You’re At the Trade Show – Now What?

Every last detail has been attended to and you’re standing in the front of your trade show display waiting for the show to open. Are you ready or will it just be another exercise in futility?

Let’s take a look at what can happen.

The first day starts off like a house fire and some of your best, long-term customers come by to see what’s new (and believe me, they’ll be scouting out what’s new with the competition as well). You have a good visit with these customers but now they’re gone and the prospects and suspects begin to come into your space. These folks are asking questions that begin to take up a lot of time.

Assess Needs and Follow-Up

The best strategy for these prospects and suspects is for you to take charge of the conversation and find out all the census information first. Next, uncover their most important need, "So you’re not satisfied with the deliveries you’ve been receiving from our competition?" OR "So you’re looking for quantity discounts?" OR "So you’re looking for a better value than what you’ve been used to?" You get the drift.

Then, you have two options for follow-up:
• Within the next 10 business days, schedule an appointment with them at their place of business, OR
• Within the next 3 working days, call the individuals you spoke with at the show and address their concerns/needs.

Don’t wait any longer than this, because if you do, you’ve lost them. Do this each time with every visitor whether they are a long-term customer, prospect or suspect. REMEMBER: If you end the show with the most names, addresses, phone #’s and needs quotients, you’ve WON big time!

You may be entertaining some of your most important customers in the evenings. But you need to make the face-to-face meetings with those customers at your trade show display space as productive as possible. How? Understanding their most critical need at that very moment and then exploiting it in a follow-up call or appointment as soon as possible after the show will set the stage for a more efficient meeting.

Let’s move on to other ingredients that account for superior performance at a trade show.

Quickly and Concisely Answer Questions

You’re not in a hard-sell arena in a trade show booth, you’re in a marketing arena (just as I’ve said, get as many leads as you can and you’ve WON).

If you’ve staffed your booth correctly, you’ve surrounded yourself with key personnel who are able to answer any questions a visitor to your booth may ask. Be prepared for the unexpected and field the questions you can answer on your own or with the aid of your colleagues in the booth. For questions you can’t answer on-the-spot, make sure you clearly understand the question and, email an answer within hours of the request. Hours, you may ask? Absolutely! Your prospect will be impressed that you were willing to go the distance to get him the information he needed and it’s the perfect opportunity to call or email him again later.

Soak Up the Environment

Third, if the show is really slow, don’t blow the time standing around, go dig out some industry intelligence by walking the show and talking to other exhibitors. Who knows – you might discover a tidbit even you didn’t know about. Don’t be afraid to talk to the competition – they might say something you can use. But since you know your mission, don’t give the competition something they can use.

Interact and Participate

Finally participate in educational forums, round table discussions and other related educational events at the show. You’ll be branding yourself as a guru and, by extension, inviting inquiries about your products or capabilities from people you didn’t even know existed. Don’t be bashful; introduce yourself to other forum participants and speakers. Get to know them on a first-name basis and understand their area of expertise. You’ll have some opportunity to use this to your advantage as the show unfolds.

A lot of this is basic stuff you already know but the application of it is an entirely different story. If you can find one tip in this article that will make the show more productive, thank Julia O’Conner (a long-time friend) who has written an excellent book titled, The Trade Show Reader. You can reach her by calling (804) 355-7800.

YOUR NEXT TRADE SHOW IS A GREAT OPPORTUNITY; MAKE IT PAY OFF HANDSOMELY.