Other companies, while delighted to set an appointment, focus more on getting those names for their contact database. “The No. 1 reason why I talk to [show visitors] is to get their names and addresses,” Sutko says. “Anybody who comes into that booth is a 100% lead if they give me their name.”
When consumers aren’t quite ready for a sales presentation — only 10% will set an appointment at a home show, Sutko says — he happily gets their contact information, promising that they won’t be contacted until whatever time they specify, be that months or a year away. “Then we follow up exactly when they want us to,” he says. This low-key approach works well. “I will get 30% to 40% more leads than anyone else working the same hours,” he says. And it’s not uncommon for Innovative Siding to sell event leads that are a year or more old.
But contractors don’t always agree about who should be working events. Some say sales personnel — confident, assertive, and knowledgeable — are the best ones to secure appointments. Others make it a point to keep salespeople — with their tendency to qualify prospects and dismiss future buyers — as far from the booth as possible. “Salespeople can be very good working an event, but they have to want to be there,” O’Reilly says. “If we’re busy, they don’t want to be stuck in a booth at a show. They want to be out running leads.”
He and others prefer manning a booth with canvassers or telemarketers from their own organization. “Those lead generation people tend to be a bit more on the hungry side,” O’Reilly says.
The bottom line is that personality type is more important than any specific experience. “The person who is presentable, articulate, and has some energy,” is what Pompilli says he looks for.
At all events — but especially at large home shows crowded with competitors —contractors say they rely on professionalism more than promotion to set themselves apart.
“We stand out with first-class displays, and our reputation and professionalism, not just at the show but after,” Kramer says. P.F. Reilly takes a “white knight” approach and distributes a Consumer Awareness Guide, with information to help consumers choose a contractor.
“People at a home and garden show are the types that are going to shop around a little more,” O’Reilly says, “so we use [the Guide] to appeal to the part of their personality that brought them to the show.”
Some prefer the visibility and greater number of leads they say large booths bring in. Others disagree. Pompilli always takes the smallest available booth space. “There’s no correlation between a big booth and getting more people, in most shows,” he says.
Veteran event marketers say you also have to make your booth entertaining. “I look for anything that will make it interesting and fun for customers,” says Kramer, who uses such devices as scratch-and-win cards to generate excitement. The reps in the Innovative Siding booth wear white lab coats with the company name across the back. Sutko finishes his with a “medical-looking” pin on his lapel and styles himself, “Dr. Phil.”
