The Utter Failure Of Trade Show Sales People

It’s been 14 days since I attended a technology trade show and I’m still waiting…. Let me explain.

I was invited to be a guest at a trade show for a local technology company. Being in the sales training and coaching business, I’m always interested in how trade show sales people treat visitors to their booth. So I decided to do a little experiment.

I’ve visited 10 booths and struck up conversations with the sales people manning those booths. In those conversations, I specifically was interested, and I only went into the booths of vendors that I was interested in, about their products, services, and solutions.

In almost every case, I was seriously  interested in learning more about how their service might be able to help me and my company.

Here are the lame statistics:

1. Of the 10 booths I visited, and sales people I talked to, one, yes, only one, actually reached his hand out, shook hands with me, and introduced himself.
2. Only three of the 10 sales people were able to communicate their value in such a way that I became more interested in their solution. Lots of gobbledygook. Buzzwords. Industry jargon.
3. Only four of the 10 sales people asked me for a business card. Even when I had asked them for a business card. Pathetic.
4. And, finally, only one of the 10 people has bothered to reach back out to me to discuss their solution further. (And it was one of the four who asked me for my business card.)

What makes it more interesting is that I had credentials on that made it very easy for them to scan my name and address but only one did. Coincidentally, it was the same one who asked me for my business card. I have read studies that say the biggest problem customers have when they attend  trade shows  is the lack of follow up on the part of sales people.

But that was a study done about 10 years ago so I presumed, with technology, and the ease with which one can follow up, that trend would be very different.

But it wasn’t.

I know how expensive trade shows can be. So I know it’s not cheap for a company to send booths, people and collateral to the shows. What was particularly interesting, and quite a paradox, was that almost all of the speakers at this show talked about the customer journey. And many of those speakers were quite eloquent in how they characterized that journey.

I guess they just didn’t tell the vendors.

[tweetthis]When you invest money in an event, someone should be exploring how to get maximum leverage from that event. Or, it can be a waste. [/tweetthis]

Solution

If you or your people attend trade shows, or any events for that matter, have them gather cards with email addresses. It will take them all of two hours after the event to reach out to those people they have met and begin a relationship.

Sometimes, it’s as easy as saying “Thanks for coming into our booth,”  or “It was good meeting you. Would you like to speak about anything further than what we talked about at the show?” Prospects will either say yes or no and presto, you’ve sorted them out.

I constantly hear how difficult it is to build relationships with prospects today and yet I have to ask the question: Are we missing the little things that help those relationships grow and prosper?

What do you think? Have you been guilty of rotten follow up following a show? Or have you been on the other side when you’d like to speak with someone but it’s radio silent on the other end?  Would love to hear your thoughts.