Exhibitor Tips

Exhibitor Tips, Market-Entry, Workshops and Webinars

Digital Marketing Strategies for Market Entry How to Test, Gain Traction, and Scale

/

Jeffrey Cohen, Vice President at Imageworks is interviewed by Bill Kenney, Founder and Client Advocate at MEET about Digital Marketing Strategies for Market Entry How to Test, Gain Traction, and Scale on the Belly2Belly podcast. Listen on iTunes or Spotify Watch on YouTube Bill : Welcome to the belly to belly podcast where we explore in-person business to business marketing. This episode is brought to you by MEET, the company that helps international companies exhibit at US trade shows. Check them out at meetroi.com Welcome, everybody. My name is Bill Kenney, and I’m here with Jeff Cohen from ImageWorks. This is the belly to belly podcast. It is a product of MEET and we help international companies exhibit at US trade shows. So one of the things that is so important with trade shows and really any marketing is is to have an integrated approach and to look at really a variety of ways that you can amplify what you’re doing and really nothing speaks to that more than what you can do today with in terms of digital media and we’re so excited to have Jeff Cohen here with us. That’s Jeffrey, welcome. Jeff : Thanks. Hey, everybody. Bill : So we have people, Jeffrey. So you know, we have people watching this from all over the world, what they’re concerned about is, you know, how do I get into a new market is effectively and efficiently as possible. And these are all b2b companies typically looking to attract, you know, that executive buyer who certainly is going to have specific needs they’re going to need, they’re going to have certain language opportunities and whatnot. So we’ll let’s get into that in just a couple minutes. But first, before we do, let’s make sure people know who you are your company, so that there’s context to your comments. So do you want to tell us a little bit about yourself? I know you’ve got a company called image works, but how did you get here? Jeff : Yeah, how long do we have for this? Bill : maybe a minute. Jeff :Very storied past I actually have two different degrees, because I made a career change 30 years ago. So I have a degree in graphic design and then I have I went back to school to become a computer programmer, because I wanted a career change, not because I was smart enough to know that well if you wait another 10 years graphic design and programming are going to merge and this thing is going to be called the internet. So yeah, I found myself uniquely qualified once the internet was born. Bill : Cool, thanks to Al Gore and all his hard work. Jeff : Yes, of course. Bill : So, let’s talk about imageworks you all and I’ve known you for many, many years now. And you know, it was originally a sort of web design firm. You all have you know, bolted on as the internet is developed as really digital media is develop, you have bolted on significant additional capabilities, but do you want kind of walk us through what you all do? Jeff: Yeah, Sure. So that’s that’s actually I forget how long we’ve known each other. But it used to be that probably for the first 10 years, we were in business and we’re in our 23rd year, just to give some perspective. launching the website was the end of the project, we would shake hands, we would get paid, we would launch the website, we’d all raise a glass and good luck and they call us once every whatever if they needed update to the site. The launch of the website now has become the beginning of the digital marketing process, not the end. So we sort of and I don’t want to diminish the importance of a good website, but that’s sort of the window dressing. And I can hear a lot of people in my industry groaning at me saying that, but you have a lot of options now for getting a simple website. Done. Especially if you’re in a small service business, if you’re a restaurant, you know, you need five pages, a map with directions, pictures of your food, your menus, how to order. simple stuff, you have a lot of options of where to go. Now if you want to get that website found, that’s a whole different discussion. And that sort of begs the question now what? So about 10 years ago, we started adding the now what services in those are it’s a huge array of paid search and inbound marketing and reputation management, social media, and search engine optimization and retargeting and remarketing. It’s a really big bucket. But that’s sort of, that’s our growth area. That’s what we focus on online lead generation getting people’s phones to rank. Bill : And how long have you been working with international companies? I know you’ve worked with Many over over several years long, Jeff : yeah. Um, so I would probably say maybe 15 years. Hmm. And that has changed even more dramatically than our industry. But yeah, there’s there’s It comes with certain complexities. But yeah, for a long time, we had companies who came into the US or opened up the North America division of a German manufacturer for quite some time. Bill : Hmm, cool. So let’s then that’s an awesome segue to really hop into our topic. So I know that you’ve seen some sort of the good, the bad and the ugly of market entry with regard to digital media. Let’s talk about some of the challenges that you’ve seen. international companies have when they’re when they’re entering a new market, and Kind of pitfalls that maybe have happened on the way? Jeff : Yeah, so, um okay, so there’s the language and cultural barrier and these are in no particular order. But really having someone on your

