Planning Tools

In my last column, I wrote about the Engagement Pyramid HERE, the premise being the that higher amount of ‘average’ personal touch you engage in(which needs to be acceptable to the other person, of course), the more solid your relationship is likely to be. In this column, I am going to mention the ‘block and tackling’ of HOW to do this, both inside and outside your organization.

Thankfully you are home. It was a great show and you got the attention your had planned. To prove it, you have a stack of business cards in your briefcase. It was refreshing to see that people were really interested in your product. Now to turn those leads into sales!

The CMO Council is promoting their newest research findings – a report entitled “Profitability from Customer Affinity”.

In an email promotion, they start the document with this finding from the research: “56% of vendors view themselves as being extremely customer-centric, but only 12% of customers agree. Despite an increased focus on customer engagement, most B2B technology companies continue to fall short of meeting customer expectations and commitments.”

Your exhibit at a trade show can have an impact on multiple audiences. First and most logical are the attendees who are walking the aisles. But what about the attendees who wanted to come and actually signed up for the event, but due to unforeseen reasons could not make it? And then there is a whole group who were not planning on attending, due to location, budget constraints, etc.

Multiple audiences are waiting to hear from you about the product and or services you are offering. Use the trade show function as a focal point to share news about your company.