Sales & Marketing Management - October 2007 - (Page 16)

the Pitch SALES STRATEGY the Pitch TECHNOLOGY Pull Up a Sensible Seat This novel invention upgrades the trade show experience Relaxing and entrancing: Robert Baschnagel’s Video Massage Chair is taking the trade show circuit by storm. out from other exhibitors. The results of his inspiration is the Video Massage Chair. As you can see from the photo at left, it resembles your standard massage chair. But upon closer inspection, you’ll note the addition of a small flat-screen TV (with built-in DVD player) underneath the headrest. The beauty of the Video Massage Chair lies in the absolute simplicity of the concept. Here’s how it works: Your average show attendee—whose back and feet, incidentally, are probably killing him due to all the walking around he’s doing—is lured into your booth by the offer of a relaxing rubdown. (“Most people won’t refuse a message,” as Baschnagel notes.) After the attendee sits down, he’s given a pair of headphones to put on. While the massage therapist who’s been hired for the occasion works out his kinks, the visitor is shown a four-minute DVD of your sales presentation. SO ESSENTIALLY: 1. You’ve captured the customer’s attention without resorting to a hard sell. 2. He’s completely relaxed and focused on your message. Since its creation a year ago, the Video Massage Chair has lived up to its promise, drawing in huge crowds at B&B Sheet Metal’s trade show appearances. Realizing he had a hot item on his hands, Baschnagel began producing additional units (25 at press time, with an additional 50 in the works). His new startup, VMC, now offers daily, weekly and yearly rentals to businesses nationwide. The unit is shipped in a custom box (with wheels for portability) that includes set-up and return delivery instructions. Having witnessed Baschnagel set up a unit during a recent demonstration at Sales and Marketing Management‘s editorial offices, we can attest to the speed and painlessness of the process. A word regarding the four-minute length of the presentation mentioned earlier: It’s not a hard-and-fast number, but for the sake of expediting traffic through your booth (and not relaxing participants to the point of falling asleep), Baschnagel generally recommends keeping your video to that length. Should your business lack a preexisting DVD I f you had to pick one word to describe the average trade show experience, it’s a fairly safe bet that “relaxing” wouldn’t be at the top of your list. The simple fact of the matter is, trade shows are crowded, hectic, noisy affairs that most attendees prefer to experience only in small doses. For the folks manning the booths, things aren’t necessarily a whole lot better. After all, how much fun can it be trying to lure in passersby when you’re using the same dog-and-pony show as all the other guys? Just ask Robert Baschnagel, the owner of B&B Sheet Metal in New York City. “When I was at trade shows, trying to get people to watch my presentation was not easy to do,” Baschnagel recalls. Soft-spoken by nature, he was uncomfortable having to go into “aggressive salesman mode” to attract the interest of passersby. And then, inspiration hit: In addition to running his family’s 102-year-old business, Baschnagel is an inventor. Among the contraptions he’s formulated are a blender system with a single-use, disposable drink container. Making the most of his McGyver-esque tendencies, he devised a means for standing SALES&MARKETING MANAGEMENT OCTOBER 2007 [THE PULSE] SOURCE: HARRIS INTERACTIVE POLL OF 1,325 ADULTS 34% of GPS users prefer handheld models to laptop- and carbased ones. 16 www.salesandmarketing.com www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com http://www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Sales & Marketing Management - October 2007

Sales & Marketing Management - October 2007 Contents Editor’s Letter Management Strategies Why Prospecting Gets No Respect Sales Strategy: Spotlight your Services Marketing: A Social Intelligence Primer Management: Steer your Team to Success Motivation/Incentives: The No-Pain Way to Gain Training: Looking for Yesterday’s Learning or Tomorrow’s? Technology: Get Trade Show Satisfaction with the Video Massage Focusing on SMB Solutions The Best Sales Force The Hottest Job Industries Overseas Aggravation Gadgets & Gear: Pen and Ink as an Art Form Books that Improve Strategic Thinking, People Skills and Sales One Foot Out the Door Work/Life: Calling in the Fitness Cavalry. Take-Aways: Bite-size Strategies to Help You Sell More, Market Smarter and Manage Better

Sales & Marketing Management - October 2007

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