So you’re headed to IMTS 22 (the International Manufacturing Technology Show)? It’s time to think about attracting and engaging visitors. You don’t want to be lost in a sea of trade show booths, so what is the best way to draw visitors away from the competition and toward your business?

1. Invite and utilize your existing connections.

Trade shows can be a great way to interact with your current and potential connections. In fact, 79% of attendees believe going to a trade show helps them decide what to buy. (Source: Graphicolor Exhibits) Before the event, send an email to your current contacts and invite them to visit your booth. Be sure to include information about where to find your trade show booth and what they can expect from your exhibit. If they attend, interacting face-to-face is an excellent opportunity to network, make connections and share mutually beneficial contacts.

2. Research and connect with the media.

Having a great trade show booth is useless if you have few attendees and visitors. A great way to ensure you’re spreading the word about your exhibit is to get the manufacturing trade press involved. Do some research about what media outlets will be present at the show and reach out to your industry bloggers, influencers, journalists, and trade publications. It’s the perfect way to invite prospects, share exciting news or product launches, and promote your business before the trade show. Also, invite these journalists to your booth for one-on-one interviews. Taking the time to invest in advertising and press involvement could secure you more trade show booth visitors and viable leads.

3. Promote your exhibit on social media.

People from every industry are on social media, and these platforms can be a great way to promote your upcoming trade exhibitions. 61% of businesses use social media to promote their attendance at an upcoming trade show. (Source: Brandon Gaille) You should schedule social media posts to go out before and during the show to promote your booth and attract attendees. Don’t forget to include information about any presentations, product demos, or contests you’re hosting during the show. Scheduling the posts ahead of time will relieve some pressure and give you one less thing to worry about during the event. Building excitement online in the weeks leading up to the show will attract prospects to the trade show and encourage them to stop by your booth.

Posting to social media live during the show is also a good idea so you can share your booth location and pictures of your exhibit. If your current contacts or followers are at the show, they will know where to find you and what to expect. Lastly, check the show’s website for their social media and any hashtags to maximize impact. 

4. Nail your booth design.

Attracting prospects to the trade show is just one step. To generate leads, you’ve got to get them to engage with your exhibit during the show. The design of your booth is crucial for making a lasting first impression and drawing attendees to you. If you want to stand out among the other exhibitors your display should include engaging and interactive elements that make the encounter with your business fun. 74% of attendees believe engaging with the exhibitors makes them more likely to buy the products/services on display. (Source: Hill & Partners)

You can use photos and videos to draw the eyes of attendees to your booth. Touch screens and tablets can be used to collect contact information from visitors which will help you follow up after the show is over. Surveys and quizzes are another great way to get your booth visitors engaged and inform them of what your business has to offer. 92% of attendees visit a trade show to learn about new and exciting products and services. (Source: SpinGo)

Everyone loves gifts and freebies. Organizing a contest or giveaway can be an excellent way to capture prospects’ attention and leave a lasting impression. Consider giving away branded merchandise, swag bags, or even food and drinks. 

Using a company mascot is one of the most fun and effective ways to draw attention to your exhibit. A mascot will make your trade show booth unmissable and provide a fun photo-op for visitors to share on social media.

5. Don’t attack, attract.

No one likes to be bombarded by salespeople, especially as you walk by every booth at a trade show. Stopping uninterested people as they walk by and pushing them to look at what’s on sale is not the best approach at trade shows. A better strategy is to attract them to you and your exhibit. But a great display is only the first step. You should make sure that your trade show staff is knowledgeable, personable and engaging. 85% of an exhibitor’s success at a trade show is dependent on the performance of the staff they bring. (Source: Highway 85 Creative)

When a visitor approaches your booth, it means they are interested in what you have to offer, so it’s important to have the first person from your staff there to help. Dressing professional and wearing company logo apparel is a must for making sure your staff is easily identifiable among the crowds. You should be sure that your booth provides its visitors with valuable information that is easily digestible and useful to them. Consider using presentations and product demonstrations to draw people in without having to attack them as they walk by.

For tips on your next step after the show, read our blog The Trade Show is Over – Now What?

Need more help? Download our Trade Shows for Manufacturers Guide or contact Rob Felber at RobFelber@FelberPR.com, (330) 963-3664.

