At your next tradeshow, you’re in charge of attendee engagement at one of your in-booth kiosks.
Now what?
You’re good one-on-one, but you don’t have much experience with engagement marketing or talking to small groups in a non-traditional environment; especially when your audience is comprised of tired, distracted attendees who may be willing to give you only 2-4 minutes of their time.
Here are some helpful tips about how to put together an effective in-booth demo and improve your results.
- Anticipate your target audience’s top 3-5 questions. What do your prospects routinely want to know? Use that knowledge to build a short, 1 to 1.5-minute overview of your product/service that answers those questions. Some attendees will “self-qualify,” i.e. walk away, while others will be prompted to ask additional, more detailed questions, and that’s the whole point, isn’t it?
- Tell stories. Many sales reps focus only on features and benefits, However, presentation-training best practices advise that you briefly outline how a specific client was experiencing a specific challenge, followed by how your product or service solved it. This approach transforms a laundry list into a solution story, which is much more memorable and persuasive.
- Include your attendees in your demo. Many reps love to hear themselves talk. Make sure to ask your attendees about their companies, what their role is, and what their current challenges are. This information will help you include them in your presentation, and make them look less at their watch.
- When one attendee asks a questions, deliver your answer to the entire group. This is incredibly important. There is nothing more off-putting than a booth rep who gets chummy with a single attendee who is clearly a “good lead.” They are tacitly telling everyone else, “You’re not important to me.” This behavior could damage your brand and decrease referrals.
- Have a clear next-step. This could be general, such as directing attendees to another demo in the booth, or more specific, such as urging them to sign-up for a trial, schedule an onsite demo, or opt-in for future contact. Never leave them hanging.
An effective demo station audience engagement strategy is probably the single most value-generating activity at a tradeshow. It pays to do your homework, properly prepare, get a good night’s sleep, and put yourself in the proper mind-set for the day.
Oh, and it probably wouldn’t hurt to stock up on Altoids either.
Get in synch. GetSynchronicity.