10 Must-Have Traits for Event Marketing & Sales Teams

Every successful brand knows the importance of trade shows in their B2B marketing strategy. Unfortunately, most brand marketers still often find themselves unprepared or inadequately equipped during events and can end up losing potential business. The digital marketing space is changing and so is the way businesses interact during B2B events.

In this blog, we will discuss ten key traits that can help B2B marketing teams to create maximum impact at events.

Planning Ahead

Every sales team needs to plan well ahead of their event. If you already have a list of your registered attendees, shortlist their names and invite them to your booth before the event. This will send a positive note to your potential clients and keep them interested and excited about what you have to offer at the event. It’s also a great way to qualify the ‘most interested’ prospects from the ‘tentative’ ones.

Meeting Everybody (Relevant)

It is essential to meet everybody that you feel is qualified by positioning yourself well, and being visible on the event floor. Just sitting at your booth and being lost in the crowd won’t fetch you leads. Keep one of your marketing or sales reps standing near your booth, they’re basically going to act as your prospecting team on your booth. Be receptive to anyone visiting your booth, but focus on the people that are most relevant.

Stacking Up Your Business Cards or Leads

You should keep your business cards with you at all times. Exchange your cards to make sure you have all of your prospect’s contact info. Business cards have been around for years but this old technique of exchanging contact info still remains successful after all these years! Event technology is now bringing in new trends to augment this practice. For example there are business card scanner apps like ScanBizCards to help you to instantly save contacts from business cards on your phone’s address book or directly to a CRM just by snapping a photo. The goal is to collect all the contacts so you can follow up immediately after the event.

Styling Your Booth For Impact

When you’re at a convention, you’re one among thousands of other businesses, and every sales team is trying to sell their brand. Try to be unique and be creative with your booth as that can help you to stand apart from the crowd. Your booth should be easy to spot in the crowd, prominently branded, and brightly lit to attract crowds.

Training Your Staff

Training your staff before the event on verbal and non-verbal communication is always a great practice. Create a list of questions and define the role they would play at the event. Take your best team with you and engage in continuous interaction with your customers using your team’s experience and skills.

Pursuing Your Customers

Persuasion without being too pushy can be a highly effective strategy for trade shows. The goal of setting up booth at an event is two-fold: branding and lead generation. Ultimately, solid branding will also create new streams for lead inflow. Always look to build your brand’s impression in your prospect’s mind. Some salespeople mix persuasion with a hint of sales aggression, that’s just part of sales, but there should be a clear line to draw. Don’t try to smack your products in their face, but be impactful.

Narrating Emotional Stories

An emotional story can go a long way in positioning your brand in the minds of your prospects. Customers relate to real success stories, and exhibitors have a fair chance of demonstrating their narratives and delivering experiencial stories during events. For instance, it can be about how you built your brand from scratch, the struggles you had during that period and how that allows you to use your learnings in helping your clients overcome their challenges.

Organizing Successfully

You can’t do much wrong when you’ve organized everything well. Keep your information booklets, infographic sheets and data cards organized at your booth or desk. Have your lead generation engine set up, position your booth and assets carefully, and be welcoming with a big smile! It’s always easier to focus on the conversations when you have all your assets ready just when you need them, so you can create a sound impression on your prospective clients.

Technical Skills Matter

It’s always good to have sound technical skills during an event. Event technology is improving continuously and there are assets ranging from visualization technology such as AR and VR to state-of-the art display and sound systems to make an impact. You may have to set-up the sound systems, handle your projectors, laptops, displays, iPads, your own products and much more. Technical knowledge will always come in handy, and if your event teams know their way around tech, you’ll have everything working in order at the show.

The Art of Multitasking

As discussed above, you might not always have enough staff at your disposal to handle everything needed at an event. Training your event marketing or sales team to engage in multitasking can go a long way in best utilizing your resources.

Concluding

Every marketing team can easily practice these event marketing skills to maximize their potential event ROI. Events provide the best platform to engage with businesses personally, and so following some of these activities where interpersonal skills are imperative can make your next trade show a grand success.