Tradeshows are a powerful offline lead generation method that took me years to fine tune but after reading this you’ll learn it in minutes.
Okay, so you’re now thinking, ‘big deal’ I know how to work a tradeshow. No, you don’t. You don’t know what I am about to share with you.
Here’s the usual training:
Go to a trade show and get as many business cards as you can – go home and hammer the list. Of course you can also prospect people at the show until they kick you out too.
But really? Is that what you want to do? I confess, in my first two years of networking, I would lead teams to do this. We would go to a tradeshow and prospect like mad, and I’d buy dinner for the team member who got the most business cards.
Wow. Trouble was most people would want to quit after that experience.
And while that worked for a while, times changed.
Today, most tickets for franchise trade shows say you CAN’T approach anyone at the show for something not being represented at the show.
That’s how freighted of networkers these franchise sellers are.
Well, after a couple of years, I learned that approaching people at the show was actually too much work for the return it brought.
Even just collecting cards was getting hard, as anyone who had tried it will tell you. If you ask for a card these days, the sales booth guy will hold you up with some long pitch and presto – half your day is gone.
I was wondering what to do – perhaps I’d have to give in and get a booth.
Now I should say at this point, I find franchise shows great places to prospect in, as well as health and wellness and craft shows. For this article I’m sticking to franchise as my example, but you can work this system in any you like.
BIG TIP:
Craft shows are also good if your product fits into that category, and the attendees are also perfect for networking as they tend to be women and are entrepreneurs at heart.
However, the main advantage of a franchise show is the fact the attendees ARE seeking a business, and have some kind of budget.
But all three – Franchise, Health and Wellness and Craft shows are good.
Now getting a booth at a trade show means big cost, organizing people, getting some good looking banners, etc. Some MLM companies have tradeshow banners that you can buy or rent, and some don’t. Either way, they are expensive.
For most people the cost is just too much. Besides, running a booth is not easy. It’s exhausting, many of your team will not be equal to the task. Franchise shows have pros manning their booths. We networkers are not seasoned tradeshow pros.
When I see a MLM booth, too often we networkers look or act like ‘amateur hour’ – especially compared to the tradeshow pros – so the very best people that you want to sponsor just don’t take you seriously.
Before some of you argue the point, I can tell you I have done many of these and know what I am talking about. Most of us are professional, but it only takes one bad apple to ruin the barrel.
I have done many successful shows – recruited people – but not everyone who attends and works a show sponsors someone, so there by the end of the weekend there are a lot of unhappy campers.
And the costs… Often now about $2000 for a booth (to be shared) is a burden especially to those who didn’t sponsor anyone.
Not only that, you need at least 20 people to run the booth and to break the cost down to a level that your team will accept. Even if you are making 10K a month personally, you can’t afford to pay this out of your own pocket.
Now, we are about to get close to my brilliant system here, so read on carefully because I’m going to tell you just how I came to figure it out…
When I was working our booth, my chief aim was to get leads, business cards and/or contact info. I rarely tried to explain my company, product or anything of that sort.
Of course most of the others manning the booth would try and pitch the program – and that’s okay – that’s what people expect.
But my mentality was different. I would rather have a lead to pitch…later…
I would rather get the contact information now, and then follow up with them later, and pitch them on my company when I’m not one of a dozen or a hundred competing for their attention.
Think about it: After a few days or a week those tradeshow attendees have seen what’s out there and seen the high cost of franchises.
Most of them now realising that they just don’t have the money for that type of business.
Contacting them after they have figured this out is the best time.
Therefore, in my opinion the GOAL of a tradeshow is ONLY getting leads and prospecting them AFTER the show, not during it.
So, here I was thinking how to get contact information from all these folks without having to explain my MLM business.
You can’t just ask for someone’s business card or contact info without some reason.
I remember the show where I came up with this idea…
I decided to take a walk up and down the hall to see the other booths.
I notice that lots of companies were giving away samples, raffling off some of their products and offering free draws – if you left your business card.
That’s when it hits me: The free draw.
I rushed back to our table and we constructed a crude sign offering a chance for $100 worth of our products.
By the end of the show we did a draw and informed the winner that she could collect her products at our local meeting.
But the big winner was us: we had about 80 leads to split up between everyone. I realised a better sign and better prize will bring us even more leads the next time.
In fact, I begin to realise that if I were to just offer something that everyone would want, (not our products, as not everyone cares about what we sold) something business-like, that I’d even get more leads.
My head was spinning with ideas.
By now you think you have the idea, a free draw.
No, you’re on the right track, but no there’s more: read on McDuff.
Now our next show was very different. No company banners, no pitching MLM, no pitching anything EXCEPT our free draw. It was a draw for one of 5 electronic note takers, (audio recorders – pretty cool).
Our sign said the draw was sponsored by our company. All we did was promote the draw. ‘Free chance to win the Sony electronic note taker by leaving your business card’. Under the sign we said we were sending all entries notification of the winners, and the sponsor’s information.
This meant we could follow up with the folks. And why not, it is a good deal.
We had five winners and let EVERYONE know who they were.
We followed up by phone, told each person who entered their name that we were sorry they did not win the grand prize, and then chatted about the show.
Everyone agreed that it was pretty expensive to buy a franchise. ‘You’re right, that’s why we do XYZ program, low cost, low overhead, faster profits and no territory restrictions’.
‘Um,’ they’d say, ‘what is XYZ?’
‘Well, since you asked….’
Thus they invited us to tell them about our company.
Today we combine this with a drip email campaign, just to reinforce the follow up.
Now, I thought I had hit lead paradise with this idea.
However, I kept thinking.
I still had to organize the tradeshow, get people to man the booth, collect money and do all of this well in advance of the show, which meant getting commitment from your team 3 or 4 months before the event.
A lot of folks don’t like putting money up that far before an event.
In any case, I realised the real advantage of this method is the draw – it gets you leads. And then I got another brain storm, and this is the part of the article you really want to pay attention to:
I don’t need to rent a booth, I just need to set up a draw.
So I called a friend whose company also attended these shows, they are not MLM company, but they were nice people and easy going. “How would you like to have a big list of prospects – bigger than you normally get – from your next tradeshow?” I asked.
“Sure, how?”
I told her, “I’d like to sponsor a free draw for your next booth. I’ll supply the prize, (FYI today the prize is one of 3 iPads – one drawn for each day of the show – normally Friday, Saturday and Sunday), and all I want is a photocopy of all the business cards”.
It was a win-win and a no-brainer for her.
Our draw sign now said sponsored by both companies.
My team split up the cost of the prizes, and each got an equal portion of the leads.
Now sure, both we, and that other company followed up on the same prospects, but it’s well worth it.
This way, I could repeat the process with all sorts of tradeshows, craft shows, hobby shows, you name it. All I had to do was contact the venues and get a list of who was attending.
My good buddy in Australia, Steve Shulenski, takes the whole free draw one step further – without the need of tradeshows.
Steve had been using draw boxes to generate dozens of leads per month (year round) for his portrait business in small towns in Australia. His prize was a free photo shoot and a free portrait but he never used draw boxes to generate MLM leads until he learned how I use them at trade shows.
Steve designed a small countertop box with professional graphics. The headline on his box reads “The I Hate My Job Free Lunch Contest”. His first entry tag instructed people to write their name and phone number on it and to tell us why you hate your job.
Steve’s thinking was he could contact each person who dropped their contact details into his boxes that he places in restaurants and coffee shops and ask the person “So you hate your job, would you like to do something about it?”
At first this resulted in a lot of unqualified leads from jobless, broke people who only wanted the free lunch. So Steve started testing different wording on his entry forms.
After much testing he discovered the right copy that pre-qualifies prospects, generating higher quality leads who know they will be contacted and shown a home base income opportunity.
His new copy states that only one person a week will get a free lunch but every entry will be shown a way to increase their income by starting a home business.
Steve says that it’s a very simple and inexpensive way to get pre-qualified leads and restaurants display his boxes for free because it brings customers back in. And Steve only buys lunch for those who join his team.
He calls each lead and tells them… you didn’t win a free lunch yet but I will buy you a cup of coffee if you meet me back at the restaurant to take a look at the number one home based money maker in the world.
I asked Steve if it would be ok to let you see for yourself, and he agreed, so check out what he’s doing at: www.TheLifeStyleMentor.com or call him on 0412787941
Never stop prospecting!
David Williams is the author of How to Brand Yourself for your Network Marketing Business: 9 Simple Steps to Explode your Business Using Easy, Simple Methods Online. You can get 5 free autoresponders and his weekly training newsletter FREE by visiting www.DavidWilliamsMLMauthor.com
