Author name: Mollie Ring

Americans have a reputation for going big—big cars, big houses, big portions…the list goes on. But for firms entering the U.S. market, this inclination to “go big” can actually be counterproductive and destructive. In our recent webinar: SCALE NOW: Entering the U.S. Market through Trade Shows and In-Person Events, we reviewed a number of strategies to help international firms achieve success. Among these is resisting the temptation to go “all in” on major industry events when seeking new prospects. Too often we watch scaling firms deplete their entire budget on massive industry events with the hope of scoring big results. There are a variety of problems with this approach, the first of which is that firms entering the U.S. market are tiny fish in an extremely large pond stocked with competitors. This makes gaining any sort of traction extremely difficult. Additionally, these events only happen once a year, which makes it difficult to drive consistent growth, and exceptionally difficult to learn from and adapt marketing strategies around with only one datapoint a year. Instead of betting big right from the start, here’s what we recommend. Narrow your focus In our recent post How to Solve the 6 Most Common Challenges to Trade Show Success, we talked about the value of thinking like a fisherman in terms of narrowly defining your target and aligning every aspect of your strategy with the needs and preferences of these individuals. It is more normal than not that we see companies exhibiting at trade shows with poorly defined, or missing, buyer personas out of fear that a narrowly defined scope will cause them to miss out on valuable opportunities. This could not be further from the truth. At MEET, we recommend approaching each trade show opportunity with a narrowly defined buyer persona. This buyer persona should detail who the buyer is, their goals, challenges and anything else that might help you understand how to relate to them, as well as which high leverage channels you will use to attract them. Leverage your geography Armed with a narrowly defined buyer persona, your next step is to leverage your geography such that you are taking full advantage of local, regional, and statewide resources, as well as neighboring cities. Within the first 6-12 months of scaling your venture, think of where you’ve landed as your center. One of the benefits of entering the U.S. market is that many high-value organizations run major national and international trade shows and their state and regional-level chapters host a full event schedule as well. Instead of looking at these major annual events, look for smaller opportunities like chapter events that are easy to access from your center and allow you to sleep in your own bed at night. These opportunities require fewer resources, are more sustainable for you and your team to participate in, and deliver far more opportunities to test your hypotheses about the market and refine your strategy to maximize ROI. Test and iterate quickly The key to successfully scaling into an unknown market is to test and iterate quickly. With the goal of gaining early traction, these tests will help to inform your buyer persona and reinforce the efforts of your team to systematically achieve small victories. Want to learn more about the importance of early traction in international scaling ventures? Check out this post. At MEET, we recommend classic A/B testing to test various hypotheses about your buyer persona, your value proposition, and which offer converts these individuals to the next stage in your marketing funnel. Carefully documenting the results from these tests will provide valuable data to directly inform your trade show strategy and build a system for attracting high value customers that is certifiably successful. Curious about how to A/B test your trade show marketing strategy? Contact us today. Americans are prone to the “go big or go home” mentality. But for international firms scaling to the U.S., it’s important to remember that gaining early, sustained traction in a large market requires small wins and smart growth. About MEET (meetroi.com) helps international B2B growth companies soft land and scale in the U.S. through trade shows and in-person events. MEET’s processes help its clients ramp-up sales quickly and maintain a steady stream of high-quality prospects going forward.  Contact Bill Kenney for a no obligation conversation: bill@meetroi.com or +1 (860) 573-4821.

