This article is Part 2 of a series. Click here for Part 1.
A booth can be a pricey investment – whether at a trade show, or an event you’ve sponsored. To maximize their investment, a lot of business owners assume they have to spend a lot of money on building out an elaborate booth.
But I learned from Carol Kline that the opposite can be true.
Carol is a 5-time New York Times Bestselling author. Her co-authors include such literary luminaries as Jack Canfield, Lisa Nichols, Marci Shimoff and more.
As you can see from the photo below, Carol’s booth at Suzanne Evans’ Be The Change event was quite simple. She had a basic vertical banner proclaiming her tagline and URL, “Write Your Transformational Bestseller.” There was also a table for her fish bowl, and 2 chairs. That’s about it!
As I learned from the woman who was sitting and chatting with Carol when I did the interview, the simplicity of the booth was part of its success. As you’ll hear in the audio clip below, Carol’s visitor was drawn in by the booth’s very simplicity. She said that a lot of the other booths at the event seemed imposing and overwhelming to her; while Carol’s both was inviting and warm.
The simplicity of Carol’s booth also suits her personality and her look. She is the very epitome of the successful author, with her naturally curly hair, her makeup-less face and her round glasses. So a booth that reflects that style is likely to attract clients who share a lot of Carol’s core values – thus making them her ideal clients!
(To read about another booth that perfectly matches the personality of its owner – a personality that is completely different from Carol’s – click here for my interview with Adele Michal, the winner of the Most Creative Booth award at Be The Change).
The woman who participated in our interview certainly fits the description of Carol’s ideal client. Not only is she a not-yet-published author, she had the same author-ly kind of a look as Carol. Click the play button below to listen to my short interview with Carol and her booth visitor.
Converting Visitors to Leads
A veteran of the sponsorship world, Carol also knows a thing or two about how to convert visitors to leads. Her pitch is as simple as her booth. She simply asks her visitors, “Have you written a book?”
If the answer is no, that’s the first clue they’re a good client. So she engages them in conversation, asking key questions to determine if she could help them get their book written.
But if the person’s answer to her initial question is yes (like it was with me), she responds with an enthusiastic, “Yay, I want to see it!” Either way, her visitor feels warmly embraced.
In the final analysis, Carol’s booth is effective because she is solving a Big Problem for her audience.
As Carol said in our interview, “People really want to write books, and I have a really good CV – I’m a NYX best-selling author, I’ve sold 5 million books. So I have a very compelling offer. Basically I’ll show you what I’ve done to get to be a best-selling author 5 times. I know I can help people.”
Visit http://WriteYourTransformationalBestseller.com to learn more about Carol.
Click here to read Part 3 of the series, “Throngs of Visitors Can Sometimes Be BAD For Your Trade Show Booth,” an interview I conducted with Barbara Wade.
If you hear “no” a lot more often than “yes” from prospective customers, you haven’t figured out the Big Problem you solve for your customers.
To figure out your Big Problem just like Carol's done - and start converting a lot more leads! - buy a copy of “The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Sleaze-Free Selling” on Amazon today.