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Additional resources

The trade show display booth that you choose to display your company's products and services is the key to your success at a major trade show event. With so much competition packed into such a small space, your booth really needs to catch the eye of buyers and consumers – both new and current. There are a number of trade show display booth styles that you can choose from, depending on the product you're selling and the message you're trying to convey. Conferences and convention style events are usually somewhat chaotic with thousands of people milling around the booths, so you must have a presence that will get noticed and be remembered. As such, ensuring that your booth can attract and maintain the attention of both current and potential customers is mission critical.

Whether you decide to be subtle or strong, your trade show display booth makes all the difference. From a basic single color, to full color graphic displays, trade show booths are affordable for just about any size company, particularly the smaller one person operations.

In sales, it's very important to pitch to a willing audience. A folding table and a couple of poorly printed pamphlets can easily get lost in the crowd, but a full trade show display booth with clever but minimal color and lighting will keep your customers' attention and focus. The best business presentation alone is not enough. Your display will help you to get the results you desire.

A trade show display booth is a big part of any business that wants to implement a well rounded strategic marketing campaign to attract new customers. What begins as a relatively small investment can make a huge difference in the business and revenue that you generate at the trade shows you attend.

Beyond the trade show display booth: how to make your trade show a success --

Repeat after me... plan, qualify, follow-up.  Now say those three words again.  These three concepts are so simple, but it seems to me, are also so often overlooked by many trade show exhibitors.  Too often I have seen exhibitors that instead (1) try to do everything at the last minute, (2) want to talk to and sell to every passerby, and (3) then go back to work and wait for the phone to start ringing and the orders to start flowing in...  May I instead suggest the following approach:

I.  PLAN [before the trade show]
  One of my favorite quotes is "Failing to plan is planning to fail."  I couldn't agree more.  Plan for you trade show, and start early.

a.  Determine your Purpose:  What is the purpose of exhibiting at this trade show?  Are you introducing a new product?  Trying to get new customers?  Do you just have to be seen there (if so, make it worth it).
b.  Set Goals:  I want to meet x new prospects a day.  I want to get $x of new orders a day.  I want to contact x current customer and arrange to show them our new widget at the trade show.
c.  Make a Checklist:  what do you have to do?  Secure a trade show booth space?  Order carpet, power, etc?  Do you need a portable trade show booth?  Do you need graphics?  Do you need the trade show graphics designed?  Do you need new literature?  Do you need to contact current customers and let them know you'll be at the trade show?
d.  Assign Responsibility:  Who has to do what?  (this is really easy for a one-person trade show exhibit)
e.  Create a Timeline and Set Deadlines:
f.  Pre- trade show promotion: let people know you'll be there (postcards, emails, phone calls).
g.  Create an Incentive for them to visit your trade show display booth:  Consider some kind of drawing or handing out trade show giveaways.
h.  Plan, plan, plan...

II.  QUALIFY [at the trade show]

It always surprised me how many trade show booth staffers tried to sell to everyone.  I suppose they thought they could sell refrigerators to Eskimos too. Do be sure to greet everyone passing by, but if they talk to you, QUALIFY them.  Ask if they are in the market for your product or service.  Ask if they have a problem (that you have a solution for, of course).  Ask if they are using any of your competitors.  Ask if the prospect is a decision-maker or influencer.  Ask these questions, but then listen.  Give them a chance to talk.  Determine what the likelihood of they or their company ever buying from you is. If they are not a qualified prospect, thank them, and move on.  If they are, continue your discussion.  Get their contact information, and get some kind of personal information as well and make a note of it (this will help with your follow-up later).  If you think you can get a sale, buy all means go for it.  Don't put off until tomorrow what you can accomplish today.

I think of qualifying trade show prospects as a simple mathematical formula.  If you have 4 good hours of prospecting a day (240 minutes), would you rather spend 5 minutes each with 48 people when 80% of them would never by from you (so the 9 good prospects only get 5 minutes of your time just like the others), or would you rather spend 2 minutes each qualifying the 48, and then have 16 minutes each for your 9 real prospects.  I'd rather have 18 minutes total for each of the 9 real prospects, not just the 5 minutes that the refrigerator salesman has.

There's a lot more to do at the trade show, but qualifying prospects is to often overlooked or misunderstood.  So remember... qualify, qualify, qualify.

III.  FOLLOW-UP [after the trade show]

You're back from your trade show, you're tired, and you have a pile of mail and a folder full of emails to go through.  You've got two meetings to go to, and your boss wants to go over a new project with you.  You've just worked a Saturday, and you think you deserve some comp time.  Your buddies are over at the coffee maker talking about the game.  You've got too much to do.  You gave all your prospects your business card and brochure, so they'll call you when they're ready to order.  You've done your job.

Stop.  Assume that your business card and brochure are in a plastic bag with 50 other companies on the floor in your prospect's office.  He's in the same boat as you.  He'll get to the plastic bag when he gets time, which turns out to be never, and three months later the entire contents go into the office recycling bin.

I found that I could double or triple my new customers from a trade show by doing one thing... follow-up.  Call all of your prospects within 3 days of getting back to work.  Hopefully you wrote a personal note on the back of each prospect's business card so that you can mention it and show that you remember him.  Don't stop with one call.  Call back in two weeks, and then in a month.  You aren't cold-calling because you already know your prospect.  Follow-up is more work, but with all the work you already invested in preparing for and going to the show, it's a waste to not finish the job.  So remember... follow-up, follow-up, follow-up!

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