I have been on many building product plant tours. Most of them are not very effective and are really missing an opportunity to gain new customers and more sales.
Why Most Plant Tours Are Not Effective
Plant tours are too often taken matter of factly and not as a serious marketing tool. They are seen as an opportunity to build relationships and impress the customer with your facility. Facilities don't impress customers. They are impressed by how your facility is able to help them.
There's an old rule in marketing that the only time you show the plant is when it's for sale. Don't reduce your plant tour to a walk through version of an aerial photo of your plant.
How much does it cost you to make a sales call? How invested is that customer in you and your company?
How much do you spend on your website, advertising, trade shows and other marketing programs? How deeply engaged is the average visitor to your website? How much of their time are they spending on your website, reading an ad or in your trade show booth?
Sales are made one customer at a time and your customer's time is the most valuable thing they can give you. If they are going to take the time to visit your plant, you owe it to them to make it worth their while and to put your best foot forward.
If your customer is showing this level of interest, this is a real opportunity to close the deal and to reaffirm their decision to go with you. It can also dramatically set you apart from the competition, making it harder for them to take the customer away from you.
Most Plant Tours Are About Features Instead of Benefits
Marketing is seldom involved in the plant tour unless they are a department the customer walks by on a tour of the office.
The plant tour is usually given by the plant manager or a senior executive.
They describe, “This is how we do this” and not “We do this to benefit to our customers by xxx.”
They show their newest and biggest equipment and tell the customer, “We spent $00,000,000 on this and it can produce 000 units per hour" rather than, "We made this investment as it allows us to better meet our customers’ needs, for x, y and z.”
They'll say, “It's too bad you weren't here earlier today so you could have seen this process.” If you're serious about plant tours, you make sure they get to see these processes, even if they cause the plant some inconvenience.
They frequently walk past plant workers as if they aren't even there as opposed to greeting the employees, introducing them, describing their responsibilities and maybe even letting them describe their job themselves. No matter how automated your plant is your customers realize people are still important.
Customers, on a tour can also tell a lot about your business by the reactions and body language they notice from employees. If they look like they hate their jobs or you or just see it as a job, that also tells the customer about you and how they will probably be treated.
This is The Reaction You Want From Your Customer After The Tour
What reaction do you want from your customer at the end of the day? What do you want them to be thinking about on their trip home? That they just completed a task or that this was a very valuable experience and use of their time. What do you want them to share with their co-workers? I made it back from Sheboygan, or I wish you could have been there, I now see why this is the company we need to be with. Some companies think they if they have the receptionist put the customer’s name on the welcome sign, in the lobby, that they are have done something special. It's a nice touch but it's only the start.
A Plant Tour is Theatre With
- A script*
- Actors
- Sets and props
Audience Reactions
- Interest
- Curiosity
- Amazement
- Applause
A Plant Tour is an Experience
Disney employees are called cast members to remind them that it is their job to create a great and memorable experience for their customers.
They are, in essence, doing plant tours everyday. The two best "plant" tours, I have ever been on were Herman Miller and Zappo's. The next time you are in Las Vegas, take one of the several daily tours of Zappo's offices and imagine that it is your plant. After that experience, what would you do differently?
*When I say a script, I do not mean a memorized script. I mean the key message points that need to be communicated on the tour as told in the words of that person.
Turn Plant Tour Planning Over To Your Marketing Department
Decide upon the objectives and the measure of success and let them develop a plan with a budget. I suggest you give your ad agency the assignment to have a creative team, experience your plant tour from arrival to departure and then create an amazing plant tour. If plant tours are going to be an important part of your new business plan, don't scrimp on the budget. Ask yourself how much is a new customers worth and what would you pay to get a new customer?
Manufacturers also make the mistake of assuming their customers know more than they do about your products and miss important points by talking over the customers head. The agency creative team is a great resource as they will ask the questions, your customers may not.
The agency creative plan should include everything from invitations to transportation, lodging, meals, the flow of the tour, the messages for each area and who delivers them, signage, the appearance of the lobby, and takeaways, to after the tour followups.
Simple things like signs in the plant explaining what is happening will help your customers retain more information about why you are a better choice.
Let the agency create an experience for you that will use the asset of your facilities to grow your sales.
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