Cha! Ching! Using Your Sales Channel to Drive Prospects to Your Exhibit! Post #3
Ted
in Sales Management, Trade Show Marketing, Trade Show Planning, Trade Shows
Reading time: 4 – 7 minutes
Don’t panic! You didn’t miss a post. I just renumbered the Trade Show series. The last post should have been #2.
Utilizing your sales channel to drive prospects to your exhibit is a very important tactic that can help get you to a positive ROI. Of all the trade show promotional programs, initiating a sales contest (extra incentives) to motivate your reps to encourage medical professionals to visit your exhibit may be the most cost effective. Another nice thing about incentivizing the sales channel is that you only pay on results.
If you are a small to medium sized medical device company, your sales channel is a network of stocking distributors, manufacturers’ representatives (sometimes called independent reps), direct sales force or some combination of the above. Of course, a direct sales force is the easiest to with which to work. However, with some preplanning you can get good results with distributors and manufacturer’s representatives. Below you will find 6 steps to guide you in setting this program up.
First, set a goal as to how many prospects you want the sales channel to bring to the exhibit. Include your national and regional sales managers in the planning and goal setting discussions.
Second, decide how to approach and incentivize the sales channel. With direct reps it is easy. You can tell them that for every X number of prospects from their territory that come to the exhibit, the rep will receive some type of reward. For every prospect that turns into an actual sale, the rep will receive a “spiff” in addition to his regular commission. This basic formula achieves several goals. It motivates the sales reps to get into prospective doctor offices to invite them to the exhibit. Secondarily, it motivates the sales reps to qualify the prospect and prepare the prospect to be open to the features and benefits of the product. This is a great way to get sales reps excited about a trade show even though they may not be able to attend.
“Spiff”?!?!?! My international readers may wonder what this word means. When I wrote it down, I realized that I knew what it meant from the perspective of American sales slang. However, it made me curious as to where the word truly originated. Check out Wikipedia at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiff. A ‘spiff’ is an immediate reward for sales performance. It implies that it is something extra…above and beyond the incentive compensation program in place. In the USA sales professionals think it is an acronym for something like “Sales Performance Incentive Fund”. However, it appears that it was used as early as 1859 in London as a slang term related to rewards paid to drapers to sell off old and undesirable inventory. Coming back to the present day, a spiff could be a cash reward or a choice of technology gift (digital camera, iPad, iPod, MP3 player, etc.).
If you have a distributor or manufacture rep sales channel, you still want to achieve the same objectives and may use similar incentives to motivate the sales representatives in these channels. This becomes a little more complex. You need to get the leadership of your various distributors to agree to the spiff. And, you need their help and approval to communicate the spiff program to their sales reps. They may be sensitive to incentive programs that distract their sales reps from their company objectives. And, in some markets where a distributor may carry competitive lines he/she may be balancing your spiff against a competitor’s. I have found distributors and manufacturer’s reps very cooperative with incentive programs.
Third, create the tools to help the reps in the sales channel to use when convincing prospects to attend your exhibit. This can be a simple one-page flyer that states the special promotion for this trade show. It would invite the prospect to take advantage of the offer and have a small map of the exhibit hall indicating where to find your exhibit. Depending on the nature of your spiff program, the flyer may have a code number on it that it aligns it with the prospect’s sales rep. In this case, the flyer may request that the prospect bring it to the exhibit. Then, you can track which reps get credit for prospects that come to the exhibit. Of course, some prospects will forget to bring their flyer. You will want to train your personnel at the exhibit to always ask who their representative is.
Or, if you are having KOL speakers at your exhibit, it could be an invitation to come listen to the presentations. The flyer would have a schedule of the speakers and their subject matter.
Fourth, promote this program to your sales channel whether it is direct or through distributors or manufacturer’s reps. Create some buzz! Make it fun! Use an e-newsletter directed to the sales channel several times prior to the show. Also use direct mail to the sales channel. Have sales managers call up key distributor and manufacturer’s reps to gain their participation in the program.
Fifth, have the tools in place to track the leads and sales at the trade show and associate them with the sales reps.
Sixth – Follow-up quickly during and after the show. Get an e-newsletter out to the sales channel touting the success of the trade show. Include some specific success stories. Get rewards out quickly to those sales reps that earned them. Get leads out quickly to the sales channel.
Next up on the trade show success agenda are my thoughts on using e-blasts and e-newsletters.
You may have other ideas about using the sales channel to help with the trade show exhibit. Share your ideas in the comments section. Thanks!