Exhibitor Tips, Workshops and Webinars

Leveraging LinkedIn for Market Entry How to Create Your Future Advocates

/

Bill Kenney, Founder and Client Advocate at MEET interviews Laura Hannan, Co-Founder and Director of Client Success at Pitch121 on the Belly2Belly podcast. Listen on iTunes or Spotify Watch on YouTube Bill: Welcome to the belly to belly podcast where we explore in-person business to business market. This episode is brought to you by MEET, the company that helps international companies exhibit at US trade shows. Check them out at meetroi.com. Welcome, everybody. And this is belly to belly, our podcasts for MEET. And we’re a company that helps international companies exhibit at US trade shows. And the whole goal of this podcast is to really help you get the most out of your marketing and leverage, really all the resources you have. And we’re so delighted today to have Laura Hannan with us from pitch one to one. Laura, welcome. Thank you very nice to be here to see Bill. Oh, it’s wonderful to see you. So when we got started talking. It sounds like you had a bit of a role change. And now you’re the director of client success, and you’re a co-founder of the company. So what is the director of client success? What’s your job? Laura: Ah, all right. Well, let’s you know, when you’re a business owner, you’re doing everything I do. I am lucky to have a co-founder, Fergus Parker, so I lead on well, it says on the tin, it’s the director of client success. So I do have an account manager who is managing sort of day to day tasks with clients and I get to have the wonderful job of overseeing the strategy and just making sure that they get ROI. You know, it’s, it’s as simple as that. So all that we’re aiming for is for our clients to be happy and delighted and never cancel. Yeah, so obviously, the job gets bigger and bigger over time because we’re now in the beginning of our third year of business. And you know what the great thing about having this overview across lots of clients is that ideas come from everywhere. So you can really sort of them the platform changes, LinkedIn changes the way that people are using and consuming content changes, and I get to do the innovative stuff, you know, seeing what other people are doing, testing things, seeing what’s working and moving our product on. Bill: So cool. It sounds like you think a lot like we think and that is, you know when we think about serving our clients, it for us, it’s, it’s really what our job is to assure that our relationship matures and it’s successful enough for the client to where they’re a wonderful advocate for our services. And so that you know, with that as our sort of true north, it becomes very easy to make decisions. about what your service should be. It’s very, obviously very aligned with the right outcomes for your client, which Laura: I bet your network is full of future advocates and current advocates, Bill: Hopefully, and we’ll get into that, for sure. And certainly talking about your methodologies. But before we do, and just so everybody knows, so, you know, the real goal of this podcast is to help give you very useful information. And obviously, to do that we want to have context in terms of the information we’re sharing. So you all you and Fergus formed pitch one to one how many years ago Laura: And just over two years ago, cool. Bill: Excellent. And so what was the original impetus? What was it that caused you to do it? Laura: Okay, so I’ve been in sales for years and years as a sales practitioner and Ferguson I used to work on the same sales team. I’m looking at the date now. Let’s find out how many years was 14 years ago? And Bill: You were just a teenager then? Laura: Yeah, yeah, I was just, you know, thing. And what have we we’re in a content marketing agency. And I think that what you see in pitch One to One is the mix of burgers and I salespeople. But, but selling inbound marketing products, you know, we were selling content before content marketing was a phrase and you will see those influences coming in to pitch one to one. I think the thing that we discovered when we were working there, Fergus, by the way, ended up you know, working there for over a decade and becoming CEO of the company. The thing that was really overwhelming to us nothing because I went and worked for digital agencies and after that is then a tech startup after that is the time I worked at this content marketing agency was when I was the most effective at selling in terms of every quarter hitting my results. Why? Because we had telemarketers that would set up the meetings, then I’m not concentrating on lead gen, as well as closing as well as delivering a client and there is this. There’s a book called Predictable Revenue, which I’m sure some of your listeners will know. And it’s, you know, it’s absolutely convincing that you shouldn’t have your expensive salespeople, the salespeople are expensive, doing 360 sales. Obviously, telemarketing used to be effective and became less and less effective and you know, the, you need to adapt to how you’re doing lead gen. And but actually, the principle remains the same. That if you have your salespeople focused on just that part of the funnel, you’re going to help them to avoid that roller coaster of a great, great quarter. You’re so focused on closing that you haven’t done any legal so the next quarter is awful. And so that’s basically what pitch One to One is, is based on is, you know, working with in house teams to make sure they’ve got a predictable funnel, you know, got new opportunities coming in. Bill: And so your

