks in hand or signed agreements is another feeling. Do the math. Suppose you work 50 weeks and take 2 weeks off for vacation. Suppose you could meet each week with one decision maker of a specific company that is a great fit for what you offer and they are actively in the buying mode for it. That's 50 appointments at one hour maximum.
Here's the reason why trade shows are extreme workouts in relationship building and adding value to all that you are and do. Suppose those 50 appointments were all in the same city with you--all in a week? How much travel and business development time would that give back to you those other 49 weeks in the form of quality time for delighting customers?
Which trade show should you pick for the Extreme Workout? That's easy. Who is your favorite, most profitable and most fun customer? Which trade show do they say was the most valuable for them in the past year or two? Chances are excellent that at least 50 great, new customers, in the same industry, with the same kinds of needs will count on going to that trade show to boost business again this year. Will you be there? Will you be trained, prepared and intensely focused on booking most of your business for the year?
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