Question

Topic: Other

Product Demos At Tradeshows

Posted by Anonymous on 12/4/2011 at 5:50 PM ET 250 Points
My marketing team wants to put our hardware in a CoLo and connect to it via the Internet to run demos in our booth at tradeshows. Marketing still wants to ship 'dummy' hardware to the tradeshow, but only have it on for the blinking lights, not to run demos.

Sales wants to ship live/production hardware to each show, along with the personnel needed to get it all up and running to do onsite demos.

Marketings solution is much more cost effective and doesn't require shipping/damaging expensive hardware.

Sales says that "Everyone else ships production gear, so we should too."

So my question is: If you are a hardware company (over 200 employees) do you ship live gear to your tradeshows (the sale suggestion) or do you have it offsite (the marketing suggestion)?
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Harry Hallman on 12/5/2011 at 7:03 AM Accepted
    Let me ask you this. Would you buy a dress in a store that was a plastic representation that you could not try on?

    Another question? Who is closer to the clients and prospects; sales or marketing?

    Real beats fake and sales people generally know better what helps make a sale.
  • Posted on 12/5/2011 at 11:52 AM Author
    Harry,

    Thanks for the response, but you missed the point of my question - I'm not asking for opinions. I'm asking what YOUR company ACTUALLY does? Sorry if this wasn't clear in the original question.

    So for anyone out there who works for a hardware company, that is approx 200+ employees, and demos at Tradeshows - WHAT DOES YOUR COMPANY DO?

    Thanks much!

    Stephanie
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 12/6/2011 at 6:57 PM Accepted
    In Harry's defense, and regardless of your specificity, what other people do or have done is not the point.

    What my company or Billy Bob's company does has no impact on your bottom line.

    But sales do.

    Your marketing people have the best interests of the company at heart, of that I'm sure, but marketing is not sales.

    You can have all the marketing in the world but it won't make a bit of difference if people at the trade fairs you're attending cannot buy the goods on offer, or if they can't see, touch, and feel and quality and practicality of the product and judge its ability to solve the customer's problems BEFORE they decide to buy. To make all this happen, customers need to sell the solution to themselves by seeing the goods on offer do what you tell your customers the products do.

    Dummy products and a lack of demonstration won't do that. But real products and practical demonstrations WILL.

    Go to ANY open air market and watch the typical "roll up, roll up here's how you ..." kind of demonstration and you'll find a crowd. Make people laugh, make them think "wow", and make them WANT to buy by showing them ... right before their very eyes ... what the products do.

    Nothing happens until someone buys something, and marketing's role is to increase revenue. So your marketing people and sales people have got to work together, not spar with each other.
  • Posted on 12/6/2011 at 7:16 PM Author
    Really - is that what this forum has sunk to - a place where you can ignore the essence of my request to get on your soap box to spout marketing best practices?

    I am not going to write a 10 page essay on exactly how my company demos their products and why we''re asking this question. Our sales figures are tripling Q over Q and our sales and marketing teams get along better than any I''ve ever seen before. Please drop the advice.

    If you can not answer the question as asked, then please don''t respond.

    "Yes, we use a CoLo for our tradeshow demos" or "No, we ship production gear to each event" will do.

    Thanks
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 12/6/2011 at 8:13 PM Member
    SOAPBOX?

    Madam, build a bridge and get over yourself! The last (and first) time you popped up here, your sales team were sending out e-mails that failed to comply with CAN-SPAM. How's that working out for you?

    NEWS FLASH! For your information, no one's asking you to write a ten page essay on anything. But frankly, if you talk to your customers the way you respond to people trying to help you, you'll probably be out of business within the year, and rightly so.

    Yes, I offer and give solid product demonstrations. Dozens. Every month. SATISFIED?

    As for all this nonsense about "is this what this forum
    has sunk to". Were you ever bothered to GIVE advice, your point might—just might, although frankly, it'd be a stretch—be justified. But as all you've done is take, WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE KIDDING?

    Lets see you get off your high horse and answer a few questions rather than bleating about the quality of the information you're getting. Your position would be laughable if it wasn't so pathetic!

    No one's asking you why you're asking your question. They're asking you if you've considered other approaches.

    And if your sales figures are tripling every quarter, why not tell people how you're doing it—share the love and all that, rather crippling people with your negative, BS attitude.

    Good day to you.

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