Exhibitor Tips, Return on Investment

The Four Biggest Stumbling Blocks to Trade Show Success

/

A report by PwC values the B2B trade show market at $14.3 billion. By 2021, that figure is expected to reach $16.8 billion. Renowned as the best content marketing strategy for B2B companies, these figures come as no surprise. By offering face-to-face exposure to large numbers of high-quality prospects, there are few if any comparable B2B marketing opportunities than trade shows and in-person events. But just because trade shows have the capacity to deliver ROI doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed. Critical to achieving trade show success is identifying and removing the most common pitfalls and stumbling blocks. Fortunately, we’ve come up with the top four challenges that every B2B company should be sure to avoid. 1. Lack of focus Whether a company has misidentified their target prospect or failed to identify one at all, lack of focus is a serious risk. In the absence of a clearly (and narrowly) defined buyer persona, it is impossible to develop a well-aligned, effective marketing strategy to attract, engage, and enroll future customers. For more on developing a clearly defined buyer persona, check out this post. 2. Persona creep In the presence of 1,000, 10,000 or even 100,000 people at a trade show, marketing professionals have a tendency to widen the scope of their carefully conceived buyer persona in hopes of attracting more prospects. At MEET, we refer to this tendency as persona creep—the dilution of marketing and messaging in hopes of broadening reach. The problem with persona creep is that it attracts too many suspects—picture people on the trade show floor looking for a free pen or to Enter to Win your free I-Pad. The result is that high-quality prospects are crowded out, wasting valuable resources in the process. 3. Opportunities are not refreshed With so many complex growth strategies in place, many B2B companies let their trade show plan run on autopilot, failing to refresh and analyze new ways to reach target prospects. Beyond that, many companies select trade shows based on what’s been done in the past or by following the industry crowd. At MEET, we recommend basing your trade show selection on a range of criteria, all of which enhance your overall engagement strategy. The obvious place to start is with shows that feature your target persona and your industry. But don’t stop there. Remember that it’s also important to go to shows that are only relevant to your prospect, i.e. not relevant to your industry. Sitting in the audience alongside prospects allows you to build relationships, learn their language, and gain further insight into how to address their concerns. Events such as these may also help you find additional, even unexpected partners. Keeping tabs on all kinds of in-person event opportunities available to you and your customers is fundamental to maintaining a successful trade show strategy plan. Need help identifying a range of high-value opportunities? Reach out to us today. 4. The Lazy Susan Approach If you’re familiar with a Lazy Susan, you can picture a device that rotates for the purpose of conveniently delivering content. The problem with a Lazy Susan approach is that in exchange for convenience, your view is limited. You don’t see the entire picture of what is available to you. As each opportunity pops up you are left to decide – do I take it or do I leave it? When a client asks us whether or not to attend an event, our response is always the same: let’s look at how it fits within your annual trade show strategy. At MEET, we strive to help our clients approach each decision from an analytical rather than emotional perspective, utilizing formulas that allow for good decisions to be repeated and optimized. What’s the best approach to overcoming the four most common stumbling blocks to trade show success? Four words: trade show strategy plan. And while building and managing your trade show strategy plan may seem like a large investment, the ROI is incomparable. For more on how to ensure trade show success in 2020, check out our recent webinar on this topic. To check out all of MEET’s webinar content on how to successfully scale your company in the U.S. market, subscribe to our YouTube Channel. 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.

