This is a question I get often. There are a lot of questions regarding this type of marketing, which might seem out of category from my canvassing specialty, but if you’ve been on the last Membership Telecoaching calls with me you’ve heard me talk about show and event marketing. It’s so similar to door to door canvassing yet most overlook the similarities and struggle with show and events.
In this article I’ll cover the particulars behind implementing shows and events in your marketing mix.
I’d encourage you to go back and listen to my live Membership Telecoaching call with canvassers from September 10, 2014 to give you some perspective on this article. To be successful in shows requires more than setting up a table and a booth, but not much. Your canvassers already have the knowledge and skills to do it. However, you and they have to get past the mindset of the “shows”. I say shows in a sarcastic tone because I see so many people and companies waste their time and money in shows and events.
You cannot approach the shows like you have in the past. It’s more than sticking salespeople in the booth and hanging your results on hope; hope that they get some qualified leads… or event sales. So, why would you go into shows and events if it hasn’t worked before? If you’ve been unsuccessful then you haven’t had the right system in place to attract people and leads.
First, some truths about shows and events.
• Attendance of shows & events are slightly down, but
• There are still lots of qualified prospects attending
• Failure in the booths occur because of lack of engaging prospects
• No system to transition from engagement to presentation
What shows should you get into?
Shows, events and festivals want vendors and have an abundance of booth space available. In this day and age you can search online as to the events going on in your area and have more shows to choose from than you have days on the calendar available. The great part of many of them is they’ll be relatively inexpensive to get into.
With that said, you should look at the ‘who’ the event will draw. What type of prospect will you be exposed to? You shouldn’t discount any particular type of show based on the show’s niche, such as a home and garden show or a 4H festival. The neat thing about shows is you don’t have to get a lot of leads to be able to turn quality sales. I remember a show when I ran a home improvement company. We didn’t get a lot of leads out of the show, but we converted the majority of the leads to sales. During this particular show we were the only one in our category presenting at the show, so we were a pattern interrupt by being there. Some of your best shows will be out of your category and often the prospects can be better buyers. Another show we did well at was a Harley Davidson show. We were prospecting for home improvement leads and initially you wouldn’t think that bikers might be a good lead, but think about how much a Harley Davidson motorcycle costs. They were definitely a good lead for us.
Don’t judge an event or show based on your own values or perceptions of the show or event rather analyze who the show will attract and is it a good fit for you. And you need to track all the leads you generate from each show to determine your lead cost, cost to sale and overall return on investment. Finally, I wouldn’t judge a show based on a single attendance, I’d give it at least 2 tries before discounting it as a lead source.
The biggest benefit attending events outside your industry, you are a category of one. Your competitors won’t be there. It’s like prospecting in a vacuum.
Who should be working the events?
This is the million dollar question! When I’m working with clients I help them figure out who they’re going to have staffed at the show. I spent the whole last call on the system of how to engage the prospect and how to convert them to a lead or appointment, but if you don’t have the right person in that role to use that system you’ll fail. The biggest mistake I see companies make, whether they’re doing a show in or out of their category, is putting sales people in to work the event.
The sales person’s mindset is to look for buyers. When you start doing that you start prequalifying people and turning them off. When they come to the show they’re not thinking about your product or service and sales people get aggressive and start vomiting their pitch on them. The results will be the same as you’ve had before. It’s not the fault of the sales person; it’s how they’re trained. You should have a marketer working the show.
You can hire show and event people if you’re working enough shows, but you don’t have to. Canvassers are the best qualified people you have to staff a booth. It requires the person to engage a prospect who has not thought about your product or service, skilled in creating need and want and able to capture leads and schedule a prospect into an appointment.
There are several benefits of doing this:
• You’re keeping those used to doing face to face marketing busy
• They’re able to ask good qualifying questions
• They know your canvassing system
• They feel totally natural in the environment
These are your ambassadors between the show and your products and services. From a scheduling standpoint, your canvassers can work shifts between shows and canvassing neighborhoods.
How do you compensate for show and events?
The typical pay plan for a canvasser is based on an hourly with a bonus based on performance. I suggest you follow the same pay plan for people working the shows and events.
I see so many companies consider these types of people as the lowest paid people in the organization. The reality is show and event marketers and canvassers are generating leads and money for you. If you change the structure, mindset and compensation you’ll attract a much higher caliber person for the position. Even though it’s often a part time job, when you manage the schedule and pay you’ll get a higher caliber worker because they’re being highly compensated for their skills and ability. I go into greater depth on the compensation and specific models I’ve used and seen clients use on the live Membership Telecoaching call.
How do you manage the show and event people?
It’s not much different than scheduling canvassers to work canvassing neighborhoods. Sure, there are additional logistics for shows and events, such as registration, deposits, etc., but you can plan a week in advance. Simply schedule your canvassers this week for next week’s show based on their availability and integration into your traditional canvassing schedule.
And as for measuring performance you’d do it the same as door to door canvassing. You know how many door knocks they need to get in a shift in order to get their lead numbers. How many people did your canvasser make an attempt to engage at the show? How many did they actually engage (people they actually got to stop and talk)? How many leads were captured from the engaged prospects and how many appointments were set?
Keep the training simple just as I do with canvassing training. Follow the same rule of mastering the opening introduction whether you are canvassing or working at a show or event. Don’t make it complicated. Work the system I gave you last month and measure the results based on the traffic at the show or event.
And finally, how do you keep people motivated?
PROSPECTING SUCKS! I never sugar coat that canvassing is easy and it takes a special person to be able to canvass (prospect) day in and day out. We have to do a better job in working with our direct face to face marketers in keeping people motivated. This was the subject of a previous Membership Telecoaching call (it can be found in the membership archives), but in summary, you have to keep canvassers focused on why they’re doing what they’re doing. What is important to them? Not many people spend time introspectively analyzing why they’re doing the job they are. Most think the motivation is because they have to do something to pay the bills. Yes, that’s important in the moment, but that’s situational, not long-term. When I talk about what motivates canvassers you have to dig and probe and help them create their goals. For example, if you got into your car to drive to a vacation destination the hours you’d spend in the car enroute to get there may be long and tedious, even frustrating if you run into traffic delays or car troubles. The travel may not be much fun, but the focus on the destination and the experience once you get there is the true motivation that keeps you going despite the obstacles and set-backs.
How you make people feel about themselves and the world around them is ultimately how you help them stay motivated. You can’t personally motivate them. You can give them a new view of where they are now and where they want to get to. You have the chance to influence and help them. It’s an everyday thing. You’re providing the mentorship, guidance and influence for their intrinsic motivation.
Help them with their skill set, develop their mind set and then get them off their assets.
If you have more questions regarding your own involvement with shows and events or simply creating a system you can take advantage of my Jump Start program (www.CanvassKing.com/jumpstart); or you can contact me at cthompson@canvassking.com to set up a free 20-minute diagnostic call (if you’re not at least a Gold level member)