Sales, the elusive goal of lead generation, can often be sidelined by roadblocks, hurdles, and potholes. Any delay in your sales procedure can allow doubt, buyer hesitation, or worse, a competitor into the process. This article is NOT about overcoming objections or even listening better; save those tactics for the sales trainers.

Let’s look at the most common barriers to sales and how you will remove them.

Meet on their schedule

I am going to lead with my favorite – be available. You cannot engage in conversation and show how brilliant your solution is for their problem if you are playing phone tag or the “what’s a good day for you” mini-series. In the last year, I have opened my calendar up to zoom and in-person meetings. My prospects and clients can book a date in seconds that is convenient for them and is guaranteed open on my calendar. A calendar invite is generated for both of us – my calendar emails me and I also receive a text alerting me to the new booking. Book 15 minutes with Rob Felber and see just how efficient this tool has become.

Be visible when they are ready

It has become common knowledge that prospects spend a significant amount of time researching their problem before contacting a salesperson or dare I say picking up the phone (BTW, they don’t call; see point one on calendars). The battle for a fast and efficient sales process begins with being able to be found on the internet. If your company, e.g., your solution, does not show on a Google search, you’re not even in the game. Make sure your website is search engine ready. Read our article:

How much money are you wasting on website marketing that is not yielding results? SEO Audits

Answer their questions as they are asked

If you have even 3 months in sales, you probably already have heard a few of the same questions. Draft those questions and your best answer and place them in front of your prospect before they ever contact you. In addition to being available and found, you can keep the process going by anticipating and answering the most common questions. Using frequently asked questions documents, case studies and customer references will help your prospect gain confidence in your brand and solution. Of course, use well-placed calls-to-action (CTAs) throughout the process so they can quickly engage you when they are ready to talk. See How to Improve Your Call to Actions

Do not let procedure derail your sales process

Your prospect is ready to buy. More than a signal, they have verbalized “I am sold, where do I sign.” You say thank you and place five pages of credit check and paperwork in their face. Now, that’s pleasant. I am not suggesting that you bypass good business practices, just that you move the paperwork up in the sequence. If you indicate that your prospect is qualified, why not use credit checks as a sales technique to accelerate the sale? “Mr. prospect, it seems like we’re a good fit for your problem, and while you still have questions, would it make sense to start establishing your account so we can move even faster should you choose our company?” We also suggest you do everything possible to streamline your account establishment. If you rely on a credit department, meet with them, and explain that while we need to protect the company, the sale can be jeopardized by long delays. At the end of the day, nothing happens until someone buys something; so, let them (buy).

Let them speak to your clients

There is an old joke about when a prospect asks for references. You respond with “do you want good ones or bad ones?” The reality is no one offers bad references. The way to not have reference checks be a barrier is to have a vetted and fresh list of clients who are willing to speak to your prospects and are available. I have experienced recent requests for client references, and I keep a pre-approved list I can send immediately. These are clients that have already told me they are willing to speak to our prospects without additional notice. Now, I may still give them a heads up, but I know I do not need to ask their permission every time I use their name.

Do you have any other tips or tactics you use to keep the sale moving? Email me and I’ll share with our network – you might even trigger a reader to inquire about your services!

Shooting quality industrial and product images is a specialty, even among professional photographers. But between blog posts and social media content, you could probably use more high-quality and up-to-date images of your products and processes.

We’ve written before about the importance of minding the details when taking photos – making sure everyone in the frame is wearing proper safety equipment, for example, and not including any sensitive information, like part numbers or customer names – but this list is a little different.

5 Tips for Getting Better Product Photos

1. LIGHT IT UP: When it comes to photography, more light is always better, and natural light is always best. Do you make your products outside? No. But if you can take your product outside to get a picture, do it. Hint: move the item around to get the best light, meaning no shadows and no glare. You may need to move around, too, standing on a step stool to properly frame the products.
2. Use a tripod or other brace for the camera. Camera shake is a thing. A bad thing. The more still the camera, the better the resulting image. Trust us on this.
3. Invest in a good…piece of white poster board! Almost anything you photograph looks better on a white background. (Seriously) Among other things, the stark white background will focus attention on your product and reduce shadows in the image. It’s the best buck-fifty you’ll ever spend on camera equipment!
4. Side-eye it. Professional photographers discuss the “rule of thirds” at length. Suffice to say, it’s not always best to frame the main subject in the center of the image.
5. Love the image? DON’T SHARE IT until you run it by committee. We’re not talking about a formal committee, but do remember to get some other people to review the photos before sharing. After you’ve followed all of this good advice, you’ll probably be pretty happy with your images. (You’re welcome.) However, you may be seeing what you want to see. Before sharing any of your images, show them to a few people inside the company and ask them to tell you what they “see” in the image. Then ask someone from outside the company to describe what they see. A second (and third, and fourth) set of eyes is always valuable.

