5 Key Questions: THE CASE FOR PRO PRESENTATION

“Why hire someone who doesn’t know my product to speak for my company?”

The #1 question for managers who haven’t discovered the benefits of pro presentation….or have hired non-pros through local talent agencies

The right spokesperson will be mistaken for a product expert every time. Deep product knowledge is important, but it’s covered by your in-house team. And product depth is secondary to personal connection and message retention on a trade show floor, especially at that all-important first point of contact. Make the impression, then tell the story. A professional speaker excels in connecting with your audience and delivering your brand power, while your sales team excels in describing and promoting your products.

The SKM CREATIVE professional speaker is supported by your knowledgeable sales staff standing five feet away – and that staff will appreciate how a great speaker can drive quality, qualified attendees to their demos.

“Who needs a pro when I have people in my company who are great speakers?”

If your organization employs good speakers who are also product-savvy, a pro speaker will help to maximize their intrinsic value

Your company’s best speakers are most successful when they’re free to connect with contacts, attend meetings, develop relationships, and host special sessions. The last thing you want to do with these valuable individuals is trap them in your booth for an 8-hour show day, repeating the same messaging over and over again.

KAREN MULTER or STEVE MULTER (or both) will deliver your brand and message consistently and reliably, multiple times throughout the course of the show day, freeing your top speakers to sit down with clients and close deals.

“What happens when attendees want to ask questions?”

A good presentation should encourage questions from your audience, and excite them to stay in your booth to get those questions answered

The right spokesperson partners with your product specialists to create a strategic alliance, combining message delivery and drill-down opportunities for your clients.

Your SKM CREATIVE professional speaker is prepared to answer some high-level questions and then specializes in directing attendees to your product specialists (standing a few feet away) for drill-down opportunities. Remember, your presentation area is always filled with product people eager to engage your visitors on product capabilities, but the trick is to drive traffic to them. A dedicated narrator maximizes that initial marketing impact, generates the desire to ask more questions, and drives those now pre-qualified leads to your demo reps for deep discussion and detail.

“My budget’s been slashed; what if I have to cut unnecessary booth elements?”

Budget cuts can make using in-house speakers (or no presentation at all ) look wise, but superior communication is never “unnecessary”

Using employees to speak on the show floor can be challenging, lower your important brand impact, and cost far more than a professional speaker in terms of lost productivity, missed client meetings, and lower message retention. Eliminating a presentation altogether has even greater negative impact – it says to a client, “We don’t really care about the strength of our first impression.”

An expert communicator offers an important first-contact level of personal welcome and interaction that employees are rarely capable of. A pro spokesperson delivers more measurable ROI than printed media or video presentation investments combined. Regardless of budget or booth size, your cost to leverage an SKM CREATIVE spokesperson is highly affordable compared to more traditional, less-potent trade show marketing investments. Next time you’re asked to do this year’s show for 2/3 of last year’s budget, consider; how often has that extra plasma monitor or video module historically paid off for us in sales?

“My next show is in Barcelona; shouldn’t I hire a Spanish speaking presenter?”

The logic of hiring a local-language speaker in each foreign nation is actually counter-intuitive and diminishes both crowds and ROI

SKM CREATIVE offers the best speakers in the presentation industry, regardless of language. An international show means an international audience, which is why virtually every international conference utilizes the world’s primary language of commerce – English – rather than the language of the host country. American English, with a flat, non-discernible accent remains the most easily recognized and understood shared language for the vast majority of conference attendees.

Many worldwide talent agencies offer bi-lingual spokespeople, but they’re rarely expert in both languages, merely adequate. And they’re typically not true corporate narration experts. By delivering your vital messaging in the world’s most-understood and accepted business language your percentages for increased comprehension and retention increase dramatically. This creative strategy also allows you to use the same pro SKM CREATIVE speaker throughout your international show year.

Note: Your upcoming show in Berlin (or Tokyo or Sao Paolo) will conduct its practical business on a person-to-person basis as German clients connect with your German sales staff, Japanese clients with your APAC rep, a Brazilian client with a South American specialist. Offering 1-2 presentations per day in a host nation’s language is easily handled in-house as a courtesy for home country attendees.