Q: What booth sales tools would you recommend to other organizers and why?

A: Typically, when we talk about booth sales “tools” we’re referring to anything that aids in the: • Development of sales leads • The analysis of sales activity • The development, analysis and ultimate usage of pipelines and forecasts • The analysis of the entire sales process There are several sales tools you can use to enhance the sales process, but those tools are useless unless they’re coupled with an appropriate method of gathering, analyzing and leveraging the data they create. Here a few you might want to consider: Customer Relationship Management Systems — These programs can serve several purposes, including: • Contact management/organization • Database marketing by product category, demographic, geography, etc. • Pipeline management • Sales forecast development • Sales territory development and analysis There are several contact-management systems available on the market today. Some are trade show industry-specific, while others are broad based. (To learn more, see our Cheat Sheet on selecting a CRM system in the October issue of EXPO on page 49).

Lead Development/Generation — Show organizers have a variety of lead-generation vehicles available to them including various services such as: • Hoovers • Sales Genie • InfoUSA But what are you doing with this data? • Tracking leads by source so that you’re able to measure the effectiveness of lead generating campaigns • Coding all data in order to create and analyze pipelines and forecasts • Discussing all the above in open, consistent forums like weekly meetings between the sales leader and the salesperson.

What tools do you use? E-mail EXPO to let us know at lstark@red7media.com.

Dan Cole is Vice President of Sales and Business Development for the Consumer Electronics Association, which draws more than 3,000 exhibitors to its largest annual show, the International Consumer Electronics Show. Cole is a regular speaker on sales-related topics at industry events. In 2005, the International Business Awards named him Best Sales Executive. He can be reached at dcole@ce.org.