Sales Tips: 9 Steps to Rocking a Trade Show

by | Jan 30, 2014 | Blog

Trade shows and conferences are an important part of business because they allow you to see way more prospective customers and partners in a short amount of time than you could possibly talk to face-to-face otherwise. Learn to love the trade show. Working a trade show can consist of working your company’s booth or simply attending the show. Either situation can result in you leaving the event with a ton of leads. You can be the master of your success at the trade show if you approach it the right way. Here are some keys to success: 1. Preparation Spend time researching who will be at the event. If your company is sponsoring, you may have an attendee list to review. If that isn’t available, you can look at the other exhibitors and speakers. Make a list of targets you want to connect with onsite. Look up the names of specific people that work at a prospect company. Set up as many meetings as you can in advance. 2. Pack Smart Wear comfortable, sensible yet professional shoes. You’ll be on your feet a bunch. Bring lots of business cards and don’t plan to lug a heavy bag around the trade show. These tips should be obvious but you’d be surprised. 3. Working the Booth Stand and look available for a conversation. Engage folks that are walking by. Ask them a leading question to entice them into talking with you: “Are you looking for a product that does X?” Do NOT: Sit down Mess around with your phone or computer Let the booth get messy Leave your coffee cups or...

3 Ways Not to Suck at Sales

by | Jan 2, 2014 | Blog

Over the past 15 years I’ve sold everything from online media to mortgages to conference sponsorships so the tips below come from a vast amount of experience developing fresh contacts in different industries. Sales is sales. No matter what you are selling, you should be able to benefit from these tips: 1. Know your target We have it so easy right now in terms of being able to do fast research about the company we are calling on as well as gather information about the actual individual we are reaching out to. Some of my favorite sources of data: Crunchbase – Not only can you learn a quick tidbit or two about the company, you can see if they’ve gotten funding recently, who the execs are, etc. LinkedIn – Find out who the relevant individuals are at a company you want to penetrate, send InMails when you can’t track down an individual’s contact information by other methods. Company Website pages – Read “About Us”, “Team” or “Leadership” pages (to identify the correct points of contact), “Careers” or “We’re Hiring” pages (if they have a lot of openings they are looking to grow), and check out “Media” or “Press” pages too to scan for anything they felt was important enough to send out a press release about. Twitter profiles –People often get more personal with their Twitter bios than they might on LinkedIn. The beauty of this is that you can learn a thing or two about your prospect’s life outside of work. Very handy for building rapport. And a casual retweet or two can also warm up a prospect. 2. Know how...