Exhibitor Tips, Uncategorized

Keeping an Eye on Your Target Market

/

Knowing your target market is part and parcel to starting a successful business. In the absence of a remote sense of whom your product is aiming to serve, it is practically impossible to develop any sort of viable marketing and sales strategy. With 75+ years of experience in trade shows and in-person events, we’re well aware of the challenges many companies face in remaining focused on the target market that inspired them to start their business in the first place. Specifically when it comes event opportunities, sharing the space with thousands of potential customers causes many companies to develop a syndrome we refer to as FOMO (fear of missing out) and lose sight of their target customers by casting the widest marketing net possible. Drilling down, the specific challenges we witness companies face in keeping an eye on their target market stem from: Poor alignment between modes of marketing and performance outcomes; and Communication that is not localized. Here are our recommendations for how to overcome these challenges and keep an eye on your target market during in-person event and trade show opportunities. Creating Alignment A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer. Creating buyer personas for the target of your product or service should be a part of any go-to-market strategy. For more information on the steps to identifying an ideal customer who will be the focus of your buyer persona, check out this post. While it’s certainly possible that you may identify two or three buyer personas, we recommend resisting the temptation to have too many—particularly at an early stage. Your goal is to place this buyer persona at the center of your trade show and in-person marketing strategy such that when these individuals are in the room, they are immediately drawn to your offer. Alternatively, those who do not qualify as ideal customers walk right by. It’s a win-win in that no one’s time is wasted. The key strategy for maximizing ROI at trade shows and in-person events is to identify the buyer persona you’re are aiming to target and make sure it is well-aligned with every aspect of your event selection, association memberships, marketing, and communications tools, lead-nurturing offers and follow-up strategies. Sound difficult? We can help. Localizing Communication Sometimes when we don’t have the correct language to express ourselves, we resort to bad habits—like raising our voices or repeating ourselves. Unfortunately, these tactics do much less to help us achieve our goals, particularly when it comes to sales and marketing. Especially for international firms scaling to the U.S., it is critical not to misinterpret poor traction with the need to speak louder and more frequently. We recommend localizing your communications strategy using audience-centered techniques that relate to people in ways that resonate with them. This goes beyond using the right language—it requires selecting words and phrases that reflect local nuances, and understanding regional customs and culture. For more information, check out our webinar: Localizing Communication: Connect with and Enroll Trade Show Participants.  The most effective way to determine which language will be the most impactful with your target audience is to test your strategy. At every event we participate in, we like to test at least two Call to Actions that can the A/B tested and collect data on the results. Collecting and using the data from these tests to refine your communications strategy will ultimately improve your ROI by helping to inform your buyer persona and enhance your ability to attract high-quality prospects. Alignment and localized communication are two strategies that any company can use to remain focused on their target market. Especially for firms scaling to the U.S., keeping a close eye on your target market and seizing every opportunity to learn about their preferences, will deliver sustained results. 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.

Exhibitor Tips, Return on Investment, Uncategorized

Are Trade Shows Still Relevant for Scaling Businesses?

