12 tips for a great trade show season

Tradeshows can be a great place to Build your Brand and grow your business . . . if you plan ahead.

We’ve all been to tradeshows and stood around looking at the other exhibitors wondering where the customers are at. Or maybe you’ve walked down the aisles at a tradeshow and observed all of the empty booths and then one booth that is filled to capacity. What makes the difference?

Let’s look at 12 tips to make the most of the upcoming tradeshow season.

At tradeshows we use every one of these skills or strategies and they make all the difference:

1. Know exactly what you want: Before you board the plane to your next show make sure you know exactly what you want. It must be quantifiable and measurable. “Driving Brand Awareness” won’t cut it. Your goal should be something like “I want to come out of this tradeshow with 40 new contacts that are viable candidates to purchase my product in the next 60 days”.

2. Set up appointments: You should pay for the tradeshow before you ever take the floor. You do this by starting several months in advance and setting up appointments for the show. Focus on setting appointments at “low traffic” times or after hours and make sure you are adequately staffed to handle the passer-by customers but scheduling appointments beforehand will guarantee that you see who you want to see.

3. Stand up and be ready: Many exhibitors we watch at a tradeshow sit down behind a table. Don’t do that. Get out front with the people. Push the table back against the booth wall if you have a table and stand up and be ready. Don’t be caught sitting. Your company is paying thousands or tens of thousands for you to be there for very short periods of time. You can rest later.

4. Stand out and be prepared to give memorable gifts: At tradeshows we obviously try to secure a great location. We use color schemes that set us apart. We always try to give something away that is memorable. You can spend a little more if you have effectively set up meetings with your key customers and prospective clients and have prepared in advance gifts specifically for them. Be prepared with extras for good prospects that are qualified customers and are willing to let you spend a few minutes educating them about your offering.

5. Daily recap: Keep track of questions that you were asked throughout the day at your booth and huddle for a few minutes at the end of the day to recap and prepare for tomorrow. Tradeshows can get better as you go if you approach them consciously.

6. Have a system for business cards: I keep my own business cards in my right pocket. I hand them to people and ask for their business card. I write notes on their card that qualify them—I grade people on an A, B, C scale. Then I put them in my left pocket.

7. Listen and learn: This skill is very interesting. Observe and listen and then take conversations in the direction your customer is taking it. Don’t just jump in and start spewing your canned speech. It’s like going to Nordstrom’s. They don’t run up to you and say, “May I help you?” They watch where you go, and start the conversation based on the context of where you go in the store.

8. Be assertive, not aggressive: Assertive is somebody who is willing to introduce themselves to anybody who walks by, aggressive is somebody who won’t let them leave and won’t let them get a word in edgewise. You want this to be the beginning of a great long term relationship.

9. Divert a river, don’t dig a well: Have one of your staff stand out in the traffic flow and move them to the booth (divert traffic). Don’t sit behind the desk and yell out to them (create traffic.)

10. Tell an emotional story that people can relate to: This is so powerful. People will remember the guy who accidently knocked his wife out of their fishing boat when he was hauling in a big one and waited until he landed it to help her back in the boat (not that you should ever do this). Think of a few good stories beforehand to have ready to share. When you call them after the show they’ll remember you so much better than if you just tell them how fast and powerful your lawn mowers are.

11. Follow up immediately: Real time is optimum. 5 minutes is best practice. 1 hour starts getting too late and a day later is way too late. Do we always pull this off? No. But almost. This same skill of immediate response is profitably applied to immediate follow up. Our reps start keying in business cards right at the show, and finish up that night in the hotel rooms. Ideal is to move people to a meeting room and follow up in real time, next best is to set appointments right at the show for the days following the show, and minimum is to get the business cards into the system and following up that night with an email, LinkedIn connection, and a phone call the next day.

12. Be pleasantly persistent: The average sales person only makes 1.5 phone calls attempts to follow up on a lead that comes from the website. Research shows the average sales rep should make 6 to 9 attempts. In reality, only 27% of leads ever get contacted! Don’t be among the 73% that are wasting their money gathering leads and not following up.

Good luck at the shows this year. Make them count!