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American Air Filter at AHR
Brewco Motorsports' fast solution
Employee Spotlight: Steve Deckel
3 Steps to better booth staff
Trade Show Coach: Qualifying Prospects
Skip airport security lines
Questions are a formidable business tool - they are the keys to unlocking many doors in any sales situation. Asking meaningful and quality questions to reveal needs is a powerful way to let prospects know you are interested in gaining information to help them solve their problems. Opening questions help you find out immediately to whom you are talking to and where they are from. More probing questions help create the fuel for your ultimate sale. During your demonstration, ask questions to keep the prospect involved and interested. Finally, you should use well prepared closing questions, to help produce appropriate follow-up action.
What are you doing for lunch next Monday? How about the second Monday in July, or ten weeks after that? Who plans a meal that far ahead? Well, our design director, Steve Deckel, does; he will be eating with a group of friends who go by the imaginative name of The Lunch Club. They have been meeting and eating every Monday for over 15 years. Preferring to dine at the finer establishments in Louisville, their only prerequisite is that lunch must cost less than $5.
It all started when two friends of his, Scott Kremer and Tim Lally, were in between jobs and needed somewhere to go during the day. Steve met them at Bellarmine Golf Course for a hot dog lunch, and they all agreed to "do this again next week." The group now features its own website and about 15 "members."
If you're a business traveler, one way to move through airports faster is to become a U.S. Registered Traveler. According to a Forbes story by Tara Weiss, for $99.95 per year, travelers go through a "Security Threat Assessment" from the Transportation Security Administration. When a traveler is approved, that means he or she will no longer have to wait in the regular security lines, but instead will be expedited to a Registered Traveler line where they will show their cards and be granted entry quickly. Cindy Rosenthal of Clear Registered Traveler, the private company hosting the program, says it will take only about three minutes to get through the line. The program will be launched in select cities first before expanding.
- Hunter S. Thompson (1937 - 2005) US Journalist, author
AAF International (American Air Filter) manufactures and markets air filtration products and systems for commercial, industrial, and residential HVAC applications around the world. For AHR, the annual exposition of air conditioning, heating and refrigeration industries, AAF had a tall list of requirements for their new 22' x 20' island exhibit: an open floor plan with good traffic flow and clear sight-lines, ample product display, software demo, and a design with curves and storage.
Speaking of the finished exhibit, Dennis Russ, AAF Marketing Manager - Americas, commented "This exhibit exceeds my expectations and, believe me, my expectations were very high."
By starting to plan months in advance, D&M was able to work with AAF to develop an attractive, functional design that met all the requirements. Before completing the design concept, the floor-plan configuration was finalized to ensure all of the product would fit and could be organized for effective display and various sales scenarios.
The new exhibit has a central workstation and four product stations that curve around each corner of the booth. Each station has storage underneath, brand graphics, headers identifying the product displayed and acrylic wing panels with marketing messages. Three have varying counter-heights to add visual interest to the product display. The fourth is a workstation to demonstrate AAF's gas-phase solution software.
With so many attendees handling the product, AAF needed extra stock to replace what was damaged or soiled. In the past, AAF kept replacement products in accessible storage and had to pay to have them pulled every day. The new exhibit has plenty of storage for all the product they need through the show, saving not only money, but time and hassle. The storage space also allowed AAF to conveniently store prototypes that were intended for viewing by select customers only.
Faster is better when it comes to race-cars, and the same holds true for setting up exhibits. The Nomadic DesignLine display created for Brewco Motorsports sets up in under an hour, has more functionality than a pop-up and is lightweight enough to be portable. The exhibit was created to promote a new rapid-dissolve product for one of Brewco's racing sponsors, Kimberly Clark. In addition to large photomural graphics, the exhibit supports two widescreen LCD monitors showing a looping presentation of Scott Tissue's Clog Clinic, educating visitors on the benefits of using the product with their boat, RV and septic systems.
The display travels to Sport Boat & RV shows and NASCAR events around the country. Thousands visit the booth to learn about new products, see the Scott Tissue NASCAR show car, play a racing simulation game, register for prizes and receive free Scott samples.
The sleek design of the 8' display compliments the Scott Tissue show car and trailer, featuring sturdy aluminum extrusions posts, laminated base-plates, photomural graphics, literature holders and acrylic finials to complete the contemporary look.
Having well-trained booth staff is the most essential component of your exhibiting success. In today's world of emails, teleconferences and webinars, trade shows offer a unique opportunity for face-to-face marketing and the ability to make a real connection to your customers.
Here are three steps to have the best possible ambassadors for your company:
1. Choose the right people. A good booth staffer should be personable with good sales skills, excellent product knowledge, able to think on their feet, and motivated. If you have a particularly technical product or service, consider pairing a salesperson with an engineer or someone from IT to better handle questions from attendees.
2. Tell them exactly what you expect. Give specific guidelines for dress code and behavior. It may seem obvious that one shouldn't eat, chat on the phone, or huddle in groups talking amongst themselves while on booth duty, but based on how frequently these cardinal rules are broken, it isn't. Be sure to schedule enough staff to man your booth while giving everyone a break every four to six hours; no one can be "on stage" constantly during a long shift.
3. Prepare them. Don't assume that they know why the company is exhibiting at this show. Go over the goals of the show, and identify who your target audience is. Review any products or services you will be featuring and practice demonstrations. To get high-quality leads, give them examples of open-ended questions to ask to best qualify a prospect and go over how leads will be followed up after the show.
If you have any questions, about what you have seen here, or if you want to learn
more about us, visit our website or call 888-501-SHOW (7469).
Copyright 2007 Deckel & Moneypenny Exhibits
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