In the last 10 years or so there have been fundamental technological and economic changes that have rewritten the trade show rule book. Not rules like how close to the aisle your exhibit structure can be or how loud your music can play, but rules about what it takes to succeed on the show floor.

Some changes evolved slowly over the years, and some were wrenched into place almost at once. Here’s what’s changed – and how you can adapt to those changes:

1. More Uncertainty: Economic uncertainty has lasted for years, and shows little signs of going away. This makes your top company executives reluctant to commit early to trade shows, and buy capital-intensive larger exhibits. You have to balance their need for financial flexibility by waiting longer to commit to shows and vendors, and yet still avoid more expensive rush charges. (I sincerely wish you luck walking that tightrope.) Rental exhibits help avoid capital expenses, too.

2. Measurement A Must: Gone are the days when you could end the show by saying to your boss, “We had a good show, didn’t we?” and that would be enough. Your trade show spending is being compared to more explicitly measurable electronic marketing mediums. So even if your trade show is producing greater results, if you don’t prove it with real numbers, such as ROI ratios or sales generated, it didn’t happen in the minds of your bosses, and your budget is in jeopardy.

3. Trade Shows Stronger Than Some Expected: Trade shows are one of the winners in the marketing media wars. Along with electronic media, trade shows have retained a greater share of B2B marketing budgets than print and direct mail. That’s because trade shows still provide what all marketers want: face time with lots of real buyers in one place. So be sure to take full advantage of your face time at shows, because it’s harder to reach buyers elsewhere.

4. More Knowledgeable Buyers: Attendees now look up potential suppliers on the internet before the show, so they arrive already knowing about your products. If they visit you, it’s because they want to know if your product really does what you say it can, who your people are and how trustworthy your company is. You will need to provide more hospitality, have more space for longer meetings, and bring people who can answer detailed questions, but also deepen relationships.

5. Pre-Show Promotions Harder: Pre-show promotions with traditional media don’t bring in as many attendees as they used to. Your pre-show mailers get ignored, emails get deleted, calls get screened, and magazine ads are left unread. Buyers are just too busy before the show to pay much attention to your pre-show promotions. To get attendees into your booth, you have to do more at-show promotions, to grab their attention when they are focused on the show.

6. Social Media Rising: Social media is where people now spend their time. Fortunately, social media is not a replacement for trade shows, but is a great conduit to people who have tuned out of direct mail, email, ads, and phone calls. Social media can also help you extend the conversation that peaked at the show. Your activities in your booth (new products, product demonstrations, customer testimonials) are great content to share via social media after the show.

7. Which Promotions Work Now: Trade show attendees may walk the show floor, but it’s harder to get them out of the aisle and into your booth space. The internet has given them control of the buying process, so they don’t like to easily give it up at a show, either. So your promotions have to be better. To get them into your booth, you have to give them one of these three things: an exchange of value, an experience, or learning. Otherwise, they will keep walking.

8. Vertical Market Messages Love Flat Screens: In the old days, exhibitors would design their exhibit with a main message for the company overall, but swap out a portion of the exhibit graphics to customize their message for different industry trade shows. Now, with the price of large LED flat screen monitors about 25% of what they were when introduced (and lighter, too), exhibitors tailor their vertical market messages with pixels, not printed graphics.

9. Even Island Exhibits Are Lighter: While portable trade show displays have been the standard for decades, the high cost of shipping and especially drayage (up 488% from 1982 to 2010) have caused big-booth exhibitors to try to lighten their load, too. The improved style and flexibility of metal frame exhibit systems and the brilliant, sharp fabric graphics of today are taking over many trade shows.

10. Unqualified Leads Will Be Ignored: Your overworked sales force no longer has the time to work through a pile of business cards. Give them basically a list, and after several calls they will stop calling, if they start at all. You have to give them more qualifying information about each lead than just contact information, and you should only give them the qualified leads that are ready to talk to a sales person – or at least tell them which leads are the higher quality ones, so they can start there first.

11. Technology Everywhere: Technology has infiltrated trade show marketing. From iPads to enhance one-on-one interactive conversations and revolutionize lead management to flat screen integrated into exhibit designs to wireless internet hubs, and social media to entice booth visitors, technology is everywhere on the show floor. That means you have to know the difference between an HDMI and a VGA cable, a .csv and a .txt file, and a wireless or a hardwired internet connection. Because even in face-to-face marketing, technology boosts results.