/

In these times of rapidly evolving technology, we often get the question “Are trade shows, trade fairs, and in-person events still relevant in today’s marketplace?” With the growth of online marketing and global remote services companies, it’s a fair question. Here’s our answer. Particularly in the B2B and B2G (business to government) space, the vast majority of marketing dollars are spent with the hope of someday getting face-to-face with a target prospect. At MEET, we define target prospects as those with a NEED, the RESOURCES to fulfill that need, and URGENCY for a solution. Think NEED, MONEY, NOW! One of the unique things that *carefully selected* events, trade shows and trade fairs offer is a large number of target prospects within arm’s reach. With the right strategy, these attendees can be filtered so they’ll be easy to find—they’ll even self-identify. *For more on how we recommend selecting trade shows and forming an annual trade show strategy plan, check out our Special Report: How to Maximize ROI with a Trade Show Strategy Plan. The goal of any marketing strategy is to build trust The number of meetings with prospects created is the first metric of success in B2B marketing. In order for a prospect to get the point where they feel comfortable agreeing to a meeting, they must go through several stages to build trust. The first of these stages is the awareness stage—your prospect needs to know you exist. Once they have become aware, the second stage is to build a level of intimacy. Building intimacy can be achieved by simply helping your prospect understand the link between the problem they are aiming to solve and your skill and capacity to solve that problem. In other words, helping prospects make a connection between your company’s services and their needs. At MEET, we recommend devising an offer that speaks directly to the needs of your buyer persona. Similar to selecting the precise bait for the species of fish you are aiming to catch, this offer should match perfectly with the needs and desires of your target prospect. Looking for ideas of how to devise the right offer to reel in more high quality prospects? Contact us today. Ultimately, the goal of all these marketing activities is to facilitate enough intimacy for prospects to trust that a meeting is worth their time. How trade shows accomplish this Trade shows and in-person events are a high-effective way of moving prospects through the marketing funnel stages: Awareness Intimacy Trust In terms of building awareness, trade shows provide the best mode for publicly displaying your company to a variety of mass targets. The beauty of building this awareness in person as opposed to electronically is that it allows companies to easily transition from the awareness phase to the intimacy-building phase. This transition occurs through targeted offers and face-to-face interactions with transaction professionals in the booth and the rest of the team at the various other social and professional development sub-events. Seeing your company in-person, knowing that you are real and invested in solving their urgent problem will generally progress the prospect relationship further down the marketing funnel more quickly. Utilizing targeted offers to attract these prospects will help to guarantee that those who are entering your marketing funnel are in fact high-quality prospects. Despite our rapidly evolving technological world, the power of relationships in securing new business transactions reigns supreme. And in the B2B and B2G world, trade shows and in-person events offer the most effective way to build trust and establish these relationships. Are trade shows, trade fairs, and in-person events still relevant in today’s marketplace? The answer is yes, now more than ever. 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

Exhibitor Tips

Nailing the Follow-up

/

Devising a follow-up plan before you leave for an event is the best way to maximize ROI, plain and simple. At MEET, we specialize in devising strategies to get the most out of every event for our clients. Here’s a peek at how we do it. Prioritizing contacts At high-value events like SelectUSA, almost every interaction will be worth remembering. We find card marking a helpful way of immediately prioritizing each interaction for follow-up. There is neither time nor space to write extensive notes about a conversation on a business card. The three most relevant pieces of information are: who on the team should follow up, what is their relevance to your company, and where do they fall in terms of priority. We use the following code: Initials for team member responsible for follow-up
 Relevance
 P = prospect R = resource T = potential team member Speed of Follow-up
 1 = hot, same day 2 = moderate, 2-3 days 3 = not critical For those deemed not critical to follow-up with, you may decide to enroll them in your relationship or lead nurturing system. This will enable them to receive your communication and be in contact should an urgent need arise. Whether you have a card scanner back at the office or use a Google Docs system, it’s important to have a plan in place that allows you and your team to execute on these valuable and perishable opportunities in a timely way. Set follow-up dates in person There’s no time like the present to schedule a follow-up meeting with a high priority contact. With smart devices allowing us to carry our calendars at all times, don’t be shy to set a time to speak again before leaving the interaction. Asking someone in person to continue the conversation at a later time during the event or in the days following is an efficient way to guarantee effective follow-up with high priority contacts. For everyone else, don’t wait Whenever we go to trade shows we hear people say they’re going to wait a few days to follow-up, give the person a chance to catch up, recover from traveling, etc. With 75+ years of event participation and management experience, we have never heard anyone complain about somebody following up too quickly. Most marketing dollars are spent with the hopes of someday getting face-to-face with target prospects. Prospects are defined as those with a NEED, the RESOURCES to fulfill that need, and URGENCY for a solution. Think NEED, MONEY, NOW! If someone is urgent for a solution, then the longer you wait to follow up with them the more likely it is that they’re going to find someone else to solve their problem. Like a piece of fruit, true prospects have a short shelf-life—one or two days before rotting. Make sure that your follow-up speed corresponds to the importance of the lead. The longer you wait, the worse that fruit is going to taste. Nurture the relationship Once you have followed up with someone, they should be entered into some kind of lead nurturing system that serves as a mechanism for communicating to your community. In some cases, you may have different types of communication that you use depending on whether someone is a prospect, investor, mentor, partner, etc. The relevance of this person to your company should dictate the type of communication they receive. Nurturing your relationships through an ongoing communication loop helps to build awareness and stay connected should future opportunities arise. Looking for ideas on content to share with your contacts? We can help. We hope you’ve enjoyed our webinar series on how to leverage your time and resources at SelectUSA. For those who are not planning to attend this year, we believe these are great tips for any high-value opportunity. For those who are attending, we can’t wait to see you there!   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.

