For some reason, in the past three hours I’ve seen the phrase “…if you’re serious about…” in at least four email newsletters I subscribe to. In Jeffrey Gitomer’s “Sales Caffeine” his lead article discusses what being serious about something is all about from his perspective.
Two Internet marketers used the same phrase in regards to their question about readers’ seriousness about building an Internet business. Another email asked if I was ‘serious’ about creating a good life for myself.
It’s a fair question, and one you probably don’t think about enough.
“Of course I’m serious,” you respond. “I wouldn’t be doing this if I weren’t serious!”
Gitomer’s approach is from the sales aspect, and he covers such things as ability to deliver, desire to serve, friendliness, truth at ALL cost and more.
Much of that applies to tradeshow marketing. So, how serious are you?
- Do you plan your pre-show marketing?
- Do you pick your staff with an eye to having the most open and enthusiastic personalities at the show?
- Do you train your staff?
- Are you regularly re-examining your tradeshow booth’s marketing message to make sure it in sync with your products and your audience desire?
- Do you debrief your staff each evening before turning them loose?
- Do you make adjustments at the show based on your observations of visitors or the staff debriefing?
- Do you have definable, measurable goals for each tradeshow?
- Do you re-assess those goals based on the type of show and expected audience?
- Can you crunch the numbers to come up with the ROI over the last year’s worth of shows?
- Do your sales staff have real, actionable leads after each show, rated as ‘hot,’ ‘warm,’ or ‘cool?’
These questions can go on and on and break down each aspect of your tradeshow marketing, from the moment you commit to a show to the time a year later when you go back through the sales figures you’ve been tracking to see what business came out of the show.
If I may quote Jeffrey: “Serious is the intention, the intensity, and the focus that you put into your work ethic and your personal ethics.”
Serious is not having a sober or grave demeanor. You can have fun at tradeshow marketing, or sales, or whatever it is that you have chosen for your livelihood. In fact, I’d say that making as much of it “fun” as possible is important to your overall success and your mental well-being.
So…are you serious about tradeshow marketing?
(Plug: I’ve been an avid reader of Jeffrey Gitomer’s ‘Sales Caffeine’ e-zine for years…and highly recommend it – thanks for the inspiration this morning!)