If your trade show marketing isn’t as effective as it used to be, see if you haven’t adapted your program to the new rules of the show hall. Take these new rules into account, and rejuvenate and enhance your program and your results.

Link to the original article at Skyline Trade Show Tips

September 24, 2013

Did you ever ask for an outrageously expensive brand-name toy for your birthday – and then received a generic version that just didn’t have the same cachet? And then found that you couldn’t bring yourself to play much with it because it just didn’t live up to your expectations? Well, end-users of new software systems often feel the same way. In fact, failure to manage user expectations is one of the biggest risks to project success when project managers are implementing new software systems. Research demonstrates that users who harbor unrealistic expectations are more likely to be dissatisfied with the project outcome and less likely to take best advantage of it.

Fortunately, this is one risk factor that project managers can influence and minimize, according to Professor Stacie Petter at the University of Omaha at Nebraska. The key, she says, is to work with the users and keep them involved, establish leadership and gain user trust.

Petter recently completed a research project that defines practical tactics that project managers can use to align user expectations with project delivery.

She and another researcher interviewed project managers from a global IT and consulting company with more than 75,000 employees across almost 50 countries.

Petter asked each project manager to recall two projects in which they faced challenges in managing user expectations – one that they managed successfully and one that they felt wasn’t successfully managed.

She then analyzed their responses, drawing out successful tactics for involving the user, establishing leadership and gaining trust – the three strategies that she discovered are key to managing user expectations. Her findings:

Involve the Users

“Every textbook,” says Petter, “advocates involving the users, but it’s often done badly. People think that one meeting with the users is enough.” The value of this research is that it proposes actionable tactics. Project managers should ask themselves how well they do the following:

• Communicate. Get users involved early in the project and keep them involved throughout.
• If the user base is large, create small user groups.
• Listen to them, ask questions and give credit for good suggestions.
• Let users make tough choices about budget, schedule and/or functionality.
• Recognize their concerns about change and help them to feel at ease.
• Build positive momentum and continue it throughout the development phase.
• Offer training, help desks and other support functions to maintain comfort and involvement during implementation

Establish Leadership

“There are two types of leadership that need to be exhibited during a software project to properly manage user expectations,” says Petter. “A project champion for the users and a project manager/leader for the team.”

The project champion, she says, helps to manage expectations by promoting the project vision, educating users about the software’s values and benefits, and by rallying the ‘troops’ and explaining how they can assist. One interviewee recommended choosing someone who is influential, well respected and well connected within the client organization.

The project manager, says Petter, must lead both project colleagues and users along the correct path. “To do this, the project manager needs to be knowledgeable about the business problem, the system’s technical aspects and also project management.”

For a successful outcome, she says, a project manager should also:

• Articulate a clear view of the project
• Ensure you have a strong project champion to share the vision
• Educate users about the value and benefits of the system, while also ensuring they have reasonable expectations
• Obtain buy-in from the primary, or most vocal, stakeholders and work outward
• Don’t oversell the project
• Motivate the project team to complete on time

Finally, says Petter, the project manager needs fortitude. “Be strong with users,” she says. “If they ask for additional functionality, it’s important not to simply agree to every request.” Instead, initiate a formal change-request process and educate users about the consequences of any changes.

Establish Trust

Project managers who involve users and develop a relationship with them will be on their way to establishing trust. Petter notes that there are other important tactics for gaining and maintaining trust:

• Use clear terminology. For instance, inform users they will see a prototype in one week, not ‘soon’.
• Be willing to share both good and bad news throughout the project – don’t leave others to disseminate such news.

Overall, says Petter, “the tactics for managing user expectations that we’ve identified in our research aren’t complex. They’re really quite simple.”

“Yet if software project managers truly understood and followed these tactics, managing user expectations would not be among one of the three highest-ranking risks in software projects.”

Source: Petter, S. “Managing user expectations on software projects: Lessons from the trenches”, International Journal of Project Management, 26:7, Oct 2008 pp. 700-712.

PMPerspectives.org

© Reich, Gemino, Sauer (2008)

This article was reposted in 2013 with minor typographic corrections. 

Posted: 11-Apr-2013 | View Highlights | Learning Toolkit |  Bookmark / Share This Article