Exhibitor Tips, Return on Investment

What’s your strategy for SelectUSA?

/

SelectUSA is an unrivaled opportunity for international firms looking to scale to the U.S. market. We believe the knowledge gained from Economic Development Organizations, investors, service providers, and network resources, coupled with the maturity of the companies in attendance, makes SelectUSA a hard event to beat. At MEET, we help international B2B growth companies soft land and scale in the U.S. through trade shows and in-person events. We look forward to SelectUSA all year for the unique opportunity to connect with companies that are seriously looking to grow in the U.S. market. A large portion of what we do with clients is to develop strategies to maximize client ROI. In-person events are a major focus of our work because for companies looking to expand to the U.S. market, trade shows represent a vital opportunity to get face-to-face with target customers, test value propositions and offers. Here’s a look at how, from a strategy perspective, we recommend scaling firms approach SelectUSA. Like all our trade show strategy plans, we’ve broken down our approach into three sections: pre, during, and post event. Pre-event Strategy Determine a set of top priorities Do the work ahead of time to set clear goals for what you need to accomplish at the event. Second-tier priorities can be listed here as well. Set meetings aligned with your top priorities If there are preliminary meetings you are able to set before the event via Skype or Google hangout, do it! Positioning yourself to be having second and third-level conversations at the event will create more value than trying to follow-up remotely from your home market. Use the hosts and people you know as resources Don’t be afraid to reach out to the event hosts, Economic Development Organizations, exhibitors, speakers, and other attendees to help you navigate the process and make the best and most effective connections for you. Think of MEET in that group—you’ll find us at Booth 224 in the main exhibition hall. Use the matchmaking platform SelectUSA has designed a variety of tools and opportunities to help event participants be as successful as possible in reaching their goals. The matchmaking tool offers a great pre-event opportunity to set up meetings, engage in messaging and develop your own customized schedule of workshops and events. Event Strategy Build in a daily refresh Check in with your top priorities at least once a day during the event. Check off what you’ve accomplished and where you need to focus your attention for the remainder of your time there. Above all, keep your eye on the ball and moving it downfield to ensure your efforts are aligned with your outcomes. Network to your benefit Utilizing your networking skills and techniques are important, but perhaps even more important is that you are able to clearly articulate your top priorities during every interaction. Stating your priorities will help others understand how they can support you—either themselves or through their own networks. Set meetings before you separate Meet someone great? Exchange business cards? Don’t leave the event without setting a meeting. Today everyone travels with their calendars and there’s no reason why you can’t set a time to talk (even if it’s tentative). Setting a meeting in person eliminates the inefficiency and insecurity associated with phone or email follow-up. Nothing is lost by putting something on the calendar. Close when appropriate If you know you’re ready, and you feel that all the information is available to both parties, there’s no reason to wait to close a deal. While every instance is unique, the more you can check off in-person, the more effective you’ll be at achieving your goals. Post-event Strategy Remain clear on those top priorities Make sure you’re still checking off those objectives and keeping track of what remains to accomplish. Follow-up Regardless of how well you’ve executed your game plan or how many key introductions you made at SelectUSA, it’s all potential energy until you’ve followed up after the event. To the extent that your strategy is queued-up before the event, implementing immediate and efficient follow-up is critical. Close when appropriate Once you’ve arrived at a place where both parties have the information they need, it may be time for that very simple question: is it time to formalize this relationship and move forward? Priorities = Success At MEET, we love the “big rocks first” analogy inspired by Stephen Covey when thinking about how to develop an action plan for a unique opportunity like SelectUSA. [In case you’re not familiar, here’s a video to get you up to speed.] The point is to start your SelectUSA strategy plan by focusing on your top priorities—your big rocks—and what it will take to accomplish them. For example, things like: Making great connections by leveraging pre-event tools and a clear, concise articulation of your priorities. Achieving learning goals, whether it’s regulatory, legal, financial, competitive or market-entry intelligence—what can you learn from attending SelectUSA. Meeting people one-on-one, recognizing that time at the event is limited and doing your best to schedule these prior to the event. Have you developed a strategy for SelectUSA yet? The time to start is now. 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.