  We know—you’re thinking there can’t be one solution to solving the six most common challenges to trade show success. In fact, there are many different strategies one can use to improve ROI at trade shows and in-person events. But they all boil down to one mindset. Mastering this mindset will not only help you solve your greatest challenges, it will fundamentally change the way you approach marketing. That mindset—thinking like a fisherman. Don’t worry, we’ll explain. But first, let’s review these challenges. The six most common challenges to trade show success With 75+ years of experience in trade shows and in-person events, we’re well aware of the barriers to maximizing trade show ROI. In fact, we see these same challenges across a wide variety of marketing efforts. Here they are, in order of when they typically take place: 1. Lack of a clear target focus
 Many companies select and attend trade shows without a clear picture of precisely whom they’re aiming to target with their marketing efforts. They have not developed clear and accurate buyer personas. 2. Misguided or missing strategy 
 While everyone hopes for big wins at trade shows, this isn’t Monte Carlo. Too many companies push all their resources into one big event and hope for success instead of investing time and resources into a solid annual strategy. 3. Poor alignment Large investments in marketing resources are wasted when companies fail to align these modes with each other and with specific outcomes in the target market. 4. Communication and methodologies that are not localized
 Small differences in language, culture and time zone can make a big difference when trying to connect with prospects in a foreign market. 5. Placing salespeople in the booth 
 Though seemingly counterintuitive, we’ve got strong evidence to prove that salespeople have a higher purpose at trade shows and in-person events and can deliver much better results when placed outside the booth. Also, the booth will be much more productive, when salespeople are removed. 6. Poor follow-up
 Too much potential energy is squandered by no or a poorly executed follow-up strategy. Unfortunately, a companies lack of professional post-event communication leaves many high-quality opportunities on the sidelines. For more details on each of these challenges and tips for achieving trade show success, check out our Special Report: How to Maximize ROI with a Trade Show Strategy Plan. What can we learn from fishermen? When a fisherman decides to go fishing, there are three basic decisions he/she makes: Which fish is he/she going to catch Where is he/she going to find them What bait is he/she going to use to attract them With 34,000 species of fish in all the lakes, rivers and oceans in the world, it is no small feat to make these decisions. In fact, many fishermen will determine not only the species but the sub-species they’re aiming to catch. The takeaway: fishermen are highly specific when setting goals. The mindset that anyone aiming to scale through trade shows and in-person events can learn from fishermen is how to target their efforts towards one very specific goal—reeling in clearly defined, high-quality prospects. The trick to employing this mindset is learning how to eliminate the 33,999 fish (or trade show attendees) you don’t want to catch and aligning every aspect of your strategy with the target species (or buyer persona). Effective alignment requires testing In fishing terms, deciding on the species you want to catch leads to a set of hypotheses about which body of water you suspect this fish inhabits, at which depth, and using which bait. Effectively aligning your strategy for reeling in prospects starts with a similar set of hypotheses, each of which must be tested. That means testing different booth offers, different messaging and different shows. You’ll know you’ve achieved ultimate alignment when only high-quality prospects self-identify to engage with your team. This level of alignment, achieved through rapid A/B testing, will help you create more measurable, and ultimately, more successful and repeatable results. And for companies endeavoring to scale to the U.S. market, creating replicable systems can go a long way. Curious about how to implement A/B testing in your trade show strategy? Email us today. Looking for better results from trade shows and in-person events? Thinking like a fisherman can get you there. For more tips and resources on MEET’s approach to effectively entering the U.S. market, check out our latest webinar: SCALE NOW: Entering the U.S. Market through Trade Shows and In-Person Events. About MEET (meetroi.com) helps international B2B growth companies soft land and scale in the U.S. through trade shows and in-person events. MEET’s processes help its clients ramp-up sales quickly and maintain a steady stream of high-quality prospects going forward.  Contact Bill Kenney for a no obligation conversation: bill@meetroi.com or +1 (860) 573-4821

If scaling to the U.S. market is something you’ve considered, you’re probably aware of the potential risks and rewards. At MEET, our goal is to help companies entering the U.S. market employ techniques to optimize this process by minimizing the risks and leveraging all the unique rewards that this large and competitive market has to offer. Our strategy boils down to quickly and efficiently building traction to maximize the probability of success. Our particular focus for achieving this traction is trade shows and in-person events. In this post, we’d like to take a moment to explain why we see early traction as the most important criteria to successfully scaling to the U.S. market. But first, here’s how we characterize the risks and rewards of U.S. market entry. The potential risks and rewards of U.S. market entry The general risks to U.S. market entry include everything from: Diluting your management team’s focus; Diverting resources from your current and successful markets; and Degrading your reputation, whether in your own market, with current or future investors, partners, or your team. On the flip side, the rewards—what inspired you to take these risks in the first place—are pretty straightforward. The scale of the U.S. market consumer, B2B, and B2G (business to government) segments are exceptional. And because we are