How to Set Appointments for your Next #TradeShow

Judy Volker, an experienced trade show marketer and past EXHIBITOR LIVE speaker, recently revealed to TradeShow Makeover? how her company set 44 qualified sales appointments before going to a gargantuan show (40,000+ attendees) with only one meeting room staffer and no booth!

Judy agreed to let me share her some snippets of our interview with you. Enjoy!

TradeShow Makeover (TSM): Judy, I’m completely amazed by your success at the humongous healthcare IT trade show you just got back from. Amid all the noise, with no booth, you were able to set 44 appointments before you even arrived at the show – completely blowing away the numbers of even your parent company who had a booth at the event. Is this standard for you, or is this new?

Judy Volker (JV): We’ve actually been doing this for four years now. Especially as a smaller company, exhibiting at a huge show, we must find a competitive advantage. There’s so much noise on the floor at a show with more than 1200 exhibitors and 40 thousand plus attendees. If we don’t get mindshare far in advance of the show, we just get lost in that noise.

SET PRIORITIES FIRST

TSM: That makes sense to me. I would love to hear your strategy.

JV: Well, as I said, the number one thing we realized we had to do was break through the noise of the event in advance. 

In the past, our engagement strategy was to go to the show with a strong infotainment type sales presentation and try to make as many connections as possible while we were there.  But, we weren’t reliably bringing home the qualified business we needed. So, we made a change.

This year, with just a kiosk and a meeting room, our strategy shifted to have as many highly valued conversations as we can at the show. We asked ourselves: What can we do to build on relationships with existing customers or prospects, engage totally new prospects, and what can we do to move the sales process forward?

So, our two priorities became:  

1)     Utilize the kiosk for walk-by engagement in one of the ancillary show pavilions

2)     Create highly valued conversations and build relationships via the meeting room

DO INCENTIVES TO MEET WORK?

TSM: How did you get all those people to engage ahead of time this year?

JV: In the past, we had offered more expensive incentives to meet with us – in the $150 range. We were careful to select incentives that were current ‘hot items’,  relevant to the theme of our booth and we tied the giveaway into the message.  But ultimately, we determined the value of the incentive didn’t necessarily add to the value of the conversation. We have since lowered the amount of the gift to the $50 range. No matter the amount of the incentive, we have always been very strategic in who we invite to book meetings with us. We believe, based on feedback from past meeting attendees, that the gift shows our appreciation for the attendees’ time as opposed to a ‘bribe’ to come to our meeting it is viewed as considerate, memorable and differentiates us from the competitors.             

Additionally, if someone has been invited to five meetings over the course of the day, and they need to choose between them, a gift for the meeting might come into play. The gift becomes a differentiator at that point. While ultimately it’s not the gift that drives people to the meeting., it does contribute to a positive perception.

We had to take an approach that would differentiate us and fulfill on our two priorities. We also had the disadvantage of not having a booth. All we had was a kiosk in the pavilion (for engagement) and a meeting room at the show (for highly valued conversations).

So, this year our approach was significantly different. Without a booth, we knew that if we didn’t book meetings in advance, we wouldn’t have those highly valued conversations. And we had to be super targeted because with only one meeting room, we only had 44 available spots.

We got very strategic and targeted going after a particular audience. We looked at the overall attendee base, then narrowed in on existing customers who may have had challenges and needed extra attention,  existing prospects who were on our target list, and net new prospects.

TSM: And, what was your ratio of each in the 44 appointments?

JV: It was 35%, 35%, and 30%. A healthy mix.

TSM: So, you were very intentional about what the meetings were going to be and what they were going to provide for your company.

JV: We had to be.

TSM: OK. So, when did you start your outreach to get these appointments set up? 

JV: Interestingly, this time we started more than eight weeks before the show – which is a little earlier than some would. We offered an early booking incentive. If you booked before Christmas, then we offered a small additional ‘early booking’ gift. And we got about 20% of our meetings that way.

In prior years we did direct mail and then followed up with email. This year, we did not do direct mail, but we worked in tandem as partners with our sales team to develop a list of targeted prospects. Then, we used HubSpot Sales Pro Tools to write the templates, so the emails came directly from our salespeople, because we get a much better open rate on emails directly from the salesperson vs. the marketing automation engine. It also allows us to send sequenced emails.

