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Are You A Trade Show Attendee Or A Client Ambassador?
By: Marsha Londe
Issue: 2007dec
Whether you’re an experienced trade show attendee or a first-timer, you inherently know the basic rules: monitor your time, capture pertinent information, and network for strategic relationships. But do you know how to make that trade show experience work for you? Are you simply an attendee, or are you attending as an ambassador for your client?
An ambassador is a positive listener, alert to information and details on both sides of a discussion to create successful partnerships. As an ambassador at a trade show, your function is to negotiate for, represent, and protect the interests of your client.
An ambassador is a consultant. Like you. Your role at a trade show is to represent your client to the suppliers. You want to return with the best ideas and products to inform and advise your buyers on their branding and marketing goals. After all, isn’t your primary reason for attending that show to source solutions for your client’s needs?
But does your client even know you’re working on his behalf? Your attendance at a national or regional trade show provides three chances to consult with your client and to demonstrate your professionalism, knowledge, and service. Those three opportunities? Before, during, and after the show.
Before the show
Reaching out to your client a week or two before a show is a bona fide marketing opportunity. The client will appreciate that they’re top of mind with their promotional product consultant.
This first touch delivers multiple messages that will distinguish you from your competitors. You raise your level of professionalism by demonstrating how you conduct business, network with suppliers, and negotiate better pricing to benefit them. You participate in continuing education. And, of course, you’re alerting them that you’ll be out of town but will provide direction for any needs they may have in your absence.
But the most important reason for this pre-show call is to obtain insight into what’s coming up for this client. Use this pre-show conversation to learn what’s on his need list and his direction for upcoming events, programs, product launches, and the like. Explain that this trade show, with access to premier supplier contacts, is where you’ll be sourcing product and answers for his functions and accomplishing advance research with his goals and budget in mind.
Clients, especially those in the purchasing department, want to be “closer” to the manufacturer. Explain that you’ll be reporting the success of a recent program or negotiating better pricing and delivery schedule, or resolving a concern face to face, and your client will realize that you’re connecting the two. This relationship building activity can result in additional supplier ideas for your client, better pricing, and better treatment in the production schedule.
With client provided direction, your time on the show floor will be more productive…and ultimately more profitable. As the first to know the client needs, you’ll be the first to provide the solutions. You’ve set up perfect reason to stay in touch for the next call upon your return. You’re demonstrating your skills as a functional, helpful, and useful ambassador.
During the show
Now you know where to concentrate your show efforts and what you’re shopping for. So how do you effectively capture pertinent details? And, equally important, how do you convey them?
We each have our methods for information gathering, including well-organized note jotters, tape recorders, video or digital cameras, and cell phones. Business cards with notations remain a prime means of referencing what you saw at a booth and for whom. Jot your notes on the supplier’s card, but also on the back of yours to aid the supplier in recalling your needs.
Take advantage of today’s technology and create an immediate connection with your client. Whether with digital or cell phone camera, snap a picture of the item you found that meets their needs and email it over. Would a photo of you beside a booth or against the crowd interest your client? Or provide perspective on the scope of the show?
Whether in the moment or in the evening, imagine the power of an email saying, “Here’s a great bag…should I request a sample and get pricing while I’m here?” Or take several shots and, at day’s end, present a variety of product from “Day 1”. Then go on to develop a daily selection for review. And then imagine the impact that email delivers, reinforcing your attention to the client needs and the work you’re performing on their behalf.
As a client ambassador, you’re on the spot and delivering results.
After the show
Post show follow-up is your third opportunity for client contact. Just because you’ve sent information doesn’t mean your client received or kept it. Resend your ideas and provide additional details and choices. Call to set an appointment and drop off samples. Develop a power-point of accumulative ideas. Bring the show back home and host a “new products” showroom visit for multiple or single clients. Or create a display specific to their interests.
Your follow up is an opening to talk further about their project(s), the product you found, and other ideas they may not have considered. You can share information gathered at the show, present case studies applicable to their activities, and engage in consultative selling.
The idea is to make everything about the show about them! Whether you return with ways to invigorate their current safety program or inform them of what other companies are doing with a specific product or a similar event, demonstrate your role in their promotional product marketing and branding. You are their personal ambassador, a consultant to them and on behalf of their needs.
In the end
Attending and properly working trade shows is ideal for enhancing client relationships. Separate yourself through consultative selling by communicating before, connecting during, and following up after. And in working with suppliers, especially at trade shows, YOU are the face of that client. Be an effective client ambassador.
Tango Partners is a promotional products consultancy firm specializing in new business development, RFP responses, back-office process improvement, workflow management, and program merchandising and implementation. In 2007, Tango founded the industry’s first virtual consultancy at www.distributorsource.net. Headquartered in Atlanta, GA, Tango! was formed by pioneers in the promotional product industry and is led by innovators in the use of branded product. For more information, email solutions@tangopartners.net, call (404) 846-1900, or visit www.distributorsource.net.
In Marsha Londe’s 25 year sales career she earned 24 Pyramids for the creative use of product to drive results and was twice selected as “Salesperson of the Year”. Three of her clients were recognized as “Buyer of the Year”, and she was an inaugural member of “Women in the Industry.”
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