Trade show Displays - Trade show Exhibitor Tips

Although we design and build trade show displays we have also had years of experience and training in how to properly exhibit at a trade show.

As a business owner or marketing director for a company you know that the purpose of the trade show exhibit is to make a good impression and get leads. Leads are worthless without follow up so we offer some follow up suggestions that we hope you will find useful. Have your booth staff personnel read this.

Be certain that everyone staffing your booth understands the importance of getting contact information on each person who stops at your booth. This may sound simple but there is a right and wrong way to collect information. If your booth staff personnel are busy and writing fast they can easily make mistakes and get phone numbers and email addresses wrong. Asking potential prospects to write their info down for you is asking them to do the work for you and should be avoided.

Today many exhibits allow vendors to pay a fee to rent a scanner. The scanner may be a great investment for your company because you only scan the visitors name badge and you record all of their information. When the exhibit is over then you've got a database ready for a postal or email merge.

If the scanner isn't available or not practical for you then the best option is to collect business cards. The problem of course is the people walking the trade show floor quickly run out of business cards. If your booth staffers write the information carefully and then ask the prospect to check it for accuracy that is the best option if none of the other options above are available.

Once you've collected the information be sure to use it because you would be surprised how many people collect the contact info but then return to work after a 3-day trade show and find themselves overwhelmed with phone calls and emails that they need to deal with and they never get around to doing the follow up.

We like to grade our prospects after we quickly qualify them. For example our company is a full service advertising agency. We make trade show displays, TV commercials, websites, promotional products, brochures and more. Our trade show display is the first step in qualifying prospects. If they don't need any of the services that we offer they keep walking. However what if they were looking the other way or were distracted as they were passing by they may not notice us and what we do. In this case we need to get their attention and we only have three seconds! If you have a 10-foot display area the prospects pass your booth within 3-seconds. So think of a quick question that you can ask the prospects to qualify them based upon what your business does. For our company we need to talk with business owners or marketing directors therefore we would ask, "Do you own a business?" as our qualifying question. Now you may wonder what happened to politeness and saying, "Hi how are you?" as they pass by. The problem is that if we ask that question they will say "fine thanks how are you?" as they are walking and when we answer "great" they have consumed their 3-seconds passing us by. Sure they think we are friendly and nice for asking but they are NOT going to stop to answer that question; try it and see!

Find a qualifying question that works for you and you'll get more leads. The process of grading the leads involves the answers to your qualifying questions. For example we might have this conversation at a trade show.

Us: Do you own a business?
Them: Yes

Us: Are you getting business from your website?
Them: Not much our client may look at it but new clients don't find our site.

Us: Would you be interested in an affordable internet marketing program?
Them: As long as the cost is reasonable, maybe.

Us: Is it ok if I call you after the show one day next week to discuss that?
Them: Yes

For our business this would be a great prospect and our qualifying questions tell us that on a 1-5 scale where 5 is a hot lead, this would be a nice hot 5!

Before you go to the trade show get company brochures IN the envelopes with your business cards so that you only need to enclose a letter and address them.

The good news is that when people are away from their offices for several days traveling to the trade show, being at the trade show and returning from the trade show they often find themselves swamped with work when they return. This is good news for YOU if you plan ahead because your competitors are very likely too busy to follow up on the leads they collected. If you find it hard to believe that people don't follow up on the leads they collect you have only to recall the last time you walked an exhibit hall and spoke with some of the exhibitors. Did they ever send you a letter or call you after the show ended? For most people the answer to that question is "NO, I never heard from them again".

If you are the marketing director or the business owner don't assume that your salespeople know what to do at a trade show. Do some role playing exercises before the trade show. Mark off a 10 foot space in your office and have sales reps pretend they are exhibiting and you are walking the show. This will show them how fast the prospects pass by your booth. Have them try saying "Hi how are you" while they watch you pass by the 10 foot space as you reply. Let them rehearse their qualifying questions.

Practice makes perfect!