The Plinko Principle

This is a post about two of our approaches to creating tradeshow traffic...

I’m a purist. I would rather our success come from a principled approach, than some cheesey manipulation. Unfortunately, I’ve had to reevaluate whether I wanted to stand prim and proper, or stand among a crowd clamoring to talk to me.

Let me explain two approaches we’ve used to drive tradeshow traffic (and just so you know, we’re no experts…just trying to do our best). One we have used and improved over the past nine years. Another we’ve used just twice…and probably will use a few more times given that we’ve generated five times the results from just two shows than we have over all our shows from the past two years!

Approach #1: The ‘Leading’ Questions
In preparation for the show, we’ll compile a number of good, non-threatening questions that lead people into our booth. Regardless of their answers, we flow to the next question that ultimately leads them to drop their guard and turn into the booth. We have a 33% success with this. Based on the attendance of the show, this translates to a great or good show.

The questions help to engage the buyer who carries some anxiety as they walk that fine, invisible line right smack down the middle of the aisle, carefully avoiding eye contact, and looking at your signage from the corner of their eye to see if there is any reason for them to stop.

Our initial question is designed for them to identify their affiliation (for us, it’s what program group they belong to). We ask, “Are you a _______ dealer?’ It isn’t threatening; in fact it builds a common link between us.

The follow up question takes them to an offer or information they might have received from another source that again ties us to each other. “You probably received the special offer for x, y, or z from [program manager].”

If they aren’t a dealer or with a group we recognize, we might say something like, “Most likely, you didn’t received the special offer for x, y, or z, did you?”

Again, it doesn’t matter whether they answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’, I always have another question that helps me bring them in our booth (and trust me, if someone doesn’t want to talk, we let them go).

Here is the key for us: Once they are in the booth, I can qualify them.

What about the 2/3 of show attendees that I can’t get in my booth? I let them go…happily. They weren’t ready to buy… yet.

Approach #2: The Plinko Principle
Let me create a tradeshow scene for you: Hundreds of people swarming your booth. People lined up 40-50 deep waiting to get in. Crowds standing around your booth trying to understand what in the world you are doing. The marketing company in the booth next to you absolutely embarrassed over the fact that you are not only outdrawing them, you are skunking them.

Believable?

We’ve lived it, and we are trying to figure it out.

We still start with a question: “You want to play?” Most everyone does. Those who don’t want to play, love to watch. Since they are in line waiting to play, we have a captured and friendly audience. They are mesmerized by the plinko tire bouncing down the board missing a road hazard trap or two. While in line, they answer our questions pretty openly. To play, they must give us a card with their contact information. We tell them straight up that we plan to call them after the show to sell them on our programs. “Are you going to be okay when we call?” Most assure us that they will.

“When we call, what would you like us to spend our time on?” After a quick overview of our programs, we get an upfront agreement; make a note of it on the paperwork, and turn them loose on the game.

Here are some of the dynamics we’ve observed with this approach:

1. Make it fun. …and you can make it fun by having the crowds react with the master of ceremonies. It was incredibly loud.
2. Make it loud. The bigger the crowd became, the more it started to draw others. People would leave their aisles and head towards the noise. It was hip to be where the action was. Don't worry about your neighbors...they'll feed off of your success.
3. Be unique…in a good way. We were quite literally, “the only game in town”. No other booth had a game or contest.
4. Crown a champion. We held a “Plinko Playoff” for those who qualify to come back on the last day of the show. You might think there would be some who would come to their senses, and not come back. Nope. 90% and more came back, and brought an entourage with them. Our second tradeshow had 37 out of 40 qualifiers there with bells on.
5. Give a prize for every player. Expensive? I haven’t done the ROI yet, but something tells me that it is less expensive than having workers twiddle their thumbs. I look at it this way, I had hundreds of qualifying conversations with people who actually buy and use what I sell. I’m willing to bet that it will pay out.

And…if you are looking for a Plinko Board, I’ve got a guy for you.

I’ll get pictures up soon.