How to engage and connect with scientists at trade shows

Marketing to Clinical Microbiologists – I have a lot to learn!

by Rusty Bishop

Previously, I wrote about the  Myth of the PI buying your products.

In academia, I still believe this is true. Perhaps the Myth needs revising when it comes to clinical diagnostic labs though.

The ASM Learning Curve

Until last week I had never attended a large Microbiology conference like ASM.  After walking the posters and exhibit hall with a good friend that is a budding Clinical Microbiologist, it became apparent that we had a lot to learn.

Unlike most conference exhibit halls, the companies with $100,000 booths I had rarely heard of.  Biomerioux for example had an enormous booth with at least 30 reps (all carrying ipads!) and it was full of older distinguished looking scientists, not post-docs and grad students!

Everything was Diagnostics and HighThroughout.

I was intrigued.

Eavesdropping

I hung around the BioMerioux booth for about an hour learning about all the amazing highthroughput machines to culture and identify bacteria in hospitals. I saw labheads staring like kids in a candy shop at all the machinery, playing with the plate loaders, and actually setting up equipment trials.

I heard over and over comments about technicians losing their jobs to these machines. But the Biomerioux folks were quick to point out that it made technician’s jobs easier and results more consistent.

Buzzwords

I learned a whole new set of keywords too including:

• multiparametric immunoassay systems
• stat results
• closing patient cases
• free up beds quicker
• save resources
• Initiate the targeted treatment
• patient and financial outcomes
• adding profit centers.

In looking at the list above, the themes are the same as for academia – time, costs, treatments, but the semantics are slightly different.

Driving home the necessity to know your target – a Clinical Microbiologist in this case.

Summary

I look forward to analyzing the websites of these companies. It will be interested to see how they force scientists to “self-select”, but that’s a topic for another day!

Thanks ASM,  I learned a lot about the Microbiology Diagnostics Industry at hospitals and how these products are bought and sold. Now to apply that knowledge to help you make your websites target better!

Results of the AACR Social Media Experiment

by Rusty Bishop

Prior to The AACR Meeting, we wrote about the use of twitter to attract scientists to your booth. We suggested using the #AACR hashtag to grab scientists at the meeting that were following along on twitter from their laptops or hand held device.

For those that don’t know the twitter hashtag (#) is a methodology to aggregate tweets about a certain topic or entity. If for example you wanted to see what other companies were tweeting about at AACR you would search in twitter for #AACR.

We saw several companies using twitter at the meeting. The most common tweet was “Come by booth XXX to learn about YYY…#AACR” or “Come by booth XXX for a free T-shirt..#AACR”. We suggest you also add a #Your Company Name in case scientists are following you directly and not the meeting.

During the meeting, Mark and I followed along and did as suggested when companies tweeted. We asked the staff running the booths whether they thought the twitter campaign was successful or not.

Positive Results

For the most part, results were positive. Staff reported that visitors were directly responding to the tweets. This suggests that using twitter is a successful method to bring traffic to the booth.

Several companies reported that tweeting about specific product lines brought scientists to the booth as well. For example – “Problems with cloning? come by booth XXX for the solution #AACR”.  A great way to pre-qualify visitors!

Negative Results

On the downside, staff in a few booths were unaware that their company was tweeting during the meeting. One fellow even asked me what ‘tweeting’ meant! In almost every case, this was caused by someone at the home office tweeting the messages and thereby not briefing the booth staff at the meeting.

Further, we saw staff of one company tweeting about how much fun their party was, but not responding to tweet replies for a location.  Social media can be damaging also.  Ask Dominoes.

Suggestions

1. Designate one or two staff at the booth to man the tweeting operation. When things are slow – Tweet!
2. Brief all staff of the plan and changes to the twitter operation.
3. Vary the message.  ”1 hr to the ipad give away” “IFA expert in booth 1-2 pm” etc.
4. RESPOND – Tweeting is after all social.

We’re not sure that Twitter is the best method to interface with scientists, but getting 100 more people by the booth can definitely increase the ROI on your investment of exhibiting at a large conference.

The jury is still out on Social Media for Scientists but we’ll keep digging for you. Find more by following us on Twitter here. Also, become a fan.

Your Website as Field Sales Tool – Sightings at the AACR Meeting

by Rusty Bishop

One great tactic I saw while walking the Exhibit Booths of AACR this week was the display of company’s websites in the booth.  Mark has written about training your sales staff to use the website as selling tool and I’ve written about your web site being your public face. So I was excited to see these two concepts in action.

Website on chocolate = love!

For example, in Sigma’s booth the marketing, literature, in booth mini-talks and conference swag all prominently featured their new “Where Bio Begins” web portal. That’s branding and traffic pushing in one fell swoop!