a consumer culture, there’s no mistaking that the revenue and profit potentials are strong. The competitive nature of the U.S. market can be thought of as another potential risk or challenge, but also a potential reward. Companies that make it in the U.S. market gain added credibility for surviving the competition. The experience may also help them to build systems for future global expansion. Time is the greatest risk of all At MEET, we find ourselves in a wide variety of venues for our clients. And yet despite this diversity, we rarely if ever hear people talking about one of the greatest risks to scaling to the U.S. market: TIME. What happens if after 12 or 18 months of scaling to the U.S. market you haven’t established good traction? In other words, you haven’t seen at least some wins, victories, and successes. In our experience, this is when the assets of your organization begin to erode and the downward spiral begins. What are these assets? Assets include team members, investors, customers, and any type of channel partner. In the absence of signs that you are gaining traction, e.g. business closed, commissions paid, and customer results delivered it will be very hard to keep these assets and resources committed to your mission. A competitive staffing environment requires early engagement The U.S. is a uniquely competitive staffing marketplace which makes holding on to your investment in high-quality staff especially important. In the event that you are not able to show traction, your best staff will inevitably begin to look elsewhere for what they consider to be better opportunities. While we encourage all our clients to scale at their own pace, we like to emphasize the risks that slower market entry poses to keeping your team engaged, in addition to the various other assets and resources you rely on. The best way to hold on to your most valued resources while scaling to the U.S. market is by demonstrating early success and traction. Just as sports team with strong winning records attract the best players, the more victories small and large you are able to harness in the U.S. market, the better you’ll be able to retain and actually improve your most valuable assets and resources. For more tips and resources on how to effectively enter the U.S. market, check out our latest webinar: SCALE NOW: Entering the U.S. Market through Trade Shows and In-Person Events. About MEET (meetroi.com) helps international B2B growth companies soft land and scale in the U.S. through trade shows and in-person events. MEET’s processes help its clients ramp-up sales quickly and maintain a steady stream of high-quality prospects going forward.  Contact Bill Kenney for a no obligation conversation: bill@meetroi.com or +1 (860) 573-4821.

Event teams may be the most under-utilized resource at important trade show events. For opportunities like the upcoming SelectUSA Summit, where and how your team members present themselves will be a major predictor of ROI. Train to divide and conquer It happens quite often that we see events teams huddled together—whether it’s behind the booth, around a workshop table, or during a networking event. At a high-value opportunity like SelectUSA, your goal is to leverage every minute. Step one is to spread out your event team. The tendency to huddle is typically a sign of feeling shy and lacking confidence. You want to build your team’s confidence to deliver your value proposition and your (or their) self-introduction. They should also be able to deliver your opportunity one-sheet and articulate your call-to-action. Achieving these results requires training. As a manager, you can’t be everywhere at once. You also can’t achieve great results if everyone isn’t pulling their weight. As a leader, you need to make sure that your event team is prepared to expand their comfort zone, fly the coop and create value and connections on their own. Delivering clear assignments The trick to implementing an effective divide and conquer strategy is to give each of your team members a clear assignment—who they’re aiming to connect with, how and why. Whether it’s through attending workshops, visiting other booths or walking the floor, every team member should have a clear picture of the outcome they’re aiming to achieve and how they will be accountable. Holding your event team accountable through regular check-ins not only provides a more complete picture of our event ROI, it establishes a mechanism for acknowledging effective work and improving your team’s results over time. At a minimum, we recommend convening your team for 10-minutes first thing in the morning, and again at lunchtime to rally, assess and edit where necessary. The importance of a first impression Anyone you meet at a high-value event like SelectUSA, whether it’s an investor or a potential partner, will leave with an impression of your company. That impression will 100% be influenced by the competence and confidence of the team members they come into contact with. Demonstrating that your event team is well trained, independent, and high achieving sends a message to future investors and partners that their resources will be used effectively and that your company as a whole is methodical and goal-oriented. Practice makes perfect Anyone who is an athlete knows that there’s more time spent practicing than competing if one wants to be successful in any sport. The same is true with any professional endeavor. The best way to guarantee that you are representing yourself and your organization as intended is to practice well and frequently. And remember, it’s not just what you say, but how you say it. Behave how you want to be perceived. We recommend role-playing as a training tool. Training yourself and your event team to deliver with confidence and clarity is critically important anywhere and anytime you leave the office. Help your event team help you by utilizing their skills and their capacity to the fullest. About MEET (meetroi.com) helps international B2B growth companies soft land and scale in the U.S. through trade shows and in-person events. MEET’s processes help its clients ramp-up sales quickly and maintain a steady stream of high-quality prospects going forward.  Contact Bill Kenney for a no obligation conversation bill@meetroi.com or +1 (860) 573-4821.

