Trade Shows: 5 ways to make it worth your money ~ Socialwalk Food and Beverages

1. Who are you and what do you do?

a) What: Walking down 50 over aisles trying to find a booth with a company offering a particular service, a new technology or solution to a problem is overwhelming to say the least. After the 25^th aisle, these booths just seem to look like one another. Thus, the message your signage communicates is key to strategic differentiation.
b) How: Get a person external of your industry to look at your design and see if the accurate information about your booth is explained from your signage.

2. Back to the booth

a) What: Size does not matter.

b) How: A well-organized booth, big or small is what customers want.

a) What: Well-organized should also mean strategic, mistakes are often made to create the arrangement of a typical set-up booth: a table at the front, providing a place to make literature easily available to passing prospects. This unconsciously creates a barrier to customers, and the best you can get with it is a prospect that passes you by.

b) How: All literature goes at the back of the table, and the table is turned perpendicular rather than parallel to the aisle, drawing customers into the booth, rather than repelling them. The aim is for customers to look at the product first, then take the time to ask questions about it, and finally, once they have connected with the sales reps, to have access to the catalogues they can take with them to remember the connection they have made.

a)What: Most business originating from a tradeshow is done at the tradeshow—be it an actual sale, or a connection made between the seller and the buyer, conveying useful information. Buyers go to a show and retain in their mind both product information and people knowledge. The sales rep that spent time talking to them, inquiring their needs and offering assistance, that’s the one they will remember, not the sales rep with the electronic wand.

b) How: Eliminate distractions. Train reps on how to get the information in a way that will make a sale, not a database entry.

3. It’s all about the people

a) What: The staffs at your booth are basically the main bridge that will make or break your connection with potential customers. They should understand and agree with trade show objectives and be able to communicate this well. More importantly, they should know the product they are selling, from inside out and be prepared to handle any inquiries from prospects.

b) How: Train early and often before each trade show and offer refreshers on both goals and manners once there. Minimise rent-a-booth people, may be attractive but can do little more than get leads that you hope you can follow up. Use those people to help prospects fill forms, do very light hospitality, and move them to your sales person. Your actual employee who can turn contacts into warm leads and thus into sales, will maximize the value of what you've spent.

4. Quality over Quantity

a) What: Most people define a successful trade show is one where you have 10,000 people walking past your booth. Yes, that is indeed a successful trade show, but certainly no success on your part.

b) How: Define your target market for your exhibit and tailor-make pre-show activity such as e-mail blasts or marketing campaigns to direct them specifically.

5. Play a little 007

a) What: With similar industry players hanging out in one big playground, trade shows provide the perfect environment for espionage. As each of you demonstrates your key feature, secret ingredient and magic technology, take some time to do conduct a little competitor research and know that they will be doing the same as well.

b) How: Ensure your staffs have enough observational savvy to distinguish competitor spies from ordinary customers. Identify the key competition, define the important information beforehand, position yourself at key places and then, listen very closely. You will find your trade show productivity more than just a stack of business card.

c) Key places for Bond activities:

The Breakfast Buffet.
The Elevator
The Organizing Committee: Before the conference, volunteer for its organizing committee, which helps plan the program and choose speakers. It will bolster your rep among your peers—and provide access to attendees' names and lodging information. Use this data to identify your targets and plan how you will intercept them.
The Smoke Break