By Lorrie Baumann
Seth Godin points out in his blog today that in this brave new digital world, what's scarce, and therefore valuable, is connection. "Who trusts you? Who wants to hear from you? Who will collaborate and support and engage with you?" he writes. "These are things that don't scale to infinity. These are precious resources."
This is why it's so important for you to tell your story far and wide at a trade show. You're not just there to talk to the people who already know you and your products and who already trust you enough to do business with you; you're also there to engage with people who never heard of you before and know nothing about you other than what they can see in a quick glance as they pass your booth in their hurry down the aisle to the people they already know. Your job is to persuade them to trust you with a share of their valuable time at the show. Time at the NRA show is, after all, another precious resource that's in scarce supply.
How do you do that? You tell them the story of why they should go out of their way to stop and see you. You arrange for your story to reach them at a teachable moment when they're not distracted by their awareness that the clock is ticking and there's so much to see that's just down the aisle from you.
Restaurant Daily News is the show daily with the widest distribution during the NRA Show. It reaches attendees at shuttle stops outside their hotels, so that they pick it up and read it on the ride to McCormick Place. Once the shuttles are in the busway, there's very little to distract the riders, so that's a great teachable moment. When they arrive at the convention center, your message is fresh in their minds, and they've learned something about you and your new products, so they know they need to see you. They arrive at your booth ready to hear what you have to tell them.
Your job at that point is to make sure that what you have to offer them during their visit to your booth is truly worth a share of their valuable time and that you will both get something out of the experience, even if it doesn't result in an immediate order. And as Godin writes, "Connection and leadership and trust are going to get ever more valuable. Sure, go ahead and shake your head in agreement, but when you get back to work, are you busy working in the scarce universe or trying to build a place for yourself in the new one?"
Call Restaurant Daily News today to discuss how we can help you tell your story to NRA Show attendees at the teachable moment. 520.721.1300