You’re taking part in a show. The exhibition booth has been designed for great footfall, the freebies have been ordered but.....
“ Who’s going to man the booth?”
There are not enough Sales and Marketing folks so you send your engineers from R & D and service.
But can they sell? Oh yes.
These are the guys who have lovingly designed the stuff.
They juggle features, functions and budgets for a living.
They can empathise with a customer’s pain.
They can demonstrate like nobody else.
Do they want to sell ? Oh No !
If they did they would be in pre-sales or Marketing.
In years of working with engineers in trade show workshops I’ve learned that the best approach is to just listen to a group of them talk about their baby.
They often come up with the best messaging.
The rest is just convincing them they can be themselves and giving them the skills to have good conversations.
Selling is not telling.