Be Sure of What You’re Selling

If you are standing at the booth clueless of what products you have and what are their benefits and uses, then it will send a red signal to the attendees visiting your booth. Make sure you booth staffers study everything prior to the show and make sure you have all the answers to an attendee’s questions about the company or its products.

An Effective Marketing Plan

Pre-show marketing plans are often the reason behind a booth getting lots of attendees. When you develop a strategic & creative marketing plan and portray the best of your company in your campaigns which will run all over social media or even ATL (above-the-line) and BTL (below-the-line) activities, you will be able to entice a lot of potential customers to your booth. It will also help impress existing customers and continue staying top of mind with them.

Make Good Offers

If your booth is designed in a unique way and has all the attractive signage and display, you will get on the attendees’ dance card. To make your strategy work even better, you can offer something in return. What if there’s a colorful attractive display saying that ‘visit our booth and see what we have for you’ ‘what’s better than a free sample, incentive or demonstration?’

It is not an easy task to get on the trade show dance card. It takes a lot of planning & performance and only then will the result be overwhelming.

My son is currently 2-1/2 years old and I’ve recently realized that many of his life experiences can be related to the important trade show skills a marketer & booth staffer should learn.

Ask questions to engage & learn about your prospects

Recently, my son has started asking a lot of questions:

What’s that noise?

That’s a siren from a firetruck.

What’s a firetruck

The firetruck carries the firemen to the people who need a fire put out.

What’s a fireman?

The fireman is a person who puts out fires.

Alright.

As you can see, asking questions uncovers a lot of information. For example, in a trade show setting, you might ask questions such as:

What brings you to the show?

Tell me more about (a problem or situation in their reply).

What if we were able to (insert suggestion about your product or service that solves their pain).

Uncovering information is a critical part of the booth staffing role which leads to prospect qualification and the proper follow-up method.

Smile

Humans have a range of emotions, however I’m also amazed at how quickly my son can recover from a sad moment into a smile. It’s infectious and his smile brightens any room. When you’re at a trade show, no matter how much your feet hurt, smile. It’s starts the process of engaging with strangers and makes them feel comfortable. You’ve then just made process of starting a discussion even easier.

Never Give Up

How many times does a child fall before he or she learns to walk? Thousands probably. It took Edison 10,000+ tries before he invented the light bulb. He didn’t classify these as failures. Instead, he said “I have not failed 10,000 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 10,000 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”

If your trade show promo doesn’t work, if you’re not drawing a lot of traffic, if your booth staffers aren’t asking the right questions — don’t give up. Find the way that will work.

Here are some tips to get noticed at a trade show:

Eye-catching Displays

The most important thing is the visual appeal of your booth. When you have incorporated good lighting, bright colors, creative banners and the interior design in your booth, the attendees will automatically notice your booth among the rest of the clutter.

Offer an Incentive

If an attendee visits your booth and looks at your products and spends time listening to you, don’t let it go to waste. Ask them to schedule a follow-up meeting or next sales step, and in return offer them small gifts or incentives. For example, a give-away or voucher for a future purchase. You can also create a solid impact by offering them a place to rest, refreshments or food items.

Influence the Attendees

When an attendee visits your booth, count yourself lucky because that person took the time to see what you are selling. Don’t start off by a sales pitch. It is very unattractive and often boring for an attendee. Try to play with words, be creative, and tell an amazing story and link it back to your business. When the attendee starts to get involved, he/she is more likely to buy your product.

Did you know that drayage is a French medical term for extracting money from your wallet?

In all seriousness though, paying drayage for freight transfer is very important. Without your material being carefully placed at the location, you cannot set up your booth. To transport such large materials and inventory, you’ll need the help of the show contractor. You will have to carefully examine and calculate the budget because drayage costs can sometimes be a shocker at the end if not handled smartly.

Drayage charges include unloading your freight at the venue, transporting the crates to your booth space and moving crates into storage after you exhibit is setup & empty labels are applied. Additionally, at the close of the show, your empty crates will be delivered back to your booth space and, once the proper paperwork is completed, the crates will again be picked up and taken to the dock for loading on your freight carrier.

Try this!!

Pack multiple cartons in a single packing to save extra material cost.

Don’t pack unnecessary stuff, it’ll only add up to your drayage costs.

What is better?

Is shipping the material directly to the event better or to an advance warehouse?

If you ship your materials directly to the venue, it might reduce your overall budget, because many contractors charge more when they have to move the material from an outer location or an advance warehouse. Though shipping directly to the venue can cause some problems, such as delayed delivery to your booth space.

While drayage can be a frustrating and expensive part of your trade show experience, it is an important service and part of every trade show. Rather than spending time and frustration complaining about it, you should plan ahead strategically to lower the amount of crates & weights to reduce your material handling expenses.

1.) You aren’t clear on what you want out of a tradeshow (no clear objective).

2.) You don’t have enough budget – don’t even think of setting up a booth (no investment).

3.) You don’t have a trained sales staff which will work in the booth (lost opportunities).

4.) Haven’t informed the attendees that your company is going to be there (no pre-show marketing).

5.) You do not have enough products or supplies to display (bad design).

6.) Haven’t booked your company to be a part of the tradeshow (indecisive)

7.) Unclear about the response you are looking for (no goals).

8.) Haven’t planned the display of your booth (bad design).

9.) Haven’t outlined a follow-up plane (no post-show marketing).

10.) Haven’t developed presentations, videos, letters and emails, sales pitch, qualification forms, literature and handouts (not prepared).

Where a tradeshow can do wonders for you, at the same time it can also become very risky to participate if you haven’t planned everything accordingly. The pointers above will help you manage your company’s tradeshow; make sure you double check all of the things before making a decision about participating.

To consider all kinds of expenses related to your trade show, start working on your budget at-least six months before the trade show begins (if not 9 or 12 months prior). Most of your trade show budget would go into renting the booth space alone and 32% of your entire budget, on average (according to Exhibitor Magazine’s previous studies).

The next element of a trade show budget is exhibit design, graphics, shipping and show services. These items will all include all your exhibit design and layout needs for your booth, such as the graphics, display, shipping, labor, cleaning, power, internet and other maintenance and technological needs of the booth. Around 43% of your budget would go into all of these exhibit related items.

The final portion of a trade show budget are promotional activities, travel and other expenses. You can limit your travel expenses by booking in advance at airlines and hotels. Lastly, I always recommend an additional 5% -8% (or even 10%) as a “buffer” or emergency expense for unforeseen items or an emergency expense.

To help our clients easily plan their budgets, we’ve created a “Budgeting Worksheet” and “Budget Rules of Thumb”. Use the contact form below, to request a copy.

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