Seven Secrets Successful Trade Show Exhibitors Do Not Want You to Know

 

Gloria Berthold, Marketing Outsource Associates

Why are certain companies consistently successful at trade shows? They understand and practice the processes of targeting and follow-up. You can increase your return on investment by utilizing the same secrets that successful companies want to keep hidden.

1. Understand the primary reason you are participating it the trade show

You can use a trade show for many purposes. You may want to introduce a new product or service, announce updates of classic products that better serve your clients, search for new prospects, scope out the competition or perform market research. Successful companies realize that they can only focus on one or two issues per trade show. They make easy-to-understand offers with which targeted clients and prospects can immediately identify.

2. Plan for your target audience

One main reason a company will fail to have a positive return on their investment from a trade show is because they expect to talk with all of the attendees who walk past their booth. They are not clear who their best prospects are, how to identify them or how to quickly qualify their purchasing needs. These companies have the “yank them in” mentality. They want volume, and waste time with poor prospects while the solid gold prospect get frustrated and leaves.

3. Pre-invite targeted customers and prospects

Once you know what products or services you are featuring at the show, you can contact the appropriate clients and invite them to visit your booth to give them a special preview of your offer. This is an excellent opportunity to cross-sell your existing customers and ask them for referrals. Successful companies realize that existing clients are a fantastic source for increasing sales, without the investment in time that developing new clients require.

4. Give them a real reason to visit you

If you use candy and gimmicks to attract people, you will get people with sweet tooths who like gimmicks, not good prospects who want what you have to offer.

The real reason must be clearly stated and benefit-oriented to the customer or prospect. They do not care if you have the latest or greatest product or service, they want to know how they will benefit from it. Unsuccessful companies (generally 90% of exhibitors) spend a great deal of time and money telling everyone who will listen how great they are and how good their service is. The 10% of companies who are successful forget their ego and focus on the customer’s benefits.

5. Don’t waste their time (or yours) at the show

Use the brief time you have with a prospect to ask them questions about their company and qualify them. Practice with your colleagues so that you will be able to determine if the booth visitors are appropriate prospects within 30 seconds. If not, practice thanking them for stopping by and excuse yourself.

If you determine that they are a good prospect that will benefit from your offer, ask for permission to contact them the week after the show. Make an appointment for a phone call. Keep that appointment. You will be the only person who does, and they will be impressed with your professionalism. Use that phone call to further qualify and set up a meeting or demonstration.

6. Do not plan to give demonstrations at your booth.

While it is appropriate to have your equipment or materials at the booth, it is not the place to give in-depth product demonstrations. If you want to have the ability to give a 10, 20 or 30 minute demo, rent a separate room and set up a quiet place (with refreshments) so that your customer or prospect gets your full attention (and you get theirs). They will love and remember the VIP treatment.

7. Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up

You will dramatically improve your return on your trade show investment simply by staying in touch with the customers and prospects you have qualified at your booth. Most companies incorrectly assume that the prospect will remember them when they are ready to buy. If you stay in touch with them regularly with informative direct mail, faxes and personal calls, they will automatically think of you when the time is right.

These seven secrets are the keys to increasing the return on your trade show investment. Successful companies understand that it is necessary to involve all of their staff in the preparation, execution and follow-up procedures discussed here. Growing the profitability of your company can be assured when all of your team members understand the goals and can contribute effectively.

Gloria Berthold is president of Marketing Outsource Associates, Inc., a firm specializing in targeting profitable prospects and planning a cost-effective follow-up schedule. For more information visithttp://www.targetgov.com

Revealing sneaky advantages of renting your trade show booth

Patty Stripes, Apparelsearch.com

If it were back in the day when people still used adding machines with paper, your office would be filled to the ceiling with literally miles of that little paper ribbon, you've run the numbers so many times. No matter how many times you've run them, though, there just isn't enough money for a new trade show booth.

Before you give up and allocate what budget you do have into another round of direct mail - that won't get results -, consider renting a trade show booth.

Yes, renting has many advantages beyond just saving you money on the initial trade show booth purchase. For starters, if you don't currently have a trade show booth, then it's a safe bet that you haven't done any, or at least very few, trade shows. Renting a booth can give you an opportunity to give trade show exhibiting a trial run, so to speak, before you make a major investment in a permanent trade show booth. You can learn the ropes of trade shows without spending a mint to do it!

Plus, this not only means you get to learn the ropes of trade show events with far less of an investment, but (shh!, don't tell anyone else) renting a booth gives you a chance to go and see what everyone else is doing-and gives you a bird's eye view of seeing what really works and what doesn't before sinking a ton of money in a booth that you'll be using for a long, long time.

It also will keep you from ending up, by accident, of course, with a trade show booth that fifteen hundred other people have. That's the last thing you want for your trade show booth! You want to stand out, not get lumped in with everybody else which will get you yawns, not sales. You want to be different from the crowd, and by renting a trade booth for your first few shows, you'll be in a great position to do something unique with your own booth.

Renting also gives you the advantage of not being stuck with a trade show booth you don't want if you should decide for any reason that trade show events are not for you. And trade shows aren't for everybody, that's for sure. Trade shows involve an incredible amount of work when they're done right, but the results are more often than not well worth your tired feet and aching back! Patty Stripes shows you how to pull off unimaginable marketing success with the help of your trade show booth. Learn the biggest mistakes people do when designing trade show booths and get more tips about your trade show promotions

A Full-Service Agency

At Smash Hit Displays, we go out of our way to provide you with full service. In addition to our full line of portable trade show exhibits, the highlights of our service includes:
• An in-house graphic design department to serve your needs.
• Tracking software that tracks your orders from beginning to end.
• Partnerships with major trade exhibit manufacturers who have products in stock and can ship quickly.
• Partnerships with nationwide printers to provide you with high-quality printing & graphics.

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At Smash Hit Displays, we test every trade show booth and exhibit we sell to make sure our customers get the best quality products. Our booths and displays are durable and versatile. We offer warranties on all products, ranging from 1-year to lifetime warranties.

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