Focus on Your Prospects Problems and Solve Them

Think of your prospects as buyers who, in turn, must please a specific kind of customer. This is true whether their "customer" is within their own organization (seeking new furniture for the offices or new locomotives for the trains) or outside (buying a new line of children's shoes or a new line of lawnmowers). Pleasing these ultimate customers should be the focus of everything your prospects do at a show. Your success lies not in appealing to them as a buyer but in assuring their success as a seller. Convince them that you can make them look good to their ultimate customers, and you'll turn prospects into customers, to your benefit . . . and theirs.

"Trade show selling is extremely fast-paced and highly competitive," reports trade show sales trainer Keith Resnick.6 "The average sales opportunity lasts only three to five minutes. And the prospect often leaves your booth to visit with your biggest competitors."

To make those few minutes work to your best advantage, Resnick urges a consistent eight-step approach:

1. Immediate contact. Let your entire body language invite and welcome the visitor.

2. Open the sales call with a handshake, a smile, and an introduction.

3. Identify the prospect's company. Make sure you are spending your invaluable time with a prospect, not a competitor!

4. Qualify, as time permits.

6Keith Resnick, president of Creative Training Solutions, Gibbsboro, New Jersey (www.creative training.com), conducts workshops and seminars on trade show selling throughout the country.

5. Present just enough to arrange a follow-up call. If visitors want more, they'll ask.

6. Arrange the next step, from an appointment to a demonstration to buying right there . . . whatever the prospect wants.

7. Close the sales call with a pleasant thank-you and a smile.

8. Record results immediately, perhaps on a tape recorder, before spending time with anyone else.

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