And the kind ladies in the Affymetrix booth walked me through their new Gene Atlas desk top array on their website and used it to invite me to an awesome party!  In order to get the invite, I had to sign up on their website, so they captured my information and qualified me as a lead (albeit a poor one).

Here’s two ideas to that may help you decide if your website display in the booth is a good idea

In Person Feedback

One of the most difficult things about web design is getting a real read on your customer’s reactions. Let’s face it most feedback online is banal and friendly, because scientists are non-combative and shy and people don’t really have time to give you feedback.  However, making your website available in your booth with a mouse and keyboard is the perfect chance to watch them interact with it and great time to ask them questions about it.

For example,

• Are they easily finding products?
• Do they fret about the long lead registration form?
• Are you lacking key images that drive conversions?
• Did your Call to Action button get their attention or was it ignored?

Staff training in the Real World

Your website really is your face, but it can also be powerful sales tool in the field. Its not often that Sales Staff, Product Managers, Technical Support and Marketers get the chance to work together in front of customers.Why not use the meeting to perfect your sales pitch with the use of your website.

Try this at the next meeting,

• Train staff on the website features in a non-threatening environment
• Watch, listen, and give feedback on how your team uses the site tools and features in front of customers
• Try different entry points such as the search engine or catalog browsing to test effectiveness in sales

Sales tips for selling to scientists can be hard to find. Find more by following us on Twitter here. Also, become a fan of Red Funnel Consulting on Facebook today!

Generating leads at a scientific conference

A friend of mine recently complained that her company was upset with her because she didn’t generate enough leads at a major scientific conference held here in San Diego. Her company had spent “10′s of thousands of dollars” for a large booth display, print materials, and travel expenses. She’s pretty outgoing and is an experienced saleswoman, so I don’t believe it was she was shy or not good at her job.
 

So why the lack of leads?
 

Do scientists at the meeting not need her products?
 

Was her rival giving away more iPods? Better gift bags?
 

In short her answer was no, as far as she knew their house was in order.
 

So, I asked what she did at the conference. The displays were setup along side the scientific poster presentations as usual and she talked with scientists that walked by or into the booth just like all the other sales staff for hundreds of other companies. RED FLAG!
 

Scientists for the most part are extremely shy and guarded. Sure there are outgoing ones that stand out in your mind, who ask questions and engage salespeople. Those are the ones that know what they want! Its the shy ones, the scientists at their first conference, nervous about presenting their work, speaking in English, speaking intelligently, worried about finding a postdoc position, or THEIR BROKEN EXPERIMENTS that you want to engage.
 

The question is how? They are not the type to waltz into your booth or come to your cocktail hour (if so they are the one in corner sipping a coke).
 

My answer as always is HELP THEM! Seek them out, leave the friendly confines of your booth and you will start to see them all over the conference. Many of them came to the conference alone from all over the globe. They need you and you need them.
 

I’ll save my actual suggestions for my friend for another day, she’s trying them out at her next big conference.

Leads are walking by your booth by the hundreds – grab them!

I went to a “vendor show” at my University recently put on by Scientists Solutions Events. This company puts on small 10-12 vendor lunch meetings at Universities and Pharmaceutical companies, where vendors show their wares to scientists right on campus. Since I am indirectly involved with this company, I wanted to see how the vendors themselves interact with scientists and see how this compared with my experience at the ASCB meeting a month back.
 

For the most part the sales staff of these vendors were friendly and responsive to my queries. Most were more than happy to give me the details of their newest product lines. I was surprised at how much prodding it took to get answers from some and, I got the feeling that others were more interested in getting my contact info for later. I was right there obviously engaged, the perfect time to get to know me and my story. And to be truthful some tried, but most seemed taken aback that I was interested in them and their story.
 

Admittedly, many of the “scientists” at these events are there looking for a meal and an iPod, but the decision makers are usually right back in the labs they are going back to later. Here’s how you can plant a seed with the ‘lower downs’.
 

Engage them with a joke or quick funny story. Then ask them, “Is anyone in your lab struggling with (techniques, kits, finding the right antibody)?”. If they say yes, give them a card and WRITE your number on it, even if its already on there. Tell them to pass your contact info on to the right person, or better yet get the scientist’s name, or better yet ask if they will introduce you later that day. That is a hot lead. That is a struggling scientist that will buy your product, because they need your help.
 

You see all labs have lab meetings every week, where scientists get up, present their experiments, and discuss all the problems they are having. Every scientists from technician to PI that walked by your booth knows 10 scientists that are struggling with an experiment, because of these lab meetings.
 

Use this knowledge to your advantage! Write down and practice 10 questions to ask scientists that will lead to you to the decision maker that is struggling with an experiment. Feel free to post your potential questions as comments below.