PPB May 2015

Be The Expert

Your Clients Crave

OURTH IN A FIVE

PART SERIES

MAY 2015 •

PPB

• 51

• Generate leads for future sales

Recommend that your client offer a great pro-

motional product related to the story they are

telling in their booth and offer it to show atten-

dees who will answer a short (not more than five

questions) survey. Use the name and address

capture along with the data to start the sales

cycle with these new prospects.

• Generate excitement for their new products

If new product introductions are the focus and

objective for the show, make sure that they are

prominently displayed with a strong benefit mes-

sage to the user. Create a show special for the

new products being introduced.

• Build rapport with current customers

Offer a special, upscale promotional product

with a high perceived value for current cus-

tomers who visit the booth. Also, consider a spe-

cial evening out or client entertainment offer as

well to build and grow an existing relationship.

• Build their mailing list with quality and quali-

fied names.

Rather than giving away inexpensive items to

everyone who walks by the booth, suggest nicer

items that are only given to those who stop and

provide their follow-up information and answer a

question or two to assure that they are genuine

prospects.

Client Industry

Sector:

Testing lab

Goal:

To set meetings

with qualified prospects

during the trade show.

Results from previous

years: No more than 10

prospects had signed up

in previous years.

Strategy:

A trade show

micro plan was developed

that included pre-show,

at show and post-show

activity. Because of space

constraints, this case

study discusses only the

pre-show activity. It

began by creating two

campaign messages:

No. 1: Sometimes it

only takes one piece to

pull it all together.

No. 2: Medallion Labs

is your missing piece.

Implementation

About

80 prospects in the “A”

group got a four-inch-tall

canister (pictured at left,

top) fully branded on the

outside with message No.

1. Sent as a self mailer, it

got attention as very

lumpy mail. Inside the

canister was a puzzle with

a magnetic back (which

would be important later)

with art and message No.

2. One piece of the puzzle

was left out of the canis-

ter and the puzzle asked

recipients to make an

appointment to get their

missing piece.

Prospects in the “B”

and “C” lists (about 500)

received a lenticular post-

card (picturted at left,

bottom) with the same

messages but with no

missing piece. The mes-

sage was also tailored a

bit to account for this

difference. The mailings

were sent four weeks

prior to the show. About

10 days later the client

began a calling campaign,

using a prepared script, to

all prospects on the “A”

list who had not respond-

ed and to as many “B”

prospects as they could

reach. About a week later

the client sent an email

blast to those they had

not heard from with the

same message.

Prospects who

responded promptly

received an email confir-

mation of their scheduled

appointment and a

reminder five days before

the trade show started. At

the show, the client’s booth

displayed a magnetic

whiteboard with the cam-

paign art across the top.

The puzzle pieces that

were left out of the canis-

ter were on the white

board. This did two things:

1. It made the puzzle

pieces available for

those who made

appointments.

2. People on the

trade-show floor

stopped to learn more.

This very simple

piece stood out in a trade

show designed for geeky

scientist folks.

Results:

From this

effort, 29 scheduled

appointments were made

before the trade show,

and numerous prospects

reached out to say they

couldn’t meet at the show

but did set up virtual

conference meetings or

physical meetings outside

of the trade show. The

client was thrilled.

THE MISSING PIECE

HILLARY FEDER, MAS,

president, Hillary’s LLC, shares this trade show case study:

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