Exhibitor Tips, Workshops and Webinars

MEET 2019 Webinar Schedule

/

  January 24 Issues and Opportunities When Entering and Endeavoring to Scale in the U.S. Market with Blair Parks, U.S. and Canada Business Manager, Mayor’s International Business Programme at London & Partners February 25 The Top 5 Mistakes that Exhibitors Make at Trade Shows and What to do About It! March 14 Reviewing “Question the Question”, Octopus Ventures treatise on the Keys to U.S. Market Entry with Priscila Bala, Head of Octopus’s New York Office April 9 A/B Testing to Validate Your Trade Show and In-Person Event Strategy May 7 May 14 Setting the Table: Creating Your SelectUSA Success Plan Assembling Your SelectUSA Toolkit June 20 June 25 SCALE NOW: Entering the U.S. Market through Trade Shows and In-Person Events What You Don’t Know Can Kill Your Business: Nailing Market Research for U.S. Market Entry July August September October November December

Exhibitor Tips, Return on Investment

The Key to Identifying High-Quality Prospects

/

It turns out that the key to identifying high-quality prospects isn’t a huge marketing budget or a massive sales team. Rather, the key to identifying high-quality prospects lies in the precision with which you execute your strategy. At MEET, we help international B2B growth companies soft land and scale in the U.S. through trade shows and in-person events. We do this because we believe that trade shows deliver the most efficient way to get face-to-face with a target prospect. And if carried out correctly, 100% of those targeted and enrolled will be high-quality prospects that deliver a strong return on investment (ROI). In the advent of social media, trade shows remain the most efficient way to get face-to-face with high-quality prospects. 90% of exhibitors fail to maximize ROI With 75+ years of experience in trade shows and in-person events, we feel confident in our assessment that approximately 90% of exhibitors fail to maximize ROI. This results in wasted money (trade shows aren’t cheap!), and wasted time that key team members could be using to deliver results. What contributes to this loss of valuable resources? Many exhibitors fail to take advantage of the opportunity that trade shows represent. There are a number of reasons why, the first of which is a poorly defined target. What is a high-quality prospect? One of the greatest challenges companies face in delivering ROI at trade shows is defining a prospect. At MEET, we’ve identified three criteria to help our clients distinguish high-quality prospects from the sea of trade show attendees who may or may not approach the booth during an event. High-quality prospects must have a need, the resources (money) to fulfill that need, and urgency. For the point of simplification, we like to use the phrase: NEED MONEY NOW In essence, these are individuals for whom your product or service solves one of their top three problems at this moment. In the absence of any one of these criteria, this individual is not a high-quality prospect and therefore should not be the focus of your trade show strategy. Another key step to identifying high-quality prospects is to understand the purpose of trade shows, i.e. what you are there to accomplish. The goal of individual trade shows and an annual trade show strategy The goal of individual trade shows is to identify and connect with volumes of high-quality prospects. That means that in and amongst the 1,000, 10,000 or 30,000 people in attendance at a show, you are aiming to find the 10 to 300 that are actually prospects today, separate them out, and enroll them in a lead nurturing process. An annual trade show strategy plan helps to manage your prospect pipeline. Its purpose is to avoid ebbs and flows that will overwhelm your sales team, resulting in poor quality follow-up and hundreds of missed opportunities. When executed with precision, an annual trade show strategy plan delivers a steady stream of high-quality prospects, allowing for manageable, un-yielded growth. The key to identifying high-quality prospects Understanding the purpose and focus of each trade show opportunity is the first step to carrying out a successful strategy that will deliver high-quality prospects. The next steps include determining a buyer persona, booth strategy, and mechanisms to ensure effective follow-up. For more perspective on formulating a trade show strategy plan from start to finish, including show selection, hypothesis testing, and measuring for results, check out our Special Report: How to Maximize ROI with a Trade Show Strategy Plan. For access to all of MEET’s webinars and Special Reports, check out our Resources Page. 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 free, no-obligation consultation bill@meetroi.com or +1 (860) 573-4821.

Exhibitor Tips

Your Trade Show Strategy Plan Should Focus on Four People

/

The goal of your trade show strategy plan is to produce more sales. But that doesn’t mean that your focus should only be on prospects. A well-executed trade show strategy plan that delivers ROI, targets four types of people (or four stakeholder groups) in attendance at any trade show: prospects, customers, partners, and centers of influence. Efforts to reach these four stakeholders take place in and outside the booth and leverage the skills of your entire team, including sales, marketing, and transaction professionals. (Curious about the role of transaction professionals in driving booth sales? Check out this post) Where and how to engage with your 4 stakeholder groups Inside the Booth The purpose of your exhibit booth is to identify volumes of quality prospects. A well-crafted booth offer (i.e. the right bait) will attract qualified prospects to your transaction professionals. Parallel efforts outside the booth helps to drive traffic in that direction. Outside the Booth At MEET, we make it a point in our trade show consultation strategies to place salespeople outside the booth.  We firmly believe that the best role for salespeople at a trade show is in pre-set 1-on-1 meetings with prospects who are already in the sales funnel, customers, partners, and centers of influence. When devising a trade show strategy plan, don’t be afraid to allocate half your sales team’s day to 1-on-1 meetings to deepen relationships with key people. Whether it’s signing an agreement or walking through a proposal, 1-on-1 meetings move the ball downfield and drive steady sales growth. Maximize the role of salespeople in your trade show strategy plan When attending a trade show, your sales team should have 3 goals: Close business with existing prospects (or at least move to the next sales-stage) Re-connect with and further penetrate current customer relationships Observe competitors, partners, existing customers and centers of influence to ensure they are up-to-date on the industry Beyond pre-set 1-on-1 meetings, you want your salespeople engaged in other strategies to effectively connect with your four stakeholders groups outside the booth. One way to do this is to make sure they have time to walk through the entire show. Every trade show strategy plan should include a strategic pre-mapped selection of relevant booths, and a staffing strategy that ensures each will be visited by a member of your team, maybe even different members at different times to get multiple views. Attending the show’s content is another key activity. When salespeople attend content that customers and prospects are interested in, they learn their language, hear how they communicate and are able to stay current on latest developments that matter to them. Similar to your strategy for walking the trade show floor, content should be pre-selected based on the level of attractiveness to your four stakeholder groups. As for building a schedule, prioritize 1-on-1 meetings in your sales team’s schedule first, varying who will go to each event, then add walking the floor, and content sessions. Three outside-the-booth touch points, one goal: to deepen relationships with your four stakeholder groups. Driving sustained growth Utilizing trade shows to produce sales is highly effective, but it’s not a single factor model. There are a variety of parallel efforts—in the booth identifying prospects and outside the booth connecting with customers, prospects, partners and centers of influence that drive sustained growth. A well-executed trade show strategy plan delivers a consistent flow of high-quality prospects. Focusing on all four of your key stakeholder groups helps to ensure that your investment in time and money is well spent. About MEET (meetroi.com) helps B2B growth companies and pavilion hosts effectively leverage at 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 at MEET today for a free trade show participation assessment bill@meetroi.com or +1 (860) 573-4821.

Scroll to Top