In order to create an effective grassroots or guerilla marketing campaign, it's important to engage with potential customers on a personal level. Experiential marketing...
The biggest misconception about hiring and using Brand Ambassadors at trade shows is that their one and only job is to help sell a product or push a promotion.
For this reason, Brand Ambassadors are rarely seen at trade show booths run by complex technology companies. I have even heard push-back from these tech companies who believe that their product is too complex for a BA or event staffer to explain.
While this is a valid concern, complexity is actually a great reason to hire event staff for your trade show booths. To give you proof, I want you to step away from your trade show and think about a surgery at a hospital.
This complex medical procedure is performed by the surgeon. He is a highly skilled individual who has studied and practiced for the right to perform the most sophisticated task at hand. However, the surgeon can only do their job because a team of doctors, nurses, and techs assists them. Someone is there to draw blood, to give anesthesia, monitor vitals, etc.
Your Reps are the highly skilled professionals tasked with the most important role, selling product. So let them focus and just sell.
In a way, this is no different from running a trade show booth. It’s an event that takes place in real time. It’s a situation that will run smoother with a team working in unison by each performing their specific task. In the case of the trade show, the sales rep replaces the surgeon. Your Reps are the highly skilled professionals tasked with the most important role, selling product. So let them focus and just sell. Brand Ambassadors can then make up the team of nurses and techs around the sales rep.
One BA, with a bubbly and enthusiastic personality can act as a lead generator on the trade show floor.
As an example, they can:
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Approach consumers and engage in conversation
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Record contact information
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Ask their audience a series of qualifying questions.
With a BA to hold audiences in the “corral”, the sales rep won’t feel the pressure of having someone just standing and waiting while they try to explain the benefits of a complex technology. More importantly, the sales rep will be conserving energy because they will only be speaking with the warm leads who have been qualified by their team member.
Beyond the sales floor, BA’s can also
4. Get to the booth a day early to help with set up
5. Be your liaison with the venue should your booth require something
6. Run out and perform errands
7. Host an attention grabbing activation
8. Constantly keep the booth clean.
Brand Ambassadors are far more than just a Jr. sales force or a promotional tool; they are extra hands on an event site. They are the role players on your event team that will take away the monotonous, time-consuming tasks allowing your “surgeons” to perform their job to the best of their ability.
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