Published May 2019
Updated October 2021
If you want to find more customers, then focus on creating content that provides them with a solution to whatever is causing them problems.
As a company you most likely have already discovered and solved your customer’s pain point.
It is the reason you manufacture or create your product/service—to solve a problem and make people happy.
Like any problem, customer pain points are as diverse and varied as your prospective customers themselves. However, not all prospects will be aware of the pain point they’re experiencing, which can make marketing to these individuals difficult as you effectively have to help your prospects realize they have a problem and convince them that your product or service will help solve it.
Exhibiting in a trade show needs to express this story.
So when you set up your booth at your next event how can you show the masses, in and from your exhibit booth, the story of your company's ability to solve this pain point? How can you show how your company got started solving this problem? Or display what changes you made to your product or service to solve this problem better and better over the years? And most importantly the relevance of how you can solve this problem now for those that need the solution?
1. Use images to attract attention and interest.
Go through the history of your photos and choose pictures that can be enlarged and hung in your booth. Create a linear display of first the problem, then the aha moment of the solution. It could be a process of your previous customers discovering your solution. Display these photos around your exhibit booth and then create a looping video that can be shown in your booth on a monitor.
We can’t stress this enough: the pictures, or statistics, that emphasize the solution must be attention grabbing! The rule of thumb is you have just 3 seconds to capture the right audience as they walk by your exhibit.
The next pictures showing your solution must also be easy to understand and recognized as the solution so the attendee realizes this is what they need!
As we have explained in previous posts, demonstrations are the most effective means of displaying your product revealing the solution. Devise ways to do this in your space. For some this might be a challenge because of your product or service but if you can figure out a way to do it-- you will be highly successful.
Some examples of this are:
- Window Company that sells energy efficient windows. They set up a high heat, heat lamp and as attendees walk past they can’t feel the heat through their windows, but can feel the extreme heat through a competitor’s window that is not efficient. Brilliant. Show your solution for results.
- Attic Lift Product. Demonstrate clearly how easy this is to use and how necessary it is for the customer to easily bring items into their garage attic. This company demonstrates and they have a monitor looping with a demo--they don't miss anyone!
- Outdoor Building Company. Set up a chicken coop or a greenhouse. Show the attendees how easy it is to have either or both! Make sure you have included chickens or you have decked out the greenhouse with all kinds of plants and flowers. Whatever you can do to show your potential customers themselves in your solution? The closer you are to selling it to them.
2. It's up to salespeople to ask effective sales questions and uncover customers' pain as quickly as possible.
Your prospects need to have authority and money, but having pain trumps both. If your prospects don't have the pain, they have no need. And without need, there's no hope for a sale.
It is very important to not only have the right sales people in your booth but to ensure they are asking the right questions of attendees to determine if there is a need, want or desire and then categorize that lead accordingly for later follow up.
Identifying pain points is not just about semantics- it’s not just rephrasing the problem to make it sound like something a customer cares about. The customer has to actually care, and you have to show them empathy. And pain points are unique to each customer. You have to find ways of helping customers to see how a product solves their own pain points, and not just the broad ones you claim to fix.
And there’s only really one way of doing that- it’s shutting up and listening to the customer. More sales happen when the prospect, and not the salesperson, does the majority of the talking.
3 Tips for Addressing Need or possible pain point
1. Use your prospect's language when talking about pain.
This is a psychological technique that can go a long way in building trust with your prospect. Instead of trying to appear impressive by relying on jargon only your colleagues would understand, show your prospect you take them seriously by using their language and terminology.
2. Find out who's empowered to solve the pain.
Find the economic buyer as quickly as possible-usually at a trade show it is either husband or wife. There's little point spending hours with a person who can't ink a deal or pull out their wallet for the purchase.
3. Identify additional key needs as early as possible.
If you're selling to attendees that say they just have to have your product now and one partner has completely different priorities than another, you need to know early. If you'll have to go through a two-month financial review process before you can close a deal, you need to know early.
Conclusion
Look at your own exhibit. Are you promoting solutions and features to address your audience’s true pain points?
Start with one of your current solutions or products and try to identify the true pain point of your audience that the solution addresses. Then look at your content. You’re now in your customer’s shoes.
Does the content you have truly address the pain point in a way that builds trust and understanding of their problem?
If not, it’s time to rethink your approach.
For more information and insights into effective exhibiting in trade shows, visit our blog!
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