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Sound a bit harsh? You’re right, maybe it’s not the brand manager you should fire. Maybe it’s the Marketing Director or the VP of Marketing…maybe it’s the CFO. But make no doubt about it, they should be fired…that is, they should be fired if they do what I’m about to describe.
If there is one thing that really gets my goat it’s when marketing does not show up for an industry trade show. I’m not talking about the little table top exhibits at regional event that sales can handle on their own. I’m talking about the big industry conferences that all your customers and potential customers attend. The ones that your competition has a presence at.
I’ve seen it way too many times. Marketing shows up for the final hours of set up to make sure the booth looks good. They stand back surveying their 20 x 20 foot kingdom and pat themselves on the back for how great it looks, and right there in the center aisle near the front, great placement. They put out a few brochures and check that their DVD is running on the big flat screens scattered throughout their booth. Yes, the DVD is excellent, such great production quality. They show how close attention they pay to detail…that one graphic in the corner is a bit off center, let’s get labor to fix that. Ok, we’re good to go. And off they go to get settled into their room and grab a nice dinner.
The next morning they are there an hour before the show opens to run the sales staff through the lead retrieval systems and make sure they understand that only visitors who get their badges swiped should receive the booth giveaway. Maybe they even talk about what the show goals are and why they are important. They spend a couple hours hanging out in the booth to make sure everything is running smoothly. Is traffic what they expected? How are we holding up on giveaways? Everything is good. Ok, gotta run and catch a plane back to the office. Good luck everyone.
I can’t help but wonder, why are they going back to the office? Maybe they need to get an RFP out the door for a customer research project. Maybe they are meeting with a firm who is doing a competitive analysis for them. Maybe they need to figure out why they are taking a hit in customer satisfaction on that new product they launched.
Guess what! All that information is right there in one building for three days. Why on earth are you going back to the office? A marketing person who does not want to be at the show for every second of every day it is running needs to be fired.
Now maybe they are not there because their bosses want to save money on the show by sending less staff. Maybe they want to be there but they are not allowed to be because some genius decided it was better to save the $500 on an extra two nights at the hotel and per diem. If that’s the case then just follow the money trail up the ladder and fire the person with whom the buck stops.
Firing them still seem harsh to you? Not to me; personally I would not ever want anyone that short sighted working for me. Do you? Really?
If you’re a brand manger that gets it start fighting to be at these events. If you’re a marketing person that disagrees with me, please tell me why you think I’m way off base.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Dead on as usual Traci. Great post! But I feel that this is just a part of a larger problem. The same sentiments and stratagies that have brand managers, marketing directors and VP’s of Marketing cutting and running once a show opens (if they attend in person at all) is the same line of thinking that has these people avoiding social media and other type venues.
Exhibiting/attending a trade show is not only a great way to learn and grow your business but is also a way for people to get to know you better. In other words, you can be exposed. People will see in tangible ways how you present your company. Colleages and competitors can challenge you face to face as to why you do the things you do. Its easy to take suggestions, comments, complaints and new ideas from your toll free hotline or your website. But at these events people can look you in the eye and do it and that scares some people to death. Better to race back to the office to work on a sreadsheet.
Its the same fear that keeps companies off of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and whatever else comes along: What if someone says they don’t like me?Too many businesses are behaving like high school sophomores that don’t want to get dumped.
In my opinion that is the true problem at these firms and the cancer that needs to be cured in order for future growth to be attained. You are certainly right that firing some people isn’t a bad place to start!
Anyway, thats just my opinion……….
What’s that sound I hear Jamie? Why it’s a bunch of our clients dumping us because we dare talk like this! Now I get that saying, don’t shit where you eat. But perhaps you are right…maybe it’s not just line by line budget cutting. If fear is the real reason, then that I can work with that. I think it is our job to teach best practices as well as new ways of doing and looking at things, to invent new best practices.
Customers that would dump us for such honesty likely don’t educate themselves via blogs. And the ones that do educate themselves this way hire us for our honestly and insight (I hope!). So I think we are safe.
All kidding aside, you are right that people like us and the eventprofs community have an obligation to help our customers avoid these pitfalls and to get all they can out of their events. But I feel like we are in a way dealing with addicts and that we can “only help them if they want to be helped” as the saying goes.
Do you or anyone else out there have good suggestions as to how to make these exhibitors aware of the missed opportunity. I honestly don’t know how I’d bring it up without being asked.
Great points Traci! I’ve been to too many trade shows where the exact scenario you painted is played out. As you and Jamie suggested, some of the problem is money. But what’s that old saying about you have to spend money to make money. And, are marketing folks forgetting their job is to support sales?
I think we can’t be too timid when working with our clients. We need to step out there and just ask, ‘who from the marketing department will be at the show?’….and, of course, be prepared to address concerns. Possibly give reasons why marketing should be there before asking the question. Or, explain why and point out marketing could be setting up meetings with folks while at the show to discuss that customer research project or competitive analysis report.
Would love to hear some other thoughts.
Thanks for your thoughts and comments Kerry. Yes, we cannot be timid…after all, they pay us the big bucks to give them good solid advice. Perhaps if we work on pitching it more in a tone of this is what’s in it for you and educate them better it will be easier to get them on board. Having cost analysis in our back pocket won’t hurt either.
Traci,
Right on target, as usual. In the heart of the bullseye.
You will never get more information first hand about what really matters in your industry and to your clients than working a show. As long as you are open to the experience, ask the right questions, listen, and watch.
I can think of one show in particular when I really, really learned what mattered to our clients. It was a new show about 4 years ago that had a good number of booths but not so much traffic. So I could take as much time with each prospect if they wanted to. Fortunately, about 25% of the booths at the show were ours. I would take visitors to our booth on tours around the show hall, asking them what they thought of each of our clients’ exhibits. Their answers surprised and enlightened me. It was like a two-day focus group, except that we got enough leads to pay for our show, too!
Thanks for your comments Mike. I love the show and tell aspect of what you did at the show. So many times customers can’t put their finger on what they do or don’t like exactly. You made it easy for them to do it. That and it’s so much easier to criticize other companies’ properties. While they may have been close lipped about what they did or didn’t like in their own booth, it probably felt much less personal when touring others.