Professional photography is critical for your website, and all of your marketing material. Here are a few websites that we coordinated professional shoots for still and video. https://www.mikafab.com/ and https://www.grandriverrubber.com

But we get it – no one has an unlimited marketing budget.* When you need to grab some quick pics, though, these tips will help you get the best images out of a basic point-and-shoot camera or even your phone. 

*if you do, call us!

If you’d like to get more leads for your sales team, we can help you with that, too. Get in touch. Or, grab 15 minutes on Rob Felber’s schedule.

If you’re in charge of the company blog, newsletter, or both – and a few other things! – you know that writer’s block is real.

You also know that fresh content is important. Fresh, quality content keeps your website more relevant, to the real people who are your prospects and customers, and it’s important to search engines, too. (And really good content can even help you get trade publication coverage.)

But what should you write your next business blog post about? Here are four formulas to help you create quality content this week, and next week, and the next…

1. Share a (short) success story. This can be an anecdote from one of your salespeople describing how they overcame an objection with a solution your company offers – providing a sample so the client could see the material for themselves, for example. It could be as short as this:

 ABC Manufacturing needed to make bigger buckets, but the handles kept breaking. Their handle supplier said they’d cost twice as much. We helped re-design the handle so a lighter material could do the job. The buckets with the new design are popular with their customers because they’re easier to stack. Win, win!  Why you’ll love this formula: It’s like a case study, but much less work!

 When you tell a success story in anecdote form, you can use general descriptions of a problem you solved for a client. You don’t identify the client by name, or identify the part. (It should be a true story, of course.) It’s essentially a narrative description of one of your company’s offerings. People naturally love stories – and they’re easy to remember, which is exactly the kind of content you need.

2. Go on a Roundup! A post of “Top Fastener Styles by Metal Type” would highlight your products in a useful way for clients and prospects, for example. Or, collect your most popular blog posts of the past year, or all of your posts on a given subject or product line. Because a Roundup post includes links back to each of the previous posts, it provides your website with a little more internal structure and organization – Search Engines love that. (SEO bonus points!)

Pro tip: it’s easy (and important) to include multiple calls to action in a post like this. How to make a good Call-to-Action even better

3. A Typical Day at… You go to work every day. You work. You go home. You know the drill…but your clients and prospects would LOVE to know what goes on in there! Highlighting your products, services, and culture in 300-500 words is surprisingly easy. Where does your president eat lunch? Which piece of machinery runs all day long? Who greets delivery drivers at your loading dock? A few candid photos, maybe a quote or two, and you’re done! Read our article on How Manufacturers Can Avoid Pitfalls When Using Photos

 More good news: these kinds of “insider” posts are almost always among the most popular pieces of content on a blog or most clicked in a newsletter.

4. Educate ‘em! Ask your customer service reps, “what do you wish ALL of our customers knew?” Their answer (or answers) will make a GREAT blog post! There are many ways to use those answers, too. Depending on the information you gather from your customer service team, you might be able to write a roundup-type post. (Or even better, they might be able to write it for you!) Once you start the conversation with your CSRs or inside sales team, you might be surprised at all you learn. It could turn into a series of posts, a FAQ Page on your website, or a tip sheet for new customers.

Who Has Time to Write a Blog?

Ha! We’ve heard that before. Time management is so important, there’s probably a book or two on the subject 😉

But seriously, folks, our clients tell us that having regular meetings to discuss content calendars, blog topics and newsletter schedules keeps them on track. At the end of each meeting, we decide who will write the content – someone on the client’s staff, or someone from our team. We identify the necessary resources, set a tentative deadline, and then follow up before the agreed-upon publication or distribution date. It’s not failproof, but for the most part, it keeps fresh content coming. And fresh content generates leads and leads generate sales, and sales are good.

So keep writing!

How can we help you? Schedule a 15-minute consultation at your convenience, and let’s talk about it. RobFelber@FelberPR.com, (330) 963-3664