THE NUTS AND BOLTS THAT GET YOU THE MEETINGS

TSM: Can you share a little more about the nuts and bolts of how you put these meetings together? For many people, it’s a black box.

JV: Sure. The first thing you need is to have access to the attendee list. And typically, that’s going to be something you must pay for. I never ever buy from anyone outside the show manager.

So, step one is procuring the emails 6-8 weeks prior to a larger show, 3-4 weeks before a smaller show

The second step is bumping that list up against our own data – whether that be from our CRM or the marketing automation tool.

Then, we start to scrub the list. We go to the sales director and ask them to tell us what their outreach messages are. What are they using to reach their target accounts? And then we ask them, “What are you hearing from the market, what are their biggest issues as it relates to our ideal customer profile?” That helps us determine who we most want to target and what are the criteria that make someone an ideal customer.

We only accept 100% matches between our CRM, our marketing platform, and the show organizer’s list. We don’t mess around with any data that doesn’t match - including data like first name of John vs. Jonathan vs. Johnny.

TSM: That makes sense. If you’re getting 44 meetings out of 40,000 attendees that is a tiny percentage out of the overall universe of attendees. So, you’re strategically and surgically focused on who you want meetings with.

JV: Yes. From the scrubbed list, we then think about the products we offer. As an example, in our case, we want acute care hospitals. From there we go to the title, then to the persona. We literally drill down, drill down, drill down – because we’re going to basically end up with 1% of attendees taking meetings. It has to be extraordinarily focused.

TSM: So, you’ve got these targets. How many of those targets do you need to get to those 44 appointments? I’m asking because I want people to understand not only what it takes to get to their number, but also to not get discouraged. You’re going to get a lot of “no’s” and a lot of “ignores”.

JV: So, this show had 44,000 on the registration list. We did the first scrub, but there’s another thing to remember about a big show like this. The organizers sent out new lists three separate times as more people registered. We had to scrub the list each of those three times.

TSM: Wow! The complexities continue to mount. But, once you’ve drilled down to your ideal audience, how many people do you have to approach to get to your number of meetings. I imagine there’s a multiple. Am I correct?

JV: We have enjoyed a little higher than average open and click-through rate. So, for example, this show had a click-through rate of 3% - which is very good. We made it very easy to book a meeting once they’d clicked through. In addition to booking a meeting, we asked the prospect to tell us the key topic they wanted to speak with us about. We gave them examples/thought starters which obviously tied into the topics and products we were focusing on at this event. The tool we used would not only book the meeting on their calendar, but then they received meeting notices and reminders leading up to the event including one hour and again 15 minutes before the meeting. That helps us get fewer no-shows.

But, really, it goes back to the first step of setting the strategy of who you want to talk to and then logistically or tactically finding ways to drill down, down, down into that list.

WHAT WERE YOUR BUSINESS RESULTS?

TSM: Are you anticipating a positive ROI from the appointments you booked by attending the show?

JV: Absolutely! We had more qualified leads come out of this show than usual and we already know what our ROI is on those many leads.

TSM: Congratulations on that!  Thank you for sharing, in minute detail, the process behind setting meetings that can lead to sales. Any last thoughts you want to share.

JV: Yes. It is of course about getting the right people into meetings to begin with. But In addition to all the work you do before the show to get those set appointments, the other piece of magic for turning those appointments into highly valued conversations is the experience you give your prospects when they are there. Create a memorable experience. I mentioned that we didn’t have a booth at this show. But we did have a meeting room.

And remember, this is a large venue where it’s challenging to find a place to relax and there’s constant stimulus. We went to great lengths to make the meeting room comfortable and inviting, almost like a living room - all the way from the furniture to the lighting to pictures on the walls. It was pleasant, inviting, and conducive to a great experience. The more comfortable people are, the greater likelihood they’re going to want to spend more time with you, share with you, and remember their experience with you. You must have all the pieces in place and get creative if you’re going to walk away with a successful show.

TSM: Thank you so much, Judy, for sharing your success with us.