ALL-STAR AWARDS
ob Milam’s typical strategy at the International Poultry Exposition (IPE) is to go for the whole haystack — targeting attendees en masse. In 2004, he decided to focus on the needles. Milam is the trade show manager for Kerry Americas, a food-ingredient developer based in Beloit, WI. Kerry sells breadcrumbs, seasonings, and other ingredients to large food processors and manufacturers. After the 2003 IPE, Milam realized he didn’t have any measurable results from the show. He knew staffers were having conversations with attendees, but couldn’t track who with or what about. Encounters with current customers were spur of the moment and didn’t accomplish any set objectives. Determined to make up for lost time, Milam overhauled his trade show program for the 2004 IPE in Atlanta. The show is one of Kerry’s main opportunities to have one-on-one executive meetings with current customers, introduce new product samples, and close deals. Milam wanted to prove that exhibiting at the show was more effective than making face-to-face sales calls. He developed a sales strategy that would target specific, key customers with customized sales messages and hold individual sales staffers accountable for delivering the messages. After crunching the numbers, Milam discovered that only 150 to 200 of the 20,000 attendees at IPE fit his target market. The Exhibit Milam’s first step was to design a new exhibit space that could accommodate individual presentations with existing and potential customers only — rather than the entire show audience. He designed an exclusive, 20-by-40-foot, closed exhibit. It had 8-foot-high opaque walls and only one entrance and exit. To avoid appearing snobbish and dull, Milam reserved a 10-by-10-foot “welcome” space outside the exhibit for general sampling and questions. Inside, the exhibit included a meeting room, a lounge area, and a kitchen area with freezers, fryers, and a convection oven to prepare samples. The Guest List Milam next met with the company’s sales directors to develop a sales strategy for the closed exhibit. The group made a list of existing Kerry customers and possible prospects to target at the next show. Then the group determined what specific sales messages each customer needed to hear from Kerry. For example, a salesperson might need to smooth a customer’s ruffled feathers, finalize a deal, or simply say thanks for a recent purchase. They wrote up an 8.5-by-3.5-inch notecard for each salesperson, including the account name, the contact person, and two or three specific objectives and messages.	TARGETED MARKETING To make its exhibit program more effective, Kerry Americas narrowed its marketing focus from the 20,000 attendees at the International Poultry Exposition (IPE) to 150 to 200 targeted attendees—about 1 percent. EXCLUSIVE EXHIBIT Instead of its traditional, open exhibit, Kerry Americas brought an enclosed exhibit to IPE 2004. This allowed the company to focus on private, one-on-one meetings.
	CUSTOMIZED MESSAGES Kerry created a notecard for each salesperson with specific messages for each existing customer. Each staff member was in charge of three to five accounts.
The Staff Milam and the sales directors divided the notecards among 15 sales staffers based on past relationships with customers, the personal strengths of each salesperson, and the specific needs of the account. Every staff member received three to five accounts, each with an average of two to three specific sales messages. These accounts became staffers’ personal responsibility for the show. Rather than giving them a work schedule for the booth, Milam made a spreadsheet listing each staffer’s account assignments and distributed it to the entire team, encouraging them to schedule meetings prior to the show. This made sales staffers accountable for meeting their individual objectives. Drawing the Customers To entice Kerry’s customers to the booth, Milam created a pre-show mailer with an incentive for visiting the exhibit. “We know who our customers are. The problem is getting them to the booth,” Milam says. To complement the exhibit theme –– Beyond Crumbs, or looking past the obvious about breadcrumbs –– Milam sent 79-cent, plastic binoculars to Kerry’s top 53 client companies. They arrived in 2.25-by-5.5-inch boxes with luggage tags that read, “Bring these binoculars with you to Atlanta and we’ll give you a real pair in exchange.”
Traffic Control To qualify attendees, Milam implemented a traffic-flow system within the exhibit. “We needed to control customer interactions inside the exhibit and still be on the lookout for key customers,” Milam says. When attendees approached Kerry’s welcome area, they were greeted by a staffer and offered a chicken-nugget sample. If attendees had pre-planned meetings or presented binocular coupons, they could enter the exhibit. Attendees could also qualify themselves by asking an intelligent question about Kerry’s products, such as “What’s the percentage of pickup in this coating system?” A staffer then directed attendees to one of three spaces: a private, soundproof meeting room; a casual sit-down area; or a stand-up product area for new customers. Each space, like the staffers’ presentations, was customized to the attendees’ level of interest and business objectives. Staff Interview After the show, Kerry’s sales directors interviewed each sales staffer about his or her performance. Staffers weren’t evaluated on the number of sales made or leads captured, but on whether they accomplished their objectives. The results of the interview determined the following year’s staff roster. According to Milam, staffers embraced the new sales strategy. In a post-show survey, many stated that they were grateful to finally know what to do at a show. “When we hit on this idea of extending the show planning to the individual level, everything came together. The staff engaged in the process,” Milam says. Milam’s hard work paid off at the 2004 IPE. Within the first four hours of the show’s opening, 17 of the 53 customers who received the pre-show binocular mailer visited Kerry’s exhibit. Over the next three days, an additional 23 binoculars were exchanged — an 80-percent return rate on the mailer. And to the surprise of five exceptional customers, Kerry upgraded their binoculars to a $150 set with a built-in digital camera. Kerry’s initial goal for the show was to hold 15 one-on-one meetings with target customers and to obtain five new leads. Thanks to the staffing strategy, Kerry met with 31 pre-identified customers and landed 59 leads for new projects. In all, Milam estimates that $750,000 in sales closed as a direct result of the show. Holding that many meetings in the field would cost an estimated $20,000, and would take three months to schedule and execute. Not a bad return for a stack of note cards.	<< Previous Page All-Star Awards Home Next Winner >>
Rebecca Huls staff writer