Three Steps to More Effective Tradeshow Presentations

If you’re manning a tradeshow booth and someone comes up and asks, “tell me about your product,” the last thing you should do is tell him (or her) about your product. Literally. Ask a few simple questions first.

Recently I returned to the sales side of a tradeshow booth for the first time in over 25 years. IBC, Amsterdam, 2022. Other than having to leave for the airport six hours before my return flight, it was a fun trip (Google it).

The experience brought back many memories and rekindled some long-dormant selling practices, though it took a few days to get back in the swing. Here’s what I wished that Day 4 me had told myself on Day 1.

Question 1: Be Efficient

If it’s a good tradeshow, and IBC was, you have more attendees than time to address them. So, the first questions you should ask should identify whether it’s worth your time–or the visitor’s—to chat.

To explain, my company, NETINT, sells ASIC-based video transcoders. Virtually all our customers are producing live video as opposed to video on demand (VOD). Our value proposition is very strong for live, much less so for VOD.

So, on day 4, if a visitor came up and asked, “tell me about your product,” I would ask, “are you producing live video or on demand?” If they responded “on-demand,” I would explain why we probably weren’t the best option. The visitor would walk away knowing what they needed to know about our product, and I was free to dialog with another visitor who might be a better prospect.

Question 2: Be Effective

The next few questions would help me present the benefits of our product most effectively. A question like, “how are you currently transcoding?” or “what other options are you considering?” would help me understand what I’m selling against, whether the status quo or other products or services.

If I’m selling against an existing solution, I might ask, “why are you considering a change?” One big answer in the fall of 2022 was power consumption, and if the visitor indicated this was a concern, I could highlight the efficiency of NETINT's encoding ASICs. If she identified other priorities, like quality, throughput, cost, or latency, I could focus on those.

If he was considering other products, I might ask, “what features do you consider most important when comparing transcoding options?” The answer would serve as an outline for the features I presented.

In this fashion, one or two questions take me from a generic presentation that might exclude concerns critical to the visitor to a focused discussion that covers all the key buying criteria. The bottom line is that there’s no reason to give a generic product presentation when a few questions will help you zero in on what’s important to the visitor.

Once I had answers to these questions, I would tell the visitor about my product. Before they left, however, there was one more goal.

Question 3: Qualify

The last question was designed to prioritize how quickly we reached out to the visitor after the show. To explain, we walked away from IBC with a ton of leads, and the best thing I could do for our sales force was to help them prioritize their response.

So, I might ask, “have you decided to make a switch (or buy new technology), or are you just evaluating?” If the visitor responded, “we need the new gear in place in two months,” I could advise the sales folks to follow up right away. If it’s “we’re in the evaluation phase,” it’s quite the opposite.

Overall, when attending a tradeshow, or any similar gathering, it’s tempting to start describing your product's best features to anyone who steps into your booth. Asking a few questions before and during your presentation will help you to deliver more effective presentations to visitors more likely to buy your product or service and help you prioritize your post-show response.