With 75 years of trade show and in-person event experience under our belts, we’re not exaggerating when we say that SelectUSA is 10x better than any trade event that we go to annually. With every U.S. state represented plus a full array of resources and organizations that support U.S. market entry, it’s an extremely effective three days. To ensure you are maximizing ROI at an event like SelectUSA, you’ll need a finely tuned strategy. Part 1 of our recent SelectUSA webinar series: Creating Your SelectUSA Success Plan, focuses on how to develop a unique pre, during, and post-event strategy through each of the Event’s core components. The second step, which we cover in Part 2 of our series, is to prepare a set of tools to help you execute on that strategy, the first of which is developing your value proposition and self-introduction. There are two types of interactions that happen at an event like SelectUSA—those that are preplanned and those that happen spontaneously on the trade show floor, in a reception, event, or workshop. Being prepared and able to take advantage of every interaction is critical to maximizing ROI. Key Elements of a Value Proposition and Self-Introduction The ability to articulate a clear and concise value proposition and self-introduction is something we see founders and executives struggle with all the time. Good first impressions are critical and highly impacted by how we dress, what we say, and how we interact physically. At MEET, we like to compare constructing a good value proposition and self-introduction to baby food. Baby food is easily digestible, portable, highly nutritious (impactful), and overall easy for the recipient to action. Now imagine the thousands of messages that people are bombarded with throughout the day at SelectUSA. You want to think of your message as having the same qualities as baby food. You want it to be interesting (i.e. impactful), simple, and easy to digest—and ideally easy for the receiver to repeat to others. Developing your Value Proposition Simply put, value propositions are the value that the customer receives through a specific product or service from the customer’s perspective. It’s important to note that a value proposition should not reflect what you think your customer gains from your product or service. Rather, it is how the customer feels your product or service makes their life better from their perspective. What has it solved for them? Need some help translating your company’s value proposition to the U.S. market? Contact us today. Whatever you assume your value proposition is, think of it as a hypothesis. At MEET, we suggest that you approach every event, every interaction as an opportunity to test your value proposition’s effectiveness. Does it resonate? How do people respond? This type of data will inform and refine your value proposition(s) based on the customer or market segment you are targeting. Not sure where to begin? Think of the top three things your customer gains from your product or service. Choose one, use it to lead your conversation, and test the reactions you receive. Keep track of your opt-in rate and continue to evolve to optimize results. Developing your Self-Introduction A self-introduction is a very clear statement of the value you provide and for whom. In the event setting, it’s important not to think of this as the 30 or 60-second introduction. This is your five or ten-second opportunity to say exactly what you do in a very simple way. The goal of a well-crafted self-introduction is to start a conversation. If once you’ve completed your introduction the person you’re speaking with doesn’t follow up with a question or express interest in learning more, then: a) you didn’t effectively articulate what you do, or b) what you do is not something of interest to them—which is fine. When networking, your biggest job is not to speak but to listen, learn, and figure out where the person that’s across from you fits within your world.  Are they a resource? Are they a potential connection for people you know? Ultimately, the best referrals come from current or former customers. Finding resources that somehow improve your customers’ experience is a great way to create more referrals. Making sure that you represent yourself and your company in a way that is congruent with how you want to be perceived is critical at a high stakes event like SelectUSA. It’s never too late to test and retest your value proposition and your self-introduction to ensure you’re always putting your best foot forward. About MEET (meetroi.com) helps international B2B growth companies soft land and scale in the U.S. through trade shows and in-person events. MEET’s processes help its clients ramp-up sales quickly and maintain a steady stream of high-quality prospects going forward.  Contact Bill Kenney for a no obligation conversation bill@meetroi.com or +1 (860) 573-4821.