Back in 1968 Stanley Milgram (of the infamous “an authority figure tells you to shock people so you shock people” experiment) ran another fascinating study.
Here’s what they did.
They had a small group of people stand on a busy street corner and look up into the empty sky.
Nothing up there.
But.
Strangers would see the group looking up. They would stop by the group and look up, themselves.
As the crowd got bigger, it would stop more people in a positive feedback loop until there were lots of people looking up at nothing for no reason.
Aren’t people wonderful?
The Lesson
This “monkey see, monkey gather in the crowd too” part of our brains is what a good trade show booth exhibitor can plug into.
And it’s why sales people are not the best people to bridge the invisible trade show gap of “people are here to do business” & “they want to do business with us once they know about us” that I’ve talked about before.
A good presenter can stop two people and get them talking.
Then another couple people will see those original two and the presenter invites the new folks to “come in closer so you can see, too!”
And they do.
Now you have 4 people gathered around your booth.
Another 3 people stop.
Now there are enough people clustered in a group that everyone else in the aisle is wondering “what’s going on over there?! I better go check it out.”
Soon you have more than a dozen people hearing about your business.
Neat, right?
Compare that with your sales team who excels in the one-on-one dynamic.
Which is going to help you get more business out of your trade show?
That’s why I’m here.
Best thoughts,
~Jonathan
PS: Next week we’ll dig into how this can help you even if you’re not at a company that exhibits, or even if you’re a solopreneur or “personal media company” as I like to call it.