A fresh approach to event sales
My guest this week is Helen Harlow, director at Benchmark Collective where we are talking about a fresh approach to sales in a hybrid event world.
Helen has over 18 years of experience within the events industry working within event management, logistics and brand ambassador roles, but her passion lies in global exhibition sales and rebooking. Following a professional career as a singer and dancer in musicals like ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ and ‘Singing in the Rain’ she hung up the tap shoes and immersed herself fully in global exhibitions.
Benchmark Collective are the rebook masters of the exhibitions industry. They are experts in exhibition sales, sales training, rebook strategy and delivery, onsite support, lead generation, sales personnel and sales culture, working with clients such as
From west end musicals to sales, it’s a serious pirouette from the traditional sales channel for a professional, but sales people are always on show, so there is a link. Sales is a performance; a show is a performance. Helen’s top tip when performing? “Be yourself. Be genuine. Be real. People want to feel like when they’re at an event it’s a showcase or an extravaganza.. that’s what we do, so lets give them a performance.”
Before I dive into the episode overview, I need to address the weird noises you hear on this one… it’s Helen’s beautiful pooch, an eight month old puppy named Ozzie that decided to join us on the call chewing his reindeer chew toy in the background. This is life in lockdown after all.
We hear a little bit from Helen about how they as a business have survived the last year and kept the positive message alive between colleagues and peers to help get through a difficult time in our industry. Staying connected and keep listening. “Being a bit more active in what we love, people will remember that.”
Topics covered in this episode:
Relook at sales thinking – where do you start if you’ve been “off” over the pandemic?
Pressure on the sales resource – collaboration amongst teams is key
Smarketing – what does it even mean?
Listening to what customers actually want
Online sales – from understanding platforms and optoins available and providing even greater levels of transparency when selling.
We hope you enjoy the episode.
To learn more about Benchmark Collective please visit www.benchmarkcollective.com
To connect with Helen, connect on Linkedin here https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenharlow/
Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wavespodcast)