[00:00:02] Speaker A: Welcome to Big Ticket Pros, a podcast for agencies, coaches and high end service providers who know what it takes to thrive in competitive markets. I'm your host, Josh Thomas. You can find me on all social media at jt literally.
Our guests share insider tips, strategies and sometimes cautionary tales to help you close bigger deals and scale your business faster. Big Ticket Pros is sponsored by Conversational Funnels, the new way to close deals in 2025 that doesn't rely on any of the old traditional methods everyone hates. We use this method to book 121 qualified sales calls in 10 days without any ad spend, outreach or endless social posting. Download the free step by step blueprint that shows exactly how we did this@conversational funnels.com Once again, that's conversational funnels.com Today's guest is Marie Santa Rosa and she has 20 years of experience helping businesses exhibit success successfully at trade shows across the globe. Marie, welcome to Big Ticket Pros. What is the best piece of advice you would give someone just starting out in your industry?
[00:01:10] Speaker B: Josh. Hi listeners. I. The best piece of advice is just be aware that it's very stressful, long hours and you could be working weeks on and without a day off and, but it's highly rewarding.
The projects are in and out, so they're quite short but very stressful. And if you like that high stress level, you like working at that high stress level, you will love this industry and it's a lot of fun because it's the same people all over the world.
[00:01:46] Speaker A: You're really selling it for me. There.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: It is. Look, I need to go get a.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: Drink after hearing that man.
[00:01:56] Speaker B: Well, we do and we, we have code words for I'll meet you in Hall 5, which is the pub down the road. Do you like.
It's a, it's a really close knit community globally.
You can be. I was in Beijing for a job and a couple of guys from Perth, Australia were there. We had dinner. So it's, it's kind of you're a lone wolf kind of person but you also have friends in the industry so you get together, you have a drink and you, you, you talk and you talk war stories.
[00:02:35] Speaker A: Oh, nice. Yeah, that's good. And so I have a question though. So you're not from Perth, right?
[00:02:40] Speaker B: No, I'm not from Perth.
[00:02:42] Speaker A: So you are, are, you are more Sydney?
[00:02:44] Speaker B: I am. I spent, Yeah, I spent 30 years in Sydney and, but I live in the Northern rivers, which is north, northern New South Wales.
And your viewers might, your listeners might Know of a place called Byron Bay. That's where all the celebrities live, like the Hemsworths and Matt Damon has a house here, and there's a whole bunch of people.
[00:03:07] Speaker A: But I just need to know, like, do the people in Sydney, like, just really hate the people in Perth? Is there, like a rivalry or what?
[00:03:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:16] Speaker B: Okay.
Well, there's a rivalry because there's all these. You know, it's like America. It's got all these different states.
So there's always a rivalry between New South Wales, who collects a lot of tax, and Western Australia, which is Perth, who have the mining industry, bigger mining industry, and we take their tax and we use it.
Happy about that. So there's. And, you know, you've got all the sporting teams as well, so there's heaps of rivalry.
[00:03:47] Speaker A: So I'm curious, kind of back to the.
The trade show. You're actually the first person I.
That specializes in. In building exhibits for trade shows. That is a very, very specialized niche, and it's one that I would have never thought exists. But once I found out it exists, it makes total sense because I'm spending thousands of dollars to occupy this tiny little square, hoping that I can make money.
Every centimeter counts, and what I do with that space will impact my conversions. And so I'm curious if you could dig in a little bit, not so much on the mechanics of the construction part of it, but the psychology and the design and the nuance that maximizes foot traffic and conversions. Talk to us a little bit about the things that somebody who's never thought about this before would just never see.
[00:04:50] Speaker B: Okay.
The biggest thing is, is basically, you don't want to trap people. People don't like being trapped. So when exhibitors come to a. Sorry. When attendees come to a show, they don't like getting on stands, exhibition stands that they feel like they're being trapped in, or it's like a rabbit warren where they step on the stand and they're. This is so closed in. People are converge, converging on me. They're trying to do the hard sell. I don't like it. And. And they can spot those stands a mile away. So they tend not to go on those stands. What they. They do like is attendees will approach a stand and they'll stand off a stand. So your best bet when you're designing a stand is to make sure that you have an opportunity to sell.
Stand off your stand and sell off your stand and then invite them into your stand.
So if it's a big stand that works really? Well, if it's a small stand, you don't want to put barriers in front of your, in front of the exhibitor, yourself and the attendee. So don't put tables in front of, in front of yourself. You want to be open.
You wanted people to see your actual stand with the graphics and your message. You don't know, you don't want to clutter it, but you want to be able to talk to people without a barrier because that barrier also signals to, well, to me and probably to everyone else that you're not comfortable doing one on one selling. And what I'm finding now is that a lot of people aren't comfortable selling face to face because there's a lot of social media, you know, there's a lot of marketing through email lists and not picking up the phone. They're relying on that, that non human connection.
Whereas trade shows, if you aren't comfortable selling face to face and pitching to people, it's going to be a hard slog. So you want your stand to be open, you want yourself to be open and you want your message to be conveyed pretty simply so people understand and understand what you do.
[00:07:20] Speaker A: Yeah, and what are some things so that, that makes, that makes sense. It's, it's all these non verbal physical cues that we tend to forget. Especially in a society where, you know, probably 80% of us at this point are doing most of our sales and communication over zoom or the phone.
And now we're physically in their presence and we're like, I don't, I don't know what to do with my hands, you know, and so we're doing all kinds of crazy stuff, but we don't think about how is this occupying the space until we think about being in that space. We're like, oh, yeah, something doesn't feel right. I don't know what it is, but something doesn't feel right. And it's usually that's your body triggering some sort of fight or flight mechanism.
[00:08:06] Speaker B: It is. Oh, absolutely. I've been on stance and I've, I've even thought to myself, well, this is not good. And you know, to use the word Feng shui, you need to kind of feng shui your stand.
And it's the same as shops. There's a science to these things. And you know, you want people to feel relaxed, you want people to browse, you want people to meander through, you want to tell a story, and that's what you need to do on an exhibition stand. And people don't understand that. And you know what, it starts before you even book a show as an exhibitor because it, you know, you've got to do your research, you've got to find the right shows.
You know, I've got clients that go to me, oh, you know, I have to be at that show. And I'm like, why? Because my competitors are. Well, that's not a very good reason. You need to find out, are your potential clients there, can you afford that show?
And are you comfortable enough to actually. And be assertive?
Because attendees will walk straight past you. Even if you're in the aisle going, hi, can do you want to have a chat? They'll just walk past you. But you have to be assertive and go, hey, listen, I've got a great product. You know, the 32nd pitch.
You have to be able to sell face to face.
[00:09:29] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's, that's another thing that is, is a totally different environment when you're at some trade show and exhibits is, you know, I'm, I'm very much used to like, let's book a call to talk about this thing. And then you show up and I show up and we're here for that purpose.
People are not going to a trade show to talk to you or to meet you. You have to get their attention. And that's a very different. If you're a door knocker, not so much that's, you're used to it.
But what are this, these are things that are kind of extending past your, your stand, as you call it. But it all kind of plays in together. You have to grab their attention to bring them into an environment that they actually feel comfortable.
[00:10:15] Speaker B: Yeah, well, they're, they're. The thing is with trade shows, they're warm leads for you and you know how hard it is to get a warm lead. We all know how hard it is to get a warm lead. So you've got maybe 6,000 people come to a show, you've got 6,000 people that are warm leads. And what you need to do is actually market your stand yourself before the show, use the shows, the trade show, social media, get involved with the organizer, speak to the organiser and say, hey, listen, I really want to push my stand. What do I need to do without spending a lot of money? Because this is the thing, you can be a sponsor and still not getting a lot of leads. So, you know, I'd look at marketing your stand before you go your position at the show, speak to the organizer, ask them what I need to, what you need to do.
Also I Would, you know, hone your sales pitch if you've got staff, train them before you get onto the standard and, you know, look at your stand message.
What I find is that people like to do a lot of clutter and you don't need a lot of things. You don't need a lot of furniture. I don't believe in having lounge chairs. I don't believe in having tables and chairs. I do believe in having a bar table and a bar stool because you will sit on a bar stool and you will meet people at eye level instead of sitting on a chair. People won't engage with you.
And then your graphics need to be clean, simple message, and also visible from the way that people walk into the show. Because there's a way people walk into the show and you want to make sure that you're capturing that foot traffic. So make sure your graphics are seen from the waist up.
Don't put messages down the bottom because they get lost, because it gets blocked out by feet and things like that. You want them at, you want it at eye level. So there's a lot of things you can do to market your. So market your stand before you get there and how to lay out your stand at the show.
[00:12:44] Speaker A: Awesome. And so tell us a little bit more about where.
Who, who is a good candidate to connect with you about your service and where can they find more?
[00:12:57] Speaker B: Okay. I, I'm really passionate about small business because I'm a small business person and startups. I think what happens when I go to shows, when I do the biggest stands, a lot of people come up and ask me for my advice. And these are the people that can't afford custom exhibition stands, but they need to be at the show and they, you know, they get a lot of, lot of leads. So I'm looking to help people who are starting out in trade shows who need some guidance. I've got a coaching program which is affordable, but I'm also looking into doing a digital course so people can actually afford to do the course, go through what my 20 years of my experience and actually be organized and get leads and having a return on investment for that exhibition stand. And I've got a webinar on 11 January, a free one. If you want to come along, bring a floor plan. I can pick a good booth space. And that's all on my website, 44projects.com 44projects.com.
[00:14:06] Speaker A: Yeah, excellent. Awesome. Well, hey, we're going to wrap up from here. Thanks so much to our guest, Marie Santa Rosa, for coming on and sharing what it takes to thrive in the competitive industry of trade shows and exhibits. And you can learn more about what she does by going to 44projects.com. If you are an agency coach, professional services provider, or otherwise sell expensive stuff, we'd love to have you on a future episode. You can
[email protected] and once again, if you want to learn about the way the new way we're booking dozens of qualified calls per week with no ad spend. Download our free
[email protected] that's all for now. Go get that big ticket punched